In his
"On the Baptism of Christ," Gregory of Nyssa (335-394) wrote the
following affirming baptismal regeneration (cf. Titus 3:3-5; John 3:3-5):
Baptism, then, is a purification from sins, a
remission of trespasses, a cause of renovation and regeneration. By
regeneration, understand regeneration conceived in thought, not discerned by
bodily sight. For we shall not, according to the Jew Nicodemus and his somewhat
dull intelligence, change the old man into a child, nor shall we form anew him
who is wrinkled and gray-headed to tenderness and youth, if we bring back the
man again into his mother's womb: but we do bring back, by royal grace, him who
bears the scars of sin, and has grown old in evil habits, to the innocence of
the babe. For as the child new-born is free from accusations and from
penalties, so too the child of regeneration has nothing for which to answer,
being released by royal bounty from accountability. And this gift it is not the
water that bestows (for in that case it were a thing more exalted than all
creation), but the command of God, and the visitation of the Spirit that comes
sacramentally to set us free. But water serves to express the cleansing. For
since we are wont by washing in water to render our body clean when it is
soiled by dirt or mud, we therefore apply it also in the sacramental action,
and display the spiritual brightness by that which is subject to our senses.
Let us however, if it seems well, persevere in enquiring more fully and more
minutely concerning Baptism, starting, as from the fountain-head, from the
Scriptural declaration, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Why are both named, and why is
not the Spirit alone accounted sufficient for the completion of Baptism? Man,
as we know full well, is compound, not simple: and therefore the cognate and
similar medicines are assigned for healing to him who is twofold and
conglomerate:--for his visible body, water, the sensible element,--for his
soul, which we cannot see, the Spirit invisible, invoked by faith, present
unspeakably. For "the Spirit breathes where He wills, and thou hearest His
voice, but canst not tell whence He cometh or whither He goeth." He
blesses the body that is baptized, and the water that baptizes. Despise not,
therefore, the Divine laver, nor think lightly of it, as a common thing, on
account of the use of water. For the power that operates is mighty, and
wonderful are the things that are wrought thereby. (NPNF2, 5:514)
Refuting Douglas Wilson on Water Baptism and Salvation
Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries
