On Baptism 1.1.0–1.2.5

That one must first become a disciple of the Lord, and then be counted worthy of holy baptism.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the living God, after his resurrection from the dead, received the promise of God his Father, who had said through David the prophet, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” He gathered his own disciples to himself and first made known to them the authority given to him by the Father, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth”; and then he sends them out, saying, “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Since, then, the Lord first commanded, “Make disciples of all the nations,” and then added, “baptizing them,” and what follows, you passed over the first in silence and asked us for an account of the second. We reckoned that we would be acting against the command of the Apostle if we did not answer at once, for he said, “Be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you for an account”; so we have handed on to you the account of the baptism according to the Gospel of the Lord, which has a glory surpassing that of the blessed John, recalling a few of the many things said about it in the divinely inspired Scriptures. Yet we have reckoned it necessary to go back to the order handed down by the Lord, so that you too, first learning the force of “Make disciples,” and then in due sequence receiving the account of the most glorious baptism, may be brought safely to perfection, being taught to observe all that the Lord commanded his own disciples, as it is written. Here, then, we have heard him say, “Make disciples”; it remains to recall what is said elsewhere about such a command, so that, having first set our mind right in a way pleasing to God, and then having kept the fitting and necessary order, we may not, as far as it is possible, fall short of the goal of pleasing God. For it is the Lord’s custom to make plain, through what is said in other places, what he has commanded somewhere in general terms. So with “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”: having said it simply, in just this way, here, he makes clear the “how” in another place, saying, “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 so with many other things.

A disciple, then, as we learn from the Lord himself, is everyone who comes to the Lord so as to follow him, that is, to hear his words, and to believe and obey him as Master and King and Physician and Teacher of truth, in hope of eternal life; and this if he abides in them, as it is written: “Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” That is plainly the freedom of the soul from the devil’s bitter tyranny, by being rescued from the domination of sins (“for whoever commits sin,” he says, “is a slave of sin”) and from the condemnation of death; as Paul the Apostle also handed down to us, saying, “For him who knew no sin he made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him”; and again, “For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.” The one who believes in the Lord and presents himself as fit for discipleship must learn, first, to stand apart from every sin, and then from everything that draws him away from the ready obedience owed to the Lord on many counts, even if those things seem reasonable. For it is impossible for one who commits sin, or is entangled in the affairs of this life, or is anxious even about the things necessary for living, to serve the Lord, let alone become his disciple: the Lord who did not say to the young man, “Come, follow me,” before commanding him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. Nor did he command even this before the young man confessed, “All these I have kept.” For one who has not yet received the forgiveness of sins and been cleansed from them in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but serves the devil and is held fast by the sin that dwells in him, is unable to serve the Lord, who gave an inviolable sentence when he said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin; and the slave of sin does not remain in the house.” Paul, who speaks in Christ, also testifies, writing, “But the slave of sin is free from righteousness.” And again the Lord says, “No one can serve two masters,” and what follows. And by what he taught, decisively and in many ways, he showed that not even those who let themselves be anxious about the things necessary for living can serve God, let alone become disciples. Hence the Apostle, looking at the matter more broadly, learned to say, “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Beliar? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? What accord has the temple of God with idols?” And again, decisively: “The flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are opposed to each other, so that you do not do whatever you wish.” Let us recall, further, what he said when teaching us still more pointedly: “For I know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not understand; for I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I hate, this I do. But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me.” And having worked out this very point at greater length, that one held fast by sin cannot serve the Lord, he plainly shows us the one who redeems us from such tyranny, saying, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And a little later he adds, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh.”

