Efficacious Grace

This is grace that accomplishes its intended result in the human soul, especially in terms of a saving work or salvation. The English reformers affirmed the efficacious nature of the sacraments, urging that they are not mere “badges or tokens of Christian men's profession,” but “they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace” (Art. XXV, Articles of Religion, BCP, p. 872). The grace conveyed by the sacraments invariably affects the human soul, working to the soul's good. Richard Hooker stated in his Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity that the sacraments convey the “grace which worketh salvation,” which he called a “saving efficacy.”