On Baptism 1.2.17–1.2.27

“Giving no offense in anything, so that our ministry may not be blamed, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God”: so let us show the promise made in baptism to be without falsehood and true, by keeping what the Apostle said by way of exhortation to those who have been planted together with Christ and raised with him: “Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires. Do not present your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members to God as weapons of righteousness.” And again: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.” In this way, I think, the Apostle has clearly set out for us, through the few passages recalled, the great grace of God’s measureless love for humankind, a grace that went before us and can never be repaid, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, whose obedience unto death became for us, as it is written, redemption from sins, freedom from the death that has reigned through the trespass of old, reconciliation to God, power to please God, the gift of righteousness, fellowship with the saints in eternal life, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, and the prize of countless other good things. And through what he added in connection he has wisely and powerfully handed down to us the teaching of the baptism in water into the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through these words he taught us to make ourselves safe, so as not to receive so great and such a grace in vain, saying what I quoted before: “Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires. Do not present your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members to God as weapons of righteousness,” and what follows.

Through these words he wholly separated us from all sin and from the righteousness according to the law, and brought us more forcefully to the righteousness according to God, through a more fearful threat and a good and more desirable promise, when he said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And he teaches us to imitate … and to rise above … righteousness, adding: “Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a person for as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. So then, if she joins another man while her husband lives, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she joins another man. So, my brothers, you too were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter,” and what follows. Through these words we are taught to wonder at the indescribable love of God for humankind in Christ Jesus, and with greater dread to keep ourselves clean from every defilement of flesh and spirit.

The difference between the spirit and the letter he shows by a declaration in another place, where he compares the law and the Gospel, saying, “For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” He calls the law “letter,” as what is written before and after makes plain, and the teaching of the Lord “spirit,” since the Lord himself said, “My words are spirit and are life.” Now if the righteousness according to the law, when pursued by some of those who in baptism have confessed to God that they no longer live for themselves but for him who died and was raised for them, brings on them the judgment of adultery, as has been clearly shown by what was said before, what would one say about human traditions? About the righteousness according to the law the same Apostle declares more forcefully, saying, “But indeed I count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ Jesus, the righteousness from God.” About human traditions, then, the judgment is plain from the Lord’s words; and about one’s own reasonings in human wisdom the Apostle taught that they must be pulled down with a harder fight, saying, “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful before God …, destroying … and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God.” Or, in general, about the righteousness that seems right to each person, even if it is done for God’s sake or with zeal; of which the same Apostle says again, “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to the righteousness of God.” So from these and such passages the judgment on those who wish to be clever about the judgments of God is plain. For it is written, “Woe to those who are wise in themselves and knowing in their own sight”; and the Lord declared more plainly that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like the child will never enter it. Therefore we must be clean of all these together: the desires of the devil, the distractions of the world, human traditions, and our own wills, even if they seem more respectable and are defended by the law, if they cause even a brief delay in the most eager zeal owed to the will of God; so that those who in such a baptism have confessed that they have been crucified with Christ, have died with him, been buried with him, planted with him, and raised with him, may have the boldness to say with truth, “I have been crucified to the world (and much earlier to the devil), and the world to me. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” So the Apostle teaches a righteousness beyond that according to the law, so that we may be counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

It would be time, then, for us to come to an understanding, to gain insight through faith in Christ, and to know what it is to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. First, then, it is necessary to recognize the glory of the one named by each name in its own way; then to know that the Lord himself makes clear what it is to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, saying, “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit.” So, taking the sequence of birth according to the flesh as an example, we are taught the doctrine of godliness clearly and truly from the more familiar thing, knowing and being exactly persuaded that, just as what is born of something according to the flesh is of the same kind as that from which it was born, so we too, being born of the Spirit, must become spirit. Spirit, however, not according to the great glory of the Holy Spirit, which the human mind cannot grasp, but according to the glory glimpsed dimly in the distribution of God’s gifts through his Christ to each for the common good, and in the working of all of them, and likewise in other sayings; and according to the remembering and the teaching of the commandments of God proclaimed through our Lord Jesus Christ, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself said, “He will teach you, and remind you of all that I said to you.” Then the Apostle hands down more fully by what kind of mind one becomes spirit, writing at one time, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,” and what follows, having said before, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”; and elsewhere, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit”; at another time, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: if prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; if service, in serving,” and what follows.

Through these and such words the Lord says that those born of the Spirit become spirit. And the Apostle bears witness with him, saying, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell.” And if, living by the Spirit, we also walk by the Spirit, and so become able to receive the Holy Spirit, we can confess Christ, since no one can say “Lord Jesus” except in the Holy Spirit. So, then, the Lord taught, both through himself and through the Apostle, that those born of the Spirit become spirit. In this too we shall again imitate birth according to the flesh. First, we change our place and transform our manner of life, through the inner man being strengthened by the Spirit, so that we can say, “But our citizenship is in heaven,” dragging the body about on the earth like a shadow, but keeping the soul a fellow citizen with the heavenly beings. Then we also exchange our companions on earth. For David said, “The one who slanders his neighbor in secret, him I drove away. With the one of proud eye and insatiable heart, with him I did not eat. My eyes are on the faithful of the land, that they may sit with me; the one who walks in a blameless way, he ministered to me. The one who acts proudly did not dwell in the midst of my house. The one who speaks unjust things did not prosper before my eyes”; and likewise elsewhere. And the Apostle commands more weightily, “If anyone who is called a brother is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler, do not even eat with such a one.”

