Views on Baptism John Chrysostom (329-389 ad)

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Commentary on Galatians, Gal 3:25-27
Paul says, "But after faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God." Wonderful! See how mighty is the power of Faith, and how he explains as he proceeds! Before, he showed that it made them sons of [Abraham], "Know therefore," he says, "that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." Now he proves that they are sons of God also, "For you are all sons of God through faith, which is in Christ Jesus;" by Faith, not by the Law. Then, when he has said this great and wonderful thing, he names also THE METHOD OF THEIR ADOPTION,

Ver. 27. "For as many of you as were BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST, did put on Christ."

Why does he not say: "For as many of you as have BEEN BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST, have been BORN OF GOD?" This was what directly proved that they were sons--because he states it in a much stronger point of view: If Christ be the Son of God, and if you have put on Him [by baptism], you who have the Son within you and are fashioned after His pattern, have been brought into one family and nature with Him.

So, according to John Chrysostom, what is THE METHOD of our becoming sons of God? By being baptized into the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and "putting Him on".

Homilies on Ephesians
Homily 11, Eph 4:4-7
There is "one Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM." Behold "the hope of your calling. One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all." For can it be, that YOU are called by THE NAME of a greater God, another of a lesser God? That YOU are saved by faith, and another by works? That YOU have received REMISSION IN BAPTISM, while another has not? "There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all."

Just as there is only ONE God and Lord, so too there is only ONE way to be saved and have our sins removed: by faith AND BAPTISM (which is NOT a work of the Law)!

Homily 7, Acts 2:37 [preaching against those who delay being baptized]
"What shall we do?" Here again Peter...is the man to answer. "Repent," says he, "and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ." (v. 38) He does not yet say, Believe, but, "Be BAPTIZED every one of you." For this they RECEIVED IN BAPTISM. Then he speaks of the GAIN; "for THE REMISSION OF SINS, and you shall receive the GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST." If you are to receive a gift, if BAPTISM CONVEYS REMISSION, why delay? He next gives a persuasive turn to his address, adding, "For the PROMISE is to you" (v. 39): for he had spoken of a promise above.

John points out that, since there are such great benefits to be received in baptism, there can be no rational reason to delay being baptized. Similarly, against those who maintain that there are NO BENEFITS gained in baptism, what rational reason could Jesus have to command us to do that which DOES NOTHING? What further rational reason could ALL the Church Fathers for 1600 years, have had for teaching that there WERE benefits received in baptism, as a result of promises God had attached to it?

Those men [who heard Peter preach] condemned themselves, despaired of saving themselves. They knew what a gift they had received. But how can YOU become like THEM, when you do everything in an opposite spirit? They heard, and were immediately baptized. They did not speak those cold words which we do now, nor did they contrive [reasons for] delays, and yet they had heard all the requirements, that word, "Save yourselves from this generation," made them to be not-sluggish;

Homily 11. Romans 6:5
[Paul] says there are two mortifyings, and two deaths, and that one is done by Christ IN BAPTISM, and the other is our duty to accomplish by earnest effort afterwards. For the BURIAL OF OUR FORMER SINS came as His gift. But the remainder, dead to sin after baptism, must be the work of our own earnest effort, no matter how much we find God here also giving us great help. For this is not the only thing BAPTISM HAS THE POWER TO DO: to obliterate our former transgressions; for it ALSO secures [forgiveness] against sins committed afterward. As in the case of the former sins, YOUR contribution was FAITH that they might be obliterated,

as His Body, by being buried in the earth, brought forth as the fruit of it, the salvation of the world; thus ours also, being buried IN BAPTISM, BORE as FRUIT, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANCTIFICATION, ADOPTION, COUNTLESS BLESSINGS. And it will bear also hereafter the gift of the resurrection. ...we were BURIED IN WATER, He in earth, and we IN REGARD TO SIN, He in regard to His Body...

Ver. 6:7
"For he that is dead is freed from sin." This he says of every man, that as he that is dead is from that moment freed from sinning, lying as a dead body, so must he that has come up from BAPTISM, since HE HAS DIED THERE once for all, remain ever dead to sin. If then YOU HAVE DIED IN BAPTISM, remain dead,

ver. 18
"Mortify your members which are upon the earth." (Col. 3:5.) the cause of this...TAKES PLACE IN BAPTISM. "For our old man," he says, "has been crucified" [This has been done] BY BAPTISM. How then comes it that you have disgraced so great a gift, and have become one thing instead of another? I have killed and BURIED your FORMER TRANSGRESSIONS,

John says that not only are our sins forgiven in baptism, but that we even die to sin in the watery baptismal grave, and there also, crucify our old man.

Homily 25, John 3:5
What [Jesus] declares is this: "You say that [to be born of water] is impossible, I say that it is so ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE as to be NECESSARY, and that it is NOT even POSSIBLE otherwise TO BE SAVED."

Hear you, as many as are unILLUMINATED, shudder and groan; fearful is the THREAT, fearful the sentence. "IT IS NOT (POSSIBLE)," He says, "for one NOT born of water and the Spirit, to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven"; because he wears the raiment OF DEATH, OF CURSING, OF PERDITION, he has NOT YET RECEIVED his Lord's token, he is a stranger and a foreigner, he HAS NOT the royal watchword. "Except a man be BORN OF WATER and of the Spirit, he can NOT enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

The term "ILLUMINATION" was frequently used by the Fathers as a synonym for baptism as well as a description of one of the gifts they believed was received in baptism. Chrysostom has more comments on this in the quotes below. Note his interpretation of Jesus' words to Nicodemus as referring to baptism, just like those who came before him.

