Objection that some were baptized unto
Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon
types.
31. BUT even if some are baptized unto the Spirit, it is not, it is urged, on this account right for the Spirit
to be
ranked with God. Some
"were baptized unto
Moses in the cloud and
in the sea."
And it is admitted
that faith even before now has been put in men; for "The people
believed God and his servant Moses."
Why then, it is asked, do we,
on account of faith and of baptism, exalt and magnify the Holy Spirit
so far above creation, when there is evidence that the same things
have before now been said of men?
What, then,
shall we reply? Our
answer is that the faith
in the Spirit is the
same as the faith in the Father
and the Son;
and in like manner, too, the baptism.
But the faith in Moses and in
the cloud
is, as it were, in a shadow
and type. The nature of the divine is very
frequently represented by the rough and shadowy outlines of the types;
but because
divine
things are
prefigured by small and human things, it is obvious that we
must not therefore conclude the divine nature to be small.
The type is an exhibition of things expected, and gives an imitative anticipation of
the future. So Adam was a type of "Him that was to come."
Typically, "That rock was
Christ;" and the water a
type of the living power
of the word; as He
says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." The manna
is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; and the
serpent on the standard, of the passion of salvation accomplished by
means of the cross, wherefore they who even looked thereon were
preserved.
So in like manner,
the history of the exodus of Israel is recorded to shew forth
those who are
being saved through
baptism.
For the firstborn of the Israelites were preserved, like the bodies of the baptized, by the
giving of
grace to them that were
marked with
blood.
For the blood of the sheep is a
type of the blood of Christ; and the firstborn, a type of the
first-formed. And inasmuch as the first-formed of necessity exists in
us, and, in sequence of succession, is transmitted till the end, it
follows that "in Adam" we "all die," and that "death reigned" until
the fulfilling of the law and the coming of Christ.
And the firstborn were
preserved by God from being touched by the destroyer, to show that we
who were made alive in Christ no longer die in Adam.
The sea and the cloud
for the time being led on through amazement to faith, but for the
time to come they typically prefigured the grace to be. "Who is wise
and he shall understand these things?" --
how the
sea is typically a baptism bringing about the departure of Pharaoh. in like manner as this washing causes the departure
of the tyranny of the devil.
The sea slew the enemy in itself: and in baptism too dies our enmity towards God.
From the sea the people came
out unharmed: we too, as it were, alive from the dead, step up from the water "saved" by the "grace" of
Him who called us.
And the cloud is a
shadow of the gift of the Spirit [internal], who cools the flame of
our passions by the "mortification" of our "members."
[external]
Rejecting baptism is fatal
because it refuses to accept the counsel of God and is therefore
still hostile to God's right to command:
And all the people
that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. Luke 7:29
But the Pharisees
and lawyers rejected the
counsel of God against
themselves, being not baptized of him. Luke 7:30
Is it possible to BELIEVE in
God and reject His counsel and still be saved?
32. What then? Because they
were typically baptized unto Moses, is the grace of baptism therefore small?
Were it so,
and if we were in
each ease to
prejudice the
dignity of our
privileges by comparing
them with their types, not even one of these privileges could be
reckoned great;
then not the love
of God, who gave His only begotten Son for our sins, would be great
and extraordinary, because Abraham
did not spare his own son;
then even the passion of the
Lord would not be glorious, because a sheep
typified the offering instead of Isaac;
then the descent into hell was not
fearful, because
Jonah had previously typified the death in
three days and three nights.
The same prejudicial comparison
is made also in the case of baptism by all who judge of the reality by the
shadow, and, comparing
the typified with the type,
attempt by means of
Moses and the sea to disparage at once the whole dispensation of the Gospel.
- What remission of sins, what renewal of life, is there in
the sea?
- What spiritual gift is there through Moses?
- What dying of sins is there?
- Those men did not die with
Christ; wherefore they were not raised with Him.
They did not "bear the image of the heavenly;" they did "bear about in
the body the dying of Jesus;" they did not "put off the old man;"
they did not "put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created
him."
Why then do you compare
baptisms which have only the name in common, while the distinction
between the things themselves is as great as might be that of dream
and reality, that of shadow and figures with substantial
existence?
33. But belief in Moses not only does not show our belief in the
Spirit to be worthless. but, if we adopt our opponents' line of
argument, it rather weakens our confession in the God of the
universe.
"The people," it is
written, "believed the Lord and his servant Moses." Moses then is
joined with God, not with the Spirit; and he was a type not of the
Spirit, but of Christ.
For at that time in the
ministry of the law, he by means of himself typified "the
Mediator between God and men."
Moses, when mediating for the people in things pertaining to God, was not a
minister of the Spirit; for the law was given, "ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator," namely Moses, in accordance with the summons
of the people, "Speak thou with us, . . . but let not God speak with
us."
Thus faith in Moses is referred
to the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, who said, "Had ye
believed Moses, ye would have believed me."
Is then our faith
in the Lord a trifle, because it was signified beforehand through
Moses?
So then, even if men were
baptized unto Moses, it does not follow that the
grace
given of the Spirit
in
baptism is
small. I may point out, too, that it is usual
in Scripture to say Moses and the law, as in the passage, "They have
Moses and the prophets."
When therefore it
is meant to speak of the baptism of the law, the words are, "They
were baptized unto Moses."
Why then do these calumniators
of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types,
endeavour to
bring
contempt and ridicule
on the "rejoicing" of our "hope," and the rich gift of our God and
Saviour,
who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle's?
Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk, to
be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation;
inasmuch as, in
accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being
brought to perfection in our training for godliness,
we were first taught elementary
and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser
of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like
eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth.
For He spares our weakness, and
in the depth of the riches of His wisdom, and the inscrutable
judgments of His intelligence, used this gentle treatment, fitted for
our needs,
- gradually accustoming us to
see first the shadows of objects,
- and to look at the sun in
water,
to save us from dashing against
the spectacle of pure unadulterated light, and being blinded.
Just so the Law, having a
shadow of things to come, and the typical teaching of the prophets,
which is a dark utterance of the truth, have been devised means to
train the eyes of the heart, in that hence the transition to the
wisdom hidden in
mystery will be made
easy. Enough so far concerning types; nor indeed would it be possible
to linger longer on this topic, or the incidental discussion would
become many times bulkier than the main argument.
CHAPTER
XV
Reply to the suggested objection that we
are baptized "into water." Also concerning baptism.
34. What more? Verily, our
opponents are well equipped with arguments.
We are baptized,
they urge, into
water, and of course we shall not honour the water
above all creation, or give it a share of the honour of the Father
and of the Son.
The arguments of these men are
such as might be expected from angry disputants, leaving no means untried in their attack on him who
has offended
them, because their
reason is clouded over by their feelings.
We will not,
however, shrink from the discussion even of these points. If we do
not teach the ignorant, at least we shall not turn away before evil
doers.
But let us for a moment retrace
our steps.
35. The dispensation of our God
and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return
from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the
flesh,
the pattern life described in the Gospels, the
sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection;
so that the man who
is being
saved through
imitation of Christ receives that old adoption. [Before
the fall]
[God puts His power in means:
faith can never be disconnected from the means described to bring
about faith. To minimize the imitation of Christ is to reject the
Christ Who has the right to define the means of a restoration to
Oneness with Him]
For perfection of life
the imitation of Christ
is necessary, not only
in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in
His life, but also of His actual death.
So Paul, the
imitator of Christ, says, "being made conformable unto his death;
if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead."
How then are we made in the
likeness of His death?
In that we were
buried with Him by baptism.
What then is the manner of the
burial? And what is the advantage resulting
from the imitation?
First of all, it is
necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut.
And this is impossible less a man be born again, according to the
Lord's word; for the regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a
beginning of a second
life.
So before beginning the second,
it is necessary to put
an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who
turn and take the second course,
a kind of halt and
pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction,
so also in making a
change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator
between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that
comes after.
How then do we achieve the
descent into hell?
By imitating, through
baptism, the
burial of
Christ.
[If mankind is "resurrected" to
a new life simply by believing, then baptism is burying a living
person. The order is first death or ceasing from motion in the old
direction. Peter said that you must repent to be saved. Next, one
must be buried and resurrected with Christ before the new life can
begin. The Israelites "wages" were paid by God but the were not free
men until they were on the other side of the waters of the Red Sea
after they had put their trust in Moses or God]
For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies
the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says,
ye were
"circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ; buried with
him in baptism."
And there is, as it were, a
cleansing of the soul from the filth
that has grown on it from the carnal mind, as it is written, "Thou
shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." On this account we
do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at
each defilement, but own the baptism of
salvation to be one.
For there the death on behalf
of the world
is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the
Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death,
for the
water fulfils the image of death,
and the Spirit
gives us the earnest of life.
Hence it follows that the
answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the reason is because in
baptism two
ends were proposed;
on the
one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, that it may never bear fruit
unto death;
on the other hand, our living
unto the Spirit, and having our fruit in holiness;
the water receiving
the body as in a tomb figures death,
while the Spirit pours
in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto
their original life.
- Romans Chapter
6
- 1 WHAT shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?
- 2 God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein?
- 3 Know ye not,
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death?
- 4 Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death: that
like as Christ was raised up from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
- 5 For if we have
been planted
together in
the likeness
(form) of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection:
- 6 Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin.
- 7 For he
that is dead is freed from sin.
- 8 Now
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that
we shall also live with him:
- 9 Knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death
hath no more dominion over him.
- 10 For in
that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God.
- 11 Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
- 12 Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof.
- 13 Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto
God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto
God.
- 14 For sin
shall
not have dominion over you: for ye are not under
the law, but under grace.
- 15 What then?
shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under
grace? God forbid.
- 16 Know ye not,
that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to
obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin
unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness?
- 17 But God be
thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine
which was delivered you.
- 18 Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness.
- 19 I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh:
for as ye have yielded your members servants to
uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now
yield your members servants to righteousness
unto holiness.
- 20 For when ye
were the servants of sin, ye were free from
righteousness.
- 21 What
fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are
now ashamed? for the end of those things is
death.
- 22 But now being
made free
from sin,
and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.
- 23 For the
wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
|
This then is what it is to be born again of water and
of the Spirit,
the being
made
dead being effected
in the water,
while our life is wrought in us through the
Spirit.
In three immersions, then, and
with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to
the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the
tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls
enlightened. [Note: when
triune baptism was begun it was to conform to
the "baptismal formulation" of "in the name of the Father, Son and
Spirit.]
It follows that
if there is any grace in the water,
it is not of the nature
of the water,
but of the presence of the Spirit.
Jesus said:
It is the spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:63
The Pharisees and doctors of
the Law did not experience the remission of sins in John's baptism
because they rejected that Word:
And all the people
that heard
him, and the publicans, justified (show regard for) God, being baptized with the baptism of
John. Luke 7:29
But the Pharisees
and lawyers rejected the
counsel (will) of God
against [for] themselves, being not
baptized of him. Luke 7:30
Paul understood of the
church
Therefore as the
church is subject unto
Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Ephesians 5:24
Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Ephesians 5:25
That he might
sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing
of water by the
word, Ephesians 5:26
Or:
Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
us, by the washing of
regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:5
There simply is no washing of
regeneration without God renewing His Spirit which is dispensed by
His Word which is Spirit and Life. The word for this washing which
brings regeneration is:
Loutron
(g3067) loo-tron'; from 3068; a bath, i.e. (fig.) baptism: - washing.
Louo
(g3068) loo'-o; a prim. verb; to bathe the whole person;
And he took them
the same hour of the night, and washed
their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. Ac.16:33
Christ washes away whatever
filth lives in the heart which has been accumulated and causing us to
fall away from original virtue. However, this power is connected to
the Word as Christ's power of Spirit and Life when we have the entire
body overwhelmed with water. Why? Because we don't know the extent of
our sin and therefore the symbol is of our complete death so that we
"permit" Christ to decide the extent of our washing.
Baptizo
(g907) bap-tid'-zo; from a der. of 911; to make whelmed (i.e. fully wet); used only (in the N.T.) of
ceremonial ablution, espec. (techn.) of the ordinance of
Chr.
baptism: - baptist,
baptize, wash.
Baptism is what is done to the
external body at the same time that Christ is washing our conscience
and cleansing us.
