On Baptism 2.5.0–2.8.9

Question 5. Whether disobedience to any word deserves wrath and death, even if the threat is not attached specifically to each one.

Whether disobedience to any word deserves wrath and death has been discussed more fully in the letter on agreement. But to recall now too one or two testimonies out of many, let us hear John the Baptist saying, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever disobeys the Son” (the expression, left without limit, takes in everything) “shall not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him”; and the Lord himself declaring decisively, “Not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” If the things of the law are so, how much more the things of the Gospel? as the Lord himself often confirmed. On the point “even if the threat is not attached specifically to each one,” I think it enough for the faithful to recall what the Lord himself said in the passage of teaching that follows the beatitudes. There he mentioned many forbidden things. To some he added the threat as well, saying, “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever says ‘Raca’ will be liable to the council; whoever says ‘Fool’ will be liable to the hell of fire,” and many such things. To others he added none, as when he said, “Everyone who looks at a woman so as to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” and, “But I say to you, do not swear at all,” and a little later, “Let your word be ‘Yes, yes,’ ‘No, no’; what is more than these comes from the evil one.” Having said many such things without adding the particular punishment, he declared more generally against them all, first saying, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” and at the end adding, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.”

In many places, having mentioned many sins, he did not add the punishment laid up for each, thinking the general statements, often made against them all, to be enough. But since the weaker need help, let us recall the Apostle too. For he also, imitating the Lord, said at one time, “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”; at another, “Do not lie to one another”; and elsewhere, “Let all anger and wrath and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice.” Having often said many such things without adding the threat, elsewhere he adds the punishment in a more general way, saying, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who lie with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Elsewhere again he writes more fully, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done, filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, implacable, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do them but also approve those who practice them. Therefore you are without excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in judging another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the same things.” And likewise in many places. From these it is shown that, even if in particular cases the threat of punishment is not attached to each kind of sin, we must of necessity recognize that whoever transgresses even one commandment falls, by an inescapable necessity, under the general sentence. For our Lord Jesus Christ declared, “Whoever rejects me and does not receive my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day,” and what follows, more fearfully still; and John the Baptist, than whom none is greater, testifies decisively, “Whoever disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God will remain on him.” For this is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture in the Old Testament as well. Through Moses, who wrote many things in the law without adding the threat against the one who transgresses or neglects them, God added a general curse against all, which is the prelude to the most terrible punishment, saying, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all that is written in the book of this law.” And elsewhere: “Cursed,” it says, “is the one who does the works of the Lord negligently.” If the one who does them negligently is cursed, what then does the one who does not do them deserve?

Question 6. Whether disobedience lies in doing something forbidden, or also in leaving undone something approved.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, confirming this judgment more forcefully, to set aside the error that had prevailed before and to establish our hearts in sound faith, was pleased to teach us the fear of the judgments not only through words but also through examples, since facts produce the full assurance of the truth more readily. First he says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And after the whole passage of his teaching he added a sentence with an example, saying, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and burst upon that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.” And again: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this tree and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’” And elsewhere he sets out this judgment more plainly, saying, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” And he gives as the reason, not the doing of anything forbidden, but the lack of approved works, saying, “For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,” and what follows. One could find many such passages to prove that it is not only those who do evil who are worthy of death (for them the unquenchable fire has been prepared, and with them are condemned also those who are idle in doing good), but also those who do good negligently. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently.”

It would be time to recall also John, who said to those who had received the forgiveness of sins through baptism, “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Bear fruit, then, worthy of repentance. And do not presume to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, then, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” None of this points to the doing of some evil, but to idleness in the righteous requirement of godliness. For if everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently is cursed, because he did not do them with the zeal that was fitting, how much more are they cursed who did not consent to do the good at all? Justly they hear, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” So from all this it is clear that there is necessarily need of greater speed and of untiring zeal, with good and undistracted desire, in the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we too may become worthy of the blessing, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself, the only-begotten Son of the living God, said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Question 7. Whether it is possible, or pleasing, or acceptable to God for one who is a slave to sin to perform a righteous deed according to the rule of the godliness of the saints.

