Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-254) wrote the following:
But the law of faith suffices for
righteousness, even if we have done nothing, can be demonstrated from the
robber crucified with Jesus and the sinful woman in Luke. . . .For it was not
from any work but from her faith that her sins were forgiven her; and she heard
the words: "Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (Lk 7:50). But
that unrighteousness committed after coming to true knowledge destroys the
faith of the one justified, Paul will show quite clearly. I also think that the
works done before faith, even if they seem to be correct, do not justify the
one doing them because they are not built upon the proper foundation of faith.
(Fragment of Commentary on Romans, in Origen, Spirit and Fire,
ed. Hans Urs von Balthasar [trans. Robert J. Daly; Washington, D.C.: Catholic
University of America Press, 1984), no. 487, p. 198)
Notwithstanding his use of “sola fide” like language, Origen
clearly was not a “proto-Protestant” (cf. the “word concept fallacy” all too
common in Protestant approaches to the patristics), as he believed that one
could lose their justification. Furthermore, he also explicitly taught
baptismal regeneration elsewhere in his commentary on Romans (showing that he
did not believe baptism to be a human work):
"You were cast out on the
open field because of the depravity of your soul on the day you were born"
(Ezek 16:5). Can anyone already have a depraved soul on the very day of birth?
He is really describing our passions and human vices and customary depravities.
. . . If, after the rebirth of baptism, after receiving the word of God, we sin
again, on that day on which we are born, we are cast out (cf. Ezek 16:5). All
too often we find people who have been washed in the baptism of the second
birth and do not "bear fruits that befit repentance" (Lk 3:8) nor
rejoice in the mystery of baptism with a greater fear of God than they had when
they were catechumens, nor with a fuller love than they practiced when they
were only hearers of the word, nor with holier deeds than they did before.
These will suffer the kind of fate spoken of here: "You were cast out on
the open field because of the depravity of your soul on the day you were
born" (Ezek 16:5). (Ibid., no. 406a, p. 162)
Indeed he comes to this rebirth
only through the "washing of regeneration." If you want to understand
that washing, consider how John, baptizing "with water for
repentance," said of the Savior: "He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire" (Mt 3:11). Thus in the rebirth through the washing
(Tit 3:5), we have been buried with Christ: "For we were buried with
him," according to the Apostle, "by baptism" (Rom 6:4). IN the
rebirth of washing through fire and the spirit we become "like unto the
glorious body" of Christ (Phil 3:21), . . . if "we have left everything
and followed" Christ (Mt 19:27). (Ibid., no. 984 p. 353)
986 Hear how the Savior explains
in two places the meanings of "fire" and "sword." In one
place he says: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Mt
10:34). But in another place: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and
would that it were already kindled" (Lk 12:49). Thus the Savior beings
both "sword" and "fire" and baptizes you "in
sword" and "in fire." For those who have not been healed by the
baptism of the Holy Spirit he baptizes "with fire". . . . These are
divine sacraments [mysteries] which transcend human words and are known to God
alone. But they consist more in the conferring of graces than in different
kinds of torments.
987 Just as John stood by the
Jordan waiting for those who came for baptism, some of whom he sent away with
the words: "You brood of vipers," but the rest, who confessed their
sins and vices, he accepted, so too will the Lord Jesus Christ stand in the
river of fire by the "flaming sword"; and all those who, after
departing this life, want to cross over into paradise but need purification, he
will baptize them in this stream and bring them across to what they desire. But
they who do not bear the sign of the prior baptisms, he will not baptize in
this washing with fire. For it is necessary first to be baptized "with
water and the Spirit" (Jn 3:5) so that, when arriving at the river of
fire, one can show that one has undergone the washings of water and the Spirit
and so is worthy also to receive the baptism of fire in Christ Jesus. (Ibid.,
nos. 986-87, p. 354)