Ongoing purification of the
soul is not possible unless it is through obeying the Truth through
the Spirit:
Who by him do
believe in
God, that raised him up
from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 1 Peter 1:21
Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye
love one another with a pure heart fervently: 1 Peter 1:22
Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of
God, which liveth and
abideth for ever. 1 Peter 1:23
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 1
Peter 1:24
But the word of the
Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter 1:25
This purifying Word is a vital
part of the gospel message.
Paul connects baptism to the
Flood by showing that the world died because they rejected the counsel of
God just as the Jews
did in refusing to honor the Spirit by honoring His Word:
Which sometime
were
disobedient, when once
the longsuffering of God waited
(looked for expectantly) in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 1 Peter 3:20
Paul did not call baptism a
symbol but the figure or antitype means "corresponding to" -
And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an
appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter
3:21
Being in Christ which also
means to be in His Body the church is like being in the ark. However,
as they were saved in a physical sense, Christ saves our eternal soul
by cleansing it so that it can immediately be translated into His own
kingdom.
Using the symbol of the
external blood, when our body is washed (baptized) in water, Paul
said that God sprinkles our heart from an evil conscience:
Let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil (degeneracy from original virtue) conscience, and our bodies washed
(g3068 louo)
with pure water. Hebrews 10:22
Martin Luther and the Word:
Comprehend the difference,
then, that Baptism is quite another thing than all other water; not
on account of the natural quality,
but because
something more noble is
here added;
for God Himself stakes His honor His power
and might
on it. Therefore it is not only natural water, but a divine,
heavenly, holy, and blessed water, and in whatever other terms we can praise it, --
all on account of
the Word, which is a heavenly, holy Word, that no one can sufficiently extol, for it has, and
is able to do, all that God is and
can do [since it has all the virtue and power
of God comprised in it].
Hence also it derives its
essence as a Sacrament, as St. Augustine also taught: Aocedat verbum
ad elementum et fit sacramentum. That is, when the Word is joined to the element
or natural substance, it becomes a Sacrament, that is, a holy and
divine matter and sign.
For baptism is "not the putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
towards God."
So in training us
for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out all
the manner of life required by the Gospel,
laying down for us
the law of gentleness, of endurance of wrong,
of freedom from the defilement
that comes of the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end
that we may of set purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the
life to come of its inherent nature possesses.
If therefore any one in
attempting a definition were to describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection, he
would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right.
Let us now return to our main
topic.
36. Through the Holy Spirit
comes
- our restoration to
paradise,
- our ascension into the
kingdom of heaven,
- our return to the adoption
of sons,
- our liberty to call God our
Father,
- our being made partakers of
the grace of Christ,
- our being called children
of light,
- our sharing in eternal
glory,
and, in a word, our being
brought into a
state of all
"fulness of blessing," both in this world and in the world to
come, of all the good
gifts that are in
store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as
though they were already present, we await the full
enjoyment.
If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment?
Furthermore, from this too may
be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the
Spirit and the baptism
by water:
in that John indeed
baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. "I
indeed," he says, "baptize you with water unto repentance; but he
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear:
he shall baptize you with the
Holy
Ghost and with
fire."
Here He calls the
trial at the
judgment the
baptism of
fire, as the apostle
says, "The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." And
again, "The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by
fire."
In First Corinthians 2 Paul
makes it clear that the Holy Spirit to us is "the Mind of Christ."
One body can have only one Mind or Spirit. Therefore, when we are
baptized in water we are also enfolded or immersed into the body of
Christ under the direction of the One Spirit.
For as the body is
one, and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12
For by
one
Spirit are we all
baptized into one
body, whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made
to drink
into one
Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
God has always put His creative
power in His Word: He speaks and it comes about. Therefore, Basil
notes the intimate connection between the power of the Word unleashed
in baptism because in this enactment of "the gospel" we justify God
and do not therefore rejecte His counsel for our lives. The result
ins that we are part of the one Body under the direction of the One
Spirit.
Only let your
conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I
come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your
affairs, that ye stand fast in one
spirit, with
one mind striving together for the faith of the
gospel; Ph.1:27
And ere now there have been
some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the
death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact,
and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their
salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood.
Thus I write not to
disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments of
those who exalt
themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one
another, and compare those which admit of no comparison.
Baptism
Index
Basil
the Great (329-379)
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