In the Old Testament God says, “The sinner who sacrifices a calf to me is like one who kills a dog, and the one who offers fine flour is like one who offers pig’s blood”; he laid down by law such exactness about what is offered in sacrifice, and set a fearful judgment against the one who offends. In the New Testament our Lord Jesus Christ said in person in the Gospels, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”; and, “No one can serve two masters”; and, “You cannot serve God and mammon”; and he laid down as doctrine most plainly, “So any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” If such is the sentence about things indifferent, what would one say about things forbidden? And through the Apostle he says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For 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?” So it has been shown that this is altogether impossible, displeasing to God, and dangerous to the one who dares it. Therefore, I urge you, as the Lord teaches, let us make the tree good and its fruit good, and first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside also will be wholly clean. And, taught by the Apostle, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and then perfect holiness in the love of Christ, so that we may become pleasing to God and acceptable to the Lord, for the kingdom of heaven.

Question 8. Whether the work of a commandment is acceptable to God when it is not done in accordance with God’s commandment.

On this question we are taught clearly, and given as it were a rule for every such matter, by the Old Testament, which says, as in the person of God, “If you offered rightly but did not divide rightly, you sinned. Be still; his turning is toward you.” So what was offered unlawfully was not only unacceptable, but was also reckoned as sin to the one who offered it so. By likeness, from the Apostle, it is possible to learn, as through a human example, the inviolable rule of godliness that holds universally for all, when he says, “Even if someone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully.” With greater fear one may recall our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who set out a definition when he said, “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find doing so.” By saying “so,” he showed that one who does not do so has fallen from the blessing, as one can learn exactly and be fully assured from many things recorded and said in both the Old and the New Testament. And “not so” happens in respect of place, or time, or person, or thing, or measure, or order, or disposition.

Let us look first at the matter of place. The Apostle made use of what prevails by custom to set out more clearly, and as a help to his hearers, what befits godliness, when he said, “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair it is her glory?” and what follows. So it would be fitting for us too to use what prevails by nature in the necessities of the present life. For although eating and drinking sustain life, who of sound mind consents to eat and drink in the marketplace? Or who consents to throw seed upon rocks, to the loss of the seed itself and of the fruit expected? And one could find many things done out of place that are dangerous or are condemned. Again, recalling the Apostle, who said, “These things happened to them as types, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come,” let us see whether the things laid down by God in the law for godliness, though they had something in common with one another, did not keep their differences inviolably. Some were confined to Jerusalem, and those who did them outside it incurred danger. More than that, even within the temple itself and at the altar, and in Jerusalem itself or in other places, different things were approved for those engaged in the worship of God: no one dared to do in other places in Jerusalem what was done in the temple and at the altar, nor was what was done in other places allowed in the temple. For us, a commandment is endangered when it is done out of place, above all if we celebrate the mysteries of the priesthood in profane places. Such a thing is proof of the contempt of the one who celebrates them, and it causes scandal in many ways, leading one to one passion and another to another, because of the varying weakness of the many in knowledge.

If anyone says, “Why then did the Apostle say, ‘I want the men to pray in every place,’ since the Lord gave authority to worship in every place, when he said, ‘You will worship the Father neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain’?”, one may answer this: “in every place” does not include the places set apart for human needs and for unclean and abominable things. Rather, it widens worship from the bounds of Jerusalem to every place in the world, and, according to the prophecy of the sacrifice, to every place plainly dedicated with care to God for the sacred celebration of the glorious mystery. For when we hear the prophet say, “You shall be called priests of God,” neither do we all seize the authority for such a priesthood or ministry, nor is anyone permitted to take to himself the grace given to another; but each of the faithful remains within the bounds of God’s gift to him. For the Apostle teaches us, saying to all, “I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship; and do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God, good and acceptable and perfect.” To each, however, he clearly distinguishes the ministry fitting for each, and forbids intrusion into another’s rank, saying, “For by the grace of God given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” And through the good order that is necessarily kept among the members of the body for seemliness and safety, he regulates among us the good order toward one another that is pleasing to God, in the love of Christ Jesus, in the difference of gifts. For he says, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another; 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.