And through what he says in another place he clearly sets before us the great grace of God’s love for humankind through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.” In another place, contemplating the still more wonderful love of God for humankind in Christ, he says, “For him who knew no sin he made sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” From the passages recalled and others like them, then, it is altogether necessary, if indeed we have not received the grace of God in vain, first to be rescued from the power of the devil, who drives the one held fast by sin to the evils he does not want; and then, having renounced all present things and oneself, and having withdrawn from attachment to life, to become a disciple of the Lord, as he himself said: “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” which is to say, let him become my disciple. He hands down the same thing more fully, more demonstratively, and more explicitly in the Gospel according to Luke, which we shall recall shortly. All of us who believe are redeemed from such condemnation for sins by the grace of God through his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”; and the Apostle testifies in what he writes, at one time, “Love one another, as Christ also loved us and gave himself up as an offering and sacrifice to God”; at another, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law”; and many such things. When, then, forgiveness of sins is given, a person receives freedom from sin from the one who redeemed us, Jesus Christ our Lord, so as to be able to come to the word. And even then no one is yet worthy to follow the Lord, who (I say again) did not say to the young man, “Come, follow me,” before saying, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” Nor did he command even this before the young man confessed that he was clean of every transgression, by saying that he had done everything the Lord had said. So in this too the order must be kept. We are taught not only to despise possessions and even the things necessary for living, but also to rise above the duties toward one another that are held to be just by law and by nature, since our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”; and likewise with the rest of one’s nearest kin, and plainly much more with those more distant and with strangers to the faith. To these words he adds, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” The Apostle, having achieved this, writes for our instruction, “I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me. And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Again, one may recall what the Lord said face to face to each person. To the one who said, “Let me first go and bury my father,” he said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” To the one who said, “Let me first go and say farewell to those at my home,” he spoke more rebukingly and with a sharper threat, for he said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is fit for the kingdom of God.” So even a human duty that causes a slight delay in the undistracted obedience owed to the Lord, though it may seem reasonable, is foreign to one who wishes to become the Lord’s disciple, and deserves a more terrible threat. He legislates more generally when he says, “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And if we come to recall what the Lord said to the one who said, “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God,” we learn of a more fearful judgment of wrath and severity, one that cuts such people off from every good hope. He speaks thus: “A certain man made a great supper and invited many. And at the hour of the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ And they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I ask you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them; I ask you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ And the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’” Again, the only-begotten Son of the living God himself, who was sent by the Father not to judge the world but to save the world, remaining true to himself and fulfilling the will of the good God and Father, adds to the sentence of severity a teaching that makes us worthy to become his disciples, and says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” The hatred meant is plainly not one that plots harm, but the virtue of godliness in disobeying those who would draw one away. “And whoever,” he says, “does not carry his cross and follow after me cannot be my disciple.” This we believe we have pledged ourselves to through baptism in water, when we confess that we have been crucified with him, have died with him, have been buried with him, and so on, as it is written.

Taking account of our weakness, he was pleased also to strengthen our hearts in full assurance of the truth through examples, and to make us readier to obey, where he says: “For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to meet another king in war, does not first sit down and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is still far off, he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace. So therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its taste, with what will it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the dunghill; they throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” If we believe these things, then, having first been freed from the devil’s domination by keeping away from everything the devil desires, by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ (if indeed we have not received such grace in vain), and having then renounced not only the world and its desires but also the just duties we owe one another, and even our own life, whenever any of these draws us away from the undistracted and prompt obedience owed to God, then we are counted worthy to become disciples of the Lord. From then on we are taught by Moses and the prophets, the evangelists and the apostles: God’s making in the beginning, through his only-begotten Son, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, of all things visible and invisible; what the divinely inspired Scriptures record of God’s kindness and severity, exercised with great patience, to show his righteousness and for our instruction; the prophecies of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus, and of the opposing events that befell together at that time; his glorious resurrection from the dead and ascension, and his most glorious appearing at the consummation of the age; the doctrines of the godliness according to the Gospel, complete and acceptable to God, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord, in hope of eternal life and of the heavenly kingdom; and the judgments of just recompense: for those who do what is forbidden or set aside what is approved, eternal punishment; and for those who live worthily of the Gospel of God in sound faith working through the love of Christ, eternal life and the heavenly kingdom in Christ Jesus our Lord, for which they hope.

How one is baptized with the baptism in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us the commandment to love one another as he loved us, and through Paul the Apostle he teaches us to bear with one another in love. So I have readily accepted the charge laid on me by your reverence in Christ, concerning the most glorious baptism according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, not as one able to say anything worthy of it, but contributing, like the widow who put in the two small coins. In this too I need the prayer of those who love the Lord, so that, by the grace of the good God and of his Christ, the holy and good Spirit, who reminds us and teaches us whatever he hears from the Lord, may direct our mind into the way of peace and our sound word to the building up of the faith, and so in us and in you the saying may be fulfilled, “Give a wise man an occasion, and he will be wiser.” But one must know that one must first become a disciple, and in this way be counted worthy of the most wonderful baptism. For so our Lord and God Jesus Christ himself, the only-begotten Son of the living God, commanded his own disciples. We have therefore of necessity handed on to you separately also what the Lord himself said about those who wish to become disciples of Christ, recalling at least a few things out of many. And since being born from above is promised the sight of the kingdom of God, while being born of water and spirit is promised entry into the kingdom of God, I reckon it necessary to set out a few of the many things said about the kingdom of heaven, so that we may in no way fall short of it. For “in life a near miss is no small thing,” as one of our wise men said; and this is clear to most people from experience itself. But one may be still more surely convinced of it by the exactness required of the priests and of the animals offered in sacrifice. Among them, if some small blemish was found, or a maiming, not of a whole limb but of one part only (as it is written, the lobe of an ear), neither was the man admitted to the priesthood nor was the animal acceptable as a sacrifice. For the Apostle said, “These things happened to them as types, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come”; and the Lord plainly showed the superiority of what is ours when he said, “Something greater than the temple is here”; and he showed still more that we must take more exact care of the soul when he said, “From the one to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

Let us recall, then, what is said about the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he went up the mountain and began his teaching with the beatitudes, proclaimed as the first beatitude one that holds the promise of the kingdom of heaven. For he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In the eighth beatitude he says, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And again, prophesying through the parable of the shepherd the blessing at the time of recompense, he says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food,” and what follows. In the Gospel according to Luke, at another time and in another place, as the writings show, setting out beatitudes again, he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; and again, “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.” These, then, and such as these are the things by which one is counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven. But the things without which it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven the Lord declares in the Gospel according to Matthew, saying, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”; and again, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”; and again, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” In the Gospel according to John he says to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God”; and again, “Unless one is born of water and spirit, he will never enter the kingdom of God.”