Baptism...what is EFFECTED is A GENERATION. If any ask, "Why is WATER included?" let us also ask in return, "Why was earth employed at the beginning in the creation of man?"

That THE NEED OF WATER is ABSOLUTE AND INDISPENSABLE, you may learn in this way. On one occasion, when the Spirit had flown down before the water was applied (Acts 10:47), the Apostle did not stop at this point, but, as though the water were NECESSARY...observe what he says; "Can any man forbid WATER, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?"

This should forever silence those who believe the baptism of the Spirit or being "born of the Spirit" is the most important thing and all that is really necessary. If not, we need only remember Jesus' words to Nicodemus: "born of WATER AND OF SPIRIT."

IN BAPTISM are fulfilled the pledges of our covenant with God; burial and death, resurrection and life; and these take place ALL AT ONCE. For when we immerse our heads in the WATER, the OLD MAN IS BURIED as in a tomb below, and wholly sunk forever; then as we raise them again, the NEW MAN rises in its stead. As it is easy for us TO DIP and to lift our heads again, so it is easy for God to bury the old man, and to show forth the new. And this is done three times, that you may learn that the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost fulfills all this. To show that what we say is no conjecture, hear Paul saying, "We are BURIED with Him BY BAPTISM into death": and again, "Our OLD MAN is CRUCIFIED WITH HIM": and again, "We have been planted together in the likeness of His death." (Rom. 6:4,5,6) And not only is BAPTISM CALLED A "CROSS," but the "cross" is called "baptism": "With the baptism," says Christ, "that I am baptized with shall you be baptized" (Mark 10:39), and "I have a baptism to be baptized with" (Luke 12:50) (which you know not); for as we easily dip and lift our heads again, so He also easily died and rose again...

Homily 26, John 3:6
The WATER is employed, being made THE BIRTH to him who is BORN; what the womb is to the embryo, the WATER is to the BELIEVER; for in the water HE IS FASHIONED AND FORMED. At first it was said, "Let the waters bring forth the creeping things that have life" (Gen. 1:20, LXX); but from the time that the Lord entered the streams of Jordan, THE WATER no longer GIVES FORTH the "creeping thing that has life," but REASONABLE AND SPIRIT-BEARING SOULS; and what has been said of the sun, that he is "as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. 18:6), we may now rather say of the faithful, for they send forth light far brighter than the sun. That which is fashioned in the womb requires time, not so that IN WATER, but all is done IN A SINGLE MOMENT.

If "born of water" is to be understood as referring to the mother's birth-water which is spilled prior to the baby coming forth (as some today so understand Jesus' words), where did John and so many other Fathers, including Augustine, Luther, and Wesley, get the idea Jesus was talking about baptism? It is clear from John's comparison above, that today's modern interpretation cannot fit the analogy.

Treatise on the Priesthood, Book 3.6
the BIRTH which comes THROUGH BAPTISM: by their means we (1) PUT ON CHRIST, and (2) ARE BURIED WITH THE SON OF GOD, and (3) BECOME MEMBERS of that blessed Head.

Instructions to Catechumens
First Instruction
To those ABOUT TO BE ILLUMINATED; explaining why THE LAVER is said to be of REGENERATION

2. ...what baptism is, and why it enters into our life, and what good things IT CONVEYS TO US.

But let us discuss the name which this mystic cleansing bears: for its name is not one, but very many and various. For THIS PURIFICATION is called the LAVER OF REGENERATION. "He saved us through the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." It is called also ILLUMINATION, and this St. Paul again has called it, "For call to remembrance the former days in which, after you were ILLUMINATED, you endured a great conflict of sufferings;" and again, "For it is impossible for those who were once ILLUMINATED, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and then fallen away, to renew them again to repentance." (Heb 6) It is called also, BAPTISM: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ." (Gal 3:27) It is called also BURIAL: "For we were buried" said he, "with him, through baptism, into death." (Rom 6) It is called CIRCUMCISION: "In whom you were also circumcised, with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh." It is called a CROSS: "Our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away."

These terms describing the RESULTS of being baptized are pretty definitive for a sacrament that is supposed to be merely a ceremony which only serves as a witness!

3. if a person be full of all the wickedness there is among men: if he should fall into this POOL OF WATERS, he comes up again from THE DIVINE FOUNTAIN, PURER than the sun's rays. And in order that you may not think that what is said is mere vain boasting, hear Paul speaking of THE POWER OF THE LAVER, "Be not deceived: neither idolators, nor fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor covetous, not drunkards, not revilers, not extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God."

Hear therefore what follows: "And such were some of you, but you were WASHED, but you were SANCTIFIED, but you were JUSTIFIED in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." We promise to show you that they who approach the LAVER become CLEAN from all fornication: but the word has shown more, that they have become not only CLEAN, but both HOLY AND JUST, for it does not say only, "you were WASHED," but also "you were SANCTIFIED and were JUSTIFIED."

But if all these changes were accomplished solely by God's grace through our faith alone at the instant we believed (as Evangelicals proclaim), why does John think that they do NOT occur except in baptism???

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