If those who work together toward the one goal of pleasing God, and are so closely joined to one another in fellowship in the love of Christ, are not permitted to overstep the proper place of their gift, how much more ought we to keep the places set apart for alien and contrary things distinct from the holy ones? From all that has been recalled from the divinely inspired Scripture, and from such passages and from the examples given before, we must learn that activity out of place turns the end to the opposite of the goal set before us. As to time, one may hear our Lord Jesus Christ himself saying, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. The foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their flasks. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom; come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ The wise answered, saying, ‘Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered them, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Therefore, knowing that the warning about this same judgment, given often, strikes more forcefully and is more readily believed, I shall set beside it also what was said in another place to the same purpose. The Lord himself says, “Many will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has gone in and shut the door, and you begin to say, ‘Lord, lord, open to us,’ then he will answer, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Therefore I tell you, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”; and likewise in many places. And if the Apostle must also be called as a witness, let us hear him recalling, with the prophet, the words, “At an acceptable time I listened to you, and on a day of salvation I helped you,” and adding of his own, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation”; and again, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, and especially to those of the household of faith.” And if still another testimony is needed, let us recall David, who said, “For this every holy one will pray to you at a fitting time”; and Solomon, who laid it down for all things in common, “All things are good in their time.”

As to person: in the Old Testament, as with Korah and those who dared to intrude into the priesthood that had not been given to them, and fell under the severity of wrath into destruction and a most dreadful ruin. From the Lord himself we are taught to keep ourselves safe, when he said to the disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and to the woman, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” As to the thing: from the Old Testament, when the command was given to offer sacrifice from clean, whole, and unblemished animals, but the offering was not made from such; about which God said, “Offer it to your governor; will he accept it, will he show you favor?” From the New Testament: from our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who recalled Isaiah’s prophecy against the Jews, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’”; and from the Apostle, who bears witness to the conscience of the Jews but condemns them for the difference of their righteousness. He writes thus: “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.” Therefore the Apostle, who cared genuinely about pleasing God, after recounting the requirements of the law he had fulfilled to the highest degree, adds, “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 a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him,” and what follows. Through these and such passages he teaches us to beware all the more of ever bringing human righteousness into the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ for pleasing God.

As to measure, I think it enough to recall our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in contrast with the measure of the old love (for it is written, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”), said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” And in general, about all righteous requirements together, one may learn from the Lord himself, who laid it down: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” As to order and sequence: when someone is eager for the first things in second or third place, and treats what was commanded in third place as the starting point of what was commanded before it. For the Lord commanded the one who said, “All these I have kept from my youth,” “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and take up your cross, and come, follow me.” Suppose someone were to allow the second, “Follow me,” to one who has done none of what was commanded first; or, when the Lord says again, “If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” were to put following before what was commanded first; or, when the Lord added after many things, “So any one of you who does not renounce what he has cannot be my disciple,” were to imagine himself a disciple before he had kept what was said first. Therefore it is necessary to keep the instruction of the Apostle, who said, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

As to disposition: as when the Lord says of those who give alms, or do some other righteous deed, from the passion of pleasing people, so as to be seen by people, “Amen, I say to you, they have their reward.” And he sets out still more forcefully the wickedness of those who do the Lord’s commandment from a human passion, showing that the one who does a commandment, not from godliness, but from the wish to please people, or for the sake of some other pleasure, or of greed, or of business, not only loses his reward but also deserves punishment; such people the Apostle too accuses. The Lord himself, condemning such people more forcefully, says, “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, and eat and drink with you, and you taught in our streets?’ And then I will answer them, saying, ‘Depart from me; I do not know where you come from, you workers of lawlessness.’” So from these and such passages it is clear that, even if someone works gifts, even if he does commandments, but not with the disposition and aim the Lord taught when he said, “Let your light so shine before people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (and Paul the apostle, who speaks in Christ, says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”), he justly hears what the Lord answered. From this the Apostle learned to say, “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 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.” And elsewhere he says more generally and more forcefully, “If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

And if you seek a testimony of the Old Testament as well, to be fully assured of such a judgment, Moses says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” To these the Lord adds, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The Apostle too testifies, saying, “Love, then, is the fulfilment of the law.” That those who do not achieve these, and the righteous requirements that fall under them, are not left unpunished but are liable to punishment, Moses himself cries out, saying, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all that is written in this book.” And David says, “If I regarded unrighteousness in my heart, let the Lord not hear me”; and elsewhere, “There they feared with fear where there was no fear, for God has scattered the bones of those who please people.” There is need, then, of much care and watchful concern, lest, having done the commandment amiss in any of the respects mentioned, we not only lose so great and such a reward, but also fall under such fearful threats.