The same Apostle often lays down like things against like, and, after first describing the great and glorious grace of Christ’s love for humankind, he hands down clearly and securely with whom, and with what kind of people, we must associate, saying, “For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the fence, the enmity, in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in ordinances, so that he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the enmity by it. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” So, having been planted together with Christ in the likeness of his death, baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, born from above in the inner man by the renewal of the mind, and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, we may in this way become worthy to be baptized in the name of the only-begotten Son of God and be counted worthy of the great gift which the Apostle has handed down, saying, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.”

For it is necessary, and it follows, that one who has been born should also be clothed; only it must be as with a panel. Whatever its material, the panel puts away its unevenness and has its roughness planed off, and so it is clothed with the painting of the king’s image. Then no difference in the image is recognized from the difference of wood or gold or silver; but the image, achieved with much care, by a skill worthy of note, in exactness of likeness to the original, hides the difference of the material, however far apart the materials stood, draws the viewers to its own glory, and becomes more honored than any ruler or authority. So too the one who is baptized, whether Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, Scythian or barbarian, or called by any other difference of race, having put off the old man with his deeds in the blood of Christ, and having put on, through Christ’s teaching in the Holy Spirit, the new man created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, may become worthy to attain to the good pleasure of God which the Apostle handed down, saying, “For we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

For then, having put on the Son of God, he is counted worthy of the perfect stage, and is baptized into the name of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ himself; as John testifies, Christ gives authority to become children of God, of the God who says, “Come out from their midst and be separate, and touch nothing unclean; and I will welcome you, and you shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” This is by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, the only-begotten Son of the living God, “in whom neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love,” as it is written. Through this faith there is happily achieved in us what the same Lord Jesus Christ added in connection with the command of baptism, saying, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The Lord himself defined the keeping of these as the proof of love for him, saying, “If you love me, keep my commandments”; and again, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me”; and again, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.” And more forcefully, and in a way that shames us more, he says, “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I too have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” But if the keeping of the commandments is the necessary proof of love, there is a still stronger reason for fear: without love, the working of glorious gifts and of the highest powers, faith itself at its highest working, and even the commandment that makes perfect, are of no profit. For Paul the apostle himself, who speaks in Christ, says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions in morsels, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” This, I reckon, he said decisively, remembering that the Lord said, “Many will come on that day, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name, and eat and drink in your presence, and you taught in our streets?’” and he answers them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

So it is clear and indisputable that without love, even if the commands and ordinances are carried out, the Lord’s commandments kept, and the great gifts put to work, they will be reckoned works of lawlessness; not because of the nature of the gifts and ordinances, but because of the aim of those who use them for their own wills. For the Apostle says at one time, “supposing that godliness is a means of gain”; at another, “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking to add affliction to my chains”; and elsewhere, “For we are not,” he says, “like the many, peddling the word of God.” And again, in denial, he says, “For we never came to you with a word of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed (God is witness), nor seeking glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.” Through these and such passages the justice of the Lord’s answer, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness,” is plainly shown: they traded on the gifts of God for their own wills. It is as if someone were to use his medical instruments and preparations, made for curing illnesses and caring for health and safety, for murder, and did not keep the Apostle’s instruction, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” By every account, then, care of the inner man is necessary, so that the mind may be undistracted and, as it were, made one with the aim of the glory of God; so that, keeping the Lord’s command, “Make the tree good and its fruit good,” and again, “Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside of it also will be wholly clean,” we may bear fruit from the abundance of a good heart, one a hundredfold, one sixty, one thirty, whether in deeds or in words, to the glory of God and of his Christ, everywhere taking care not to grieve the Holy Spirit; and so we may escape the judgment of the same Lord, who said, “Woe to you, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness; so you also outwardly appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Therefore one must become a disciple before baptism, first removing what hinders discipleship, and so making oneself fit for discipleship. For our Lord Jesus Christ himself confirmed by examples the sentence he had given before, and again added as doctrine, “So therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”; and again, by way of command, “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”; and again, decisively, “Whoever does not take up his cross daily and follow after me is not worthy of me.” When, through these and such fiery words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”, the wickedness of sins has been made evident and the virtue of the deeds achieved for the glory of God and of his Christ has been made plain, we come without fail to desire and confess what the Apostle said: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” who said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”; as the Apostle testifies, saying, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.” And then we come to the baptism in water, which is a likeness of the cross, of death, of burial, of resurrection from the dead, making covenants and keeping those sealed by the Apostle himself in the passage about such a baptism, where he says, “Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, no longer dies; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also, consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires, and do not present your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members to God as weapons of righteousness,” and what follows.

Then one is counted worthy to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit and, having been born from above, to change one’s place, manner of life, and companions; so that, walking by the Spirit, we may be counted worthy to be baptized in the name of the Son and to put on Christ. For one who has been born must also be counted worthy of clothing, as the Apostle said, “As many …” “… these promises, then, beloved,” says the Apostle, “let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” And again he commands, saying, “Do all things without grumbling and disputing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, as a boast for me in the day of Christ.” And again: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory”: the glory promised by the Lord himself, who said, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun.”