ACC ~ John 3 v6

CHILDREN AND BAPTISM

AUGUSTINE: “But why,” they ask, “does a baptized believer, whose sin has already been forgiven, beget a child who is still burdened with the first person’s sin?” Because he begets him from the flesh, not from the spirit. “What is born of the flesh is flesh.” “And if the outer self,” says the apostle, “is decaying, yet the inner self is being renewed from day to day.” [1] It is not from what is being renewed in you that you beget a child. You beget a child from what is decaying in you. You, in order not to die forever, were born and reborn. This child is already born, not yet reborn. If you are alive as a result of being reborn, allow it too to be reborn and live…. Why oppose this? Why try to smash the ancient rule of faith with new objections? After all, what is this that you are saying: “Little children don’t have even original sin in the least degree”? What does this that you say amount to, but that they should not come to Jesus? But Jesus cries out to you, “Let the little children come to me.” [2] SERMON 174.9. [3]

[1] 2 Cor 4:16.

[2] Mk 10:14.

[3] WSA 3 5:262-63. Augustine here enunciates the doctrine of original sin, which states that Adam’s sin and its curse is passed on to his descendants generation after generation at birth. There is little evidence among the Greek fathers, however, that they held any notion of inherited guilt or transmitted sin. See the Theodoret quote which follows. See also Augustine On the Baptism of Infants 1.58 (NPNF 1 5:37-38).

MYSTERY OF BAPTISM NOT LIMITED TO FORGIVENESS

THEODORET OF CYR: If the only meaning of baptism were remission of sins, why would we baptize newborn children who have not yet tasted of sin? But the mystery of baptism is not limited to this. It is a promise of greater and more perfect gifts. In it are the promises of future delights. It is the type of the future resurrection, a communion with the master’s Passion, a participation in his resurrection, a mantle of salvation, a tunic of gladness, a garment of light, or rather it is light itself. COMPENDIUM OF HERETICAL MYTHS 5.18. [1]

[1] PG 83:512. The translation is taken