Baptism as Regeneration
(Including the Forgiveness of Sins)
Irenaeus can describe the effect
of baptism also as the forgiveness of sins and regeneration to new life and, together with a description of baptism as
a ‘seal’, these are also the main designations he uses. The latter of the two effects of baptism
appears to be the overarching one, as the forgiveness of sins is part of the
regeneration to a new life, as becomes clear, for example, from fragment 34 of
the lost works of Irenaeus, where Naaman’s ‘baptism’ in the Jordan is
interpreted along these lines. The new life or new birth received at baptism
can be seen as the counterpart to the ‘Adamic birth,’ made possible through
Christ, the new Adam. Irenaeus
understands this rebirth in terms of becoming a child of God (see D 3) and
considers it to be the work of the creative Word of God: the Son of God makes human
beings into children of God. 32 In its fullness, however, baptismal regeneration
consists of being born into (εἰς) the Father, through (διά) the Son in (ἐν) the
Holy Spirit (D 7), as part of a Trinitarian economy of salvation. 33 In this
way, the faithful once more come to occupy their place as creatures of God,
regaining the image of God.
In fact, it can well be said that
Irenaeus integrates his view of baptism fully into his soteriological paradigm
of the recapitulation (see e.g. AH 4.33:4, 5.1:3, D 33), which
encompasses both the past as well as the future destination of humankind/creation.
The forgiveness of sins is not only an integral part of Christ’s salvific work
as such, but it also becomes a reality for the individual believer through the
gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism, which is in itself the beginning of the
‘re-creation’ of a person (see AH 3.17:1-2, 5.12:2). The rebirth of the
faithful at baptism gives them back both the imago and the similitudo
Dei, which had been lost because of the fall (see AH 5.6:1, cf. 3.23:1-5,
3.18:2). (Peter-Ben Smit, “The Reception of the Truth at Baptism and the Church
as Epistemological Principle in the Work of Irenaeus of Lyons,” Ecclesiology
7 [2011]: 362-63)
Being Marked with the Image of
Christ
As has just been shown, for
Irenaeus baptism with water and baptism in the Spirit are the two components of
the process of regeneration taking place at baptism as a whole. Of these
components, one particular aspect of the Spirit’s work in baptism needs some
further attention at this point, as the way in which the Spirit’s action is
described may well have a bearing on the way Irenaeus views the reception of
the rule of truth at baptism. In AH 3.17:3, Irenaeus describes the effect of
the baptism by the Spirit as follows:
Quapropter necessarius nobis est
ros Dei ut non comburamur neque infructuosi effi ciamur, et ubi accusatorem
habemus illic habeamus et Paraclitum, commendante domino Spiritui sancto suum
hominem qui inciderat in latrones, cui misertus est et ligavit vulnera eius,
dans duo denaria regalia ut, per Spiritum ‘imaginem et inscriptionem’ patris et
fi lii accipientes, fructifi cemus creditum nobis denarium, multiplicatum
domino adnumerantes. (AH 3.17:3)
Whereas Houssiau is right in
pointing out that this imagery is not the same as that of the sealing with the
Spirit (the notion of the seal is simply absent here), the reference to receiving by the Spirit the
image and the superscription of the Son (i.e. as if on a coin), certainly bears
some resemblance to the concept of being sealed with the faith (see D 3, 100,
cf. 25). The ways in which both images are used both involve reception, change
in ‘image,’ and in both cases the same three items are involved in either the
sealing or the giving of the coin: the three main points of the faith, Father,
Son and Spirit. It is therefore plausible to suggest that receiving the seal of
faith or the image and superscription of Father and Son as if on a coin should
be seen as referring to the reception of the rule of truth/the faith as
outlined above: being illuminated by receiving the true ‘first principles’ or
‘hypothesis’, and thus being restored to the image of Christ. (Peter-Ben Smit, “The
Reception of the Truth at Baptism and the Church as Epistemological Principle
in the Work of Irenaeus of Lyons,” Ecclesiology 7 [2011]: 366-67)