On Baptism 1.3.0–2.4.3

That one who has been born again through baptism must from then on be nourished by partaking of the divine mysteries.

By the grace of the good God, through the remembrance of the words of the only-begotten Son of the living God, of his holy evangelists and prophets, and of the Apostle, which have made the teaching about the baptism according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ sufficiently clear to us, we have been taught that the baptism in fire exposes all wickedness and receives the righteousness according to Christ, producing hatred of wickedness and desire for virtue. Through faith we were cleansed from all sin by the blood of Christ; and, baptized in the water into the death of the Lord, we made, as it were, a written confession that we have been put to death to sin and to the world and made alive to righteousness. And so, baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we were born from above; having been born, and baptized in the name of the Son, we put on Christ; and having put on the new man, created according to God, we were baptized in the name of the Father and proclaimed children of God. From now on, then, we need to be fed with the food of eternal life, which the same only-begotten Son of the living God has also handed down to us. At one time he said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out through the mouth of God”; and how this comes about he taught when he said, “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me.” And again, adding the second “Amen” to confirm what follows and to assure the hearers, he says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” And a little later it is written: “Many of his disciples, then, when they heard this, said, ‘This saying is hard; who can listen to it?’ But the Lord, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. My words are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who believed, and who it was who would betray him. And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.’ After this many of his disciples went back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” And near the end of the Gospels it is written: “Jesus, then, took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.’” And the Apostle testifies to these things, saying, “For I received from the Lord what I also handed down to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” What, then, is the profit of these words? That, as we eat and drink, we may always remember him who died and was raised for us, and so be taught that we must keep before God and his Christ the doctrine handed down by the Apostle, when he said, “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died; and

he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” For one who eats and drinks, plainly for an indelible remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who died and was raised for us, but does not fulfil the meaning of the remembrance, the Lord’s obedience unto death, according to the teaching of the Apostle, who said, as was quoted before, “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died” (which we confessed in baptism), “and he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them,” has no profit, according to the sentence of the Lord, who said, “The flesh profits nothing.”

Such a person also brings upon himself the judgment of the Apostle, who says, “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.” For not only does the one who comes to the holy things unworthily, in defilement of flesh and spirit, have a fearful judgment (for by coming he becomes guilty of the body and blood of the Lord); so too does the one who eats and drinks idly and without profit, because he does not keep, through the remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who died and was raised for us, the saying, “The love of Christ constrains us, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died,” and what follows. For as one who, without awareness and without profit, makes so great and such a good thing of no effect, and approaches such a mystery as if ungratefully, he incurs the judgment of idleness. For the Lord did not allow even those who let fall an idle word to go unjudged, and he set out the judgment of idleness more forcefully through the one who kept his talent intact in idleness; and the Apostle has handed down to us that even one who brings out a good word, but does not manage it for the building up of the faith, grieves the Holy Spirit. So we ought to perceive the judgment on one who eats and drinks unworthily. And if even the one who grieves his brother by food has fallen from love, without which even great gifts and righteous deeds, when they are performed, profit nothing, what would one say of the one who dares to eat the body and drink the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ idly and without profit, and so grieves the Holy Spirit still more, and dares to eat and drink without the love that constrains us to judge that we should not live for ourselves but for Christ Jesus our Lord, who died and was raised for us? The one who comes to the body and blood of Christ, in remembrance of him who died and was raised for us, must therefore not only be clean from every defilement of flesh and spirit, so as not to eat and drink to judgment, but must also show in action the remembrance of him who died and was raised for us, by being dead to sin, to the world, and to himself, and living to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Question 1. Whether everyone who has been baptized with the baptism in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is under obligation to be dead to sin and to live to God in Christ Jesus.