Against all of these the sentence is one, and plainly the danger is equal for all if one thing is lacking. For if the Lord says, “Not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all is accomplished,” how much more from the Gospel, since the Lord himself says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”? Hence James the apostle took courage and declared, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all.” He learned to say this from the threat the Lord made to Peter, after the beatitudes and the testimonies and promises, beyond anything human, that he had given him: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” And Paul the apostle, who fills up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, speaking in Christ, solemnly testifies to the things for which, above all, one is not counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven and falls under the judgment of death. At one time he says decisively, “Those who practice such things are worthy of death.” (Why did he not say, “those who practice these things,” but, “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven”?) And again, more generally, “The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God”; and likewise elsewhere. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself declared in the Gospel according to Luke, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Here we must of necessity observe that so fearful and inviolable a judgment is passed, not on many sins, but on one, and that one among things permitted, if it causes even a single, brief delay in the obedience owed to the Master on many counts, an obedience that must be without excuse, most prompt, and undistracted. From all these things, then, and such as these, we are taught that one must fulfil, entirely and lawfully, all the things to which the promise of the kingdom of heaven is attached and without which the grace of the kingdom is refused, and must guard oneself against all the things for which no one inherits the kingdom of heaven, and so expect to be counted worthy of the promise. For one engaged in the contest of pleasing God must not only be rid of all wickedness, but also be unmaimed and blameless in every word of God. For Paul the apostle, after contemplating the great and indescribable love of God and of his Christ toward us, for our righteousness and salvation, adds: “Giving no offense in anything, so that our ministry may not be blamed, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God.”

For just as the poor in spirit, unless he is born of water and spirit, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because of the sentence, so again, if his righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, or if any other such thing is lacking, he is not counted worthy of the kingdom because of the like sentence. For it is written, “that he might present the church to himself glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and blameless.” And there are many such passages; whoever reads them with more care is the more firmly assured that one must fulfil everything in order to be counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven. That the one who abounds in righteousness, or who has been born from above, has brought to completion all the good deeds together on which the beatitudes rest, and the rest besides, and is acknowledged to be a doer of these and such things, the discussion of being born from above will show a little later, by the grace of God. But since, as was said before, the charge from your reverence asked of us an account of the most wonderful baptism according to the Gospel, I think it follows, after what has been said about the kingdom of heaven, that we should learn briefly also the difference between the baptism according to Moses and that of John, and then by the grace of God become worthy to understand the surpassing wonder in the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the incomparable excess of its glory. For the only-begotten Son of the living God declared that something greater than the temple is here, and something greater than Solomon is here, and something greater than Jonah is here. The Apostle, having first described the unapproachable glory of Moses in the ministry of the law to the Jews, solemnly testifies, adding, “For indeed what was glorified has not been glorified in this respect, because of the surpassing glory.” John the Baptist, than whom none is greater among those born of women, testifies, saying at one time, “He must increase, but I must decrease”; at another, “I baptize you in water for repentance, but he baptizes you in the Holy Spirit and fire”; and many such things. As much as the Holy Spirit differs from water, so much, plainly, does the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit surpass the one who baptizes in water, and so too does the baptism itself; so that John himself, who received such great testimony, and of such a kind, from the Lord, said beforehand without shame, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.”

So from everything the surpassing greatness of the baptism according to the Gospel of Christ is plain. Even if it is impossible to understand it worthily, it is still godly and profitable to speak of it as far as we can, as God enables us, from the Scriptures themselves. The baptism handed down through Moses, then, first recognized a difference between sins, for not all sins had the grace of forgiveness; then it required various sacrifices, was exacting about purification, set apart for a time the one in uncleanness and defilement, and kept watch of days and hours; and only then was baptism received, as a seal upon the cleansing. John’s baptism had an advantage many times greater. It made no distinction between sins, required no variety of sacrifices, was not exacting about purification, and kept no watch of days or hours. There was no delay at all in anything concerning the grace of God and of his Christ: as soon as anyone came confessing his sins, however many and of whatever kind, he was baptized in the river Jordan and at once received the forgiveness of sins. But the Lord’s baptism has a meaning beyond everything human, a glory higher than every human desire and prayer, and an excess of grace and power greater than the sun’s excess over the stars. Rather, the sayings of the saints already recalled set forth its incomparable superiority more forcefully. Yet that is no reason to keep silent. We must speak, using the very sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ as our guides, and being led as through a mirror and in a riddle; not so that the glory may be diminished by our interpretation, given in weakness of body and contemptible speech, but so that in this too the greatness of the patience and love for humankind of the good God may be wondered at, because he bears with those who stammer out the great things of his love and grace in Christ Jesus.