If all of us who desire the kingdom of God lay claim to the grace of baptism and need it alike and of necessity, according to the Lord’s sentence, “Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” then we are all alike under obligation to walk by the same rule of baptism. For the Apostle says to all the baptized in common, “Or do you not know, brothers, that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life,” and what follows. In another place he hands down such a doctrine to us more pointedly and more clearly, saying, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” So too he says again to all, “In whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith.” So everyone who has been baptized with the baptism of the Gospel is under obligation to live according to the Gospel, also because of what he said elsewhere: “I testify again to every man who is circumcised that he is under obligation to keep the whole law.”

So it is clearly established that everyone who has been baptized with the one baptism, as it is written, is equally under obligation, according to the word of him who died and was raised for us, to fulfil what was written by the Apostle himself: “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” For if one who has been circumcised in a part of the body, with the circumcision according to Moses, is under obligation to keep the whole law, how much more is one who has been circumcised with the circumcision according to Christ, by putting off the whole body of the sins of the flesh, as it is written, under obligation to fulfil what the Apostle said: “I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me; I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”? So the one who has truly been baptized into the death of Christ, according to the Apostle’s word, has put himself to death to the world, and much earlier to sin, according to what the Apostle said in his discussion of baptism: “Our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” And he has made an inviolable covenant to follow the Lord in all things, which is to live wholly to God, fulfilling throughout what the Apostle said: at one time, “I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship,” and what follows; at another, “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.” Among these and such doctrines he says again, “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” so that we may all become worthy, as one, to hear, “Come, good servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord.” We are counted worthy of this joy if each of us, in the state in which he was called and received his portion, multiplies the grace allotted to him with greater care and untiring zeal, as it is written.

Question 2. Whether it is without danger to act as priest without being clean in heart from an evil conscience, or from uncleanness, or from defilement.

Moses, giving a type to the people of that time, but for our admonition, writes in the law given by God: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Say to Aaron: Any man of your race throughout your generations who has a blemish in himself shall not approach to offer the gifts to his God; for every man in whom there is a blemish shall not approach.’” In what follows he explains the blemish: there is to be no mingling of foreign members, nor the breaking of any single one of a man’s own members, even in part, though such a thing hinders not so much the performance of the service as its seemliness or completeness. But the Lord, saying, “Something greater than the temple is here,” teaches us that the one who dares to minister as priest the body of the Lord, who gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma, is more impious by as much as the body of the only-begotten Son of God surpasses rams and bulls: not by way of comparison, for the superiority is beyond comparison. And now a blemish or maiming is not seen in the members of the body, but is recognized in the requirements of godliness according to the Gospel, when a commandment is carried out with a near miss, or deficiently, or not in the way that pleases God, as if a scar or a leprosy of human judgment showed on the commandment. It is necessary, then, always, but especially at the time of so great and such a mystery, to keep the instruction of the Apostle, who said, “Having these promises, then, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; giving no offense in anything, so that the ministry may not be blamed, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God.” So one may become worthy to perform the sacred rite of the Lord’s mystery according to the Gospel of God.

Question 3. Whether it is without danger for someone who is not clean from every defilement of flesh and spirit to eat the body of the Lord and drink his blood.

God in the law laid down the extreme penalty against anyone who dared to touch the holy things in uncleanness; for it is written, as a type for them but for our admonition: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and let them keep away from the holy things of the sons of Israel, and they shall not profane my holy name in the things they consecrate to me. I am the Lord. Say to them: Throughout their generations, any man from all your offspring who approaches the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate to the Lord while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from my presence. I am the Lord.’” If such a threat is laid down against those who simply approach things consecrated by human beings, what would one say against one who dares to approach so great and such a mystery? For by as much as something greater than the temple is here, according to the Lord’s word, by so much is it more terrible and fearful to dare to touch the body of Christ in defilement of soul than to touch rams or bulls. For the Apostle said, “So whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” And setting out the judgment by repetition both more forcefully and more fearfully, he says, “But let each examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.” If one who is merely in uncleanness (the character of uncleanness we learn as a type from the law) has so fearful a judgment, how much more will one who is in sin and dares to approach the body of the Lord draw on himself a more terrible judgment? Let us then be clean from every defilement (the difference between defilement and uncleanness is plain to those of sound mind), and so approach the holy things, so that we may escape the judgment of those who killed the Lord, since “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord”; and that we may have eternal life, as our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who does not lie, promised; if, as we eat and drink, we remember him who died for us, and keep the judgment of the Apostle, who said, “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we have judged this, that if one died for all, then all died; and he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” To this we pledged ourselves in baptism.

Question 4. Whether one must believe every word of God and be persuaded, in full assurance of the truth, of what is said, even if some word or deed is found, whether of the Lord himself or of the saints themselves, that seems to be contrary.

The question is altogether unworthy of anyone who has undertaken to confess our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the living God, through whom all things were made, both visible and invisible, and who speaks the words that he heard from the Father. Yet we must answer, obeying the Apostle, who wrote, “Be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you for an account of the faith that is in you.” And so that we may not cause doubt in the hearers by saying anything of our own, let us recall the Lord himself saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all is accomplished”; and again, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the law to fall.” And if something greater than Solomon is here, and something greater than Jonah is here, it follows that something greater than Moses is here too; for the Apostle, after describing the glory of Moses, which the Israelites could not approach, in comparison with the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, added, “What was glorified has not been glorified in this respect, because of the surpassing glory. For if what was being done away with came with glory, much more is what remains in glory.” So, even if we have been taught by what has been said to know and confess more firmly what is said in the Gospel, still let us again, in undoubting faith, recall the Lord himself saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” The Lord’s words would indeed have sufficed, more than anything, to establish our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the guiding Spirit, so that we hold firm and unshaken concerning every word that comes out through the mouth of God; but to help the weakness of some, it would be fitting to set out also the testimony of one or two out of many. David says, “Faithful are all his commandments, established for ever and ever, made in truth and uprightness”; and again, “The Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works”; and many such things. And Jehu said, in the books of Kingdoms, “See that no word of the Lord will fall to the ground.”

As for the things that seem to contain some contradiction, it is better to pass sentence on oneself, as not yet having come to understand the riches of wisdom, and because it is hard to reach the unsearchable judgments of God, than to become liable to the judgment on rashness and presumption, and to hear, “Impious is he who says to a king, ‘You act lawlessly’”; and, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” And even if most things seem to most people to have a plain solution, still, in the things that seem to contain a contradiction, we must observe this. When some word or deed seems to be contrary to a command, each one must obey the command, and not lay blame on the depth of the riches and of the wisdom, or make excuses for sins; for this, we have learned from the divinely inspired Scriptures, is pleasing to God and without danger. When one command seems to be contrary to another, we must learn the circumstances of each and read the whole passage, and so recognize that there is no conflict, and keep what fits each case, for the goal of the upward calling, toward which both commands tend: some cure a sickness, others bring about progress that leads to perfection in pleasing God. So the Lord says at one time, “No one, after lighting a lamp, hides it under the bushel, but puts it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. So let your light shine before people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”; and at another, “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

And you could find many such things in the evangelists and in the Apostle. If a commandment is given but how it is to be done is not added, let us heed the Lord, who says, “Search the Scriptures,” and imitate the apostles, who asked the Lord himself for the explanation of what he had said; and let us learn what is true and saving from what he said in another place. So with “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”: we are taught both from what was commanded the young man, when the Lord himself said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven,” and from what was said to those who desire to inherit the kingdom of heaven: “Do not fear, little flock, for your heavenly Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms; make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.” And if danger also attends the keeping of the commandment, which is our boast, let us remember the Apostle, who said, “It would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boast empty”; and elsewhere more fully, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” and what follows. By these words we are taught more forcefully to keep the commandments and to give greater proof of our love for the Lord, who said, “Whoever loves me will keep my commandments,” and often in like words. In the rest we are taught to imitate the Apostle and say, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord,” who came down from heaven and announced to us the words of the Father? Him it is necessary and saving to believe, as children believe their parents and pupils their teachers, according to the word of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who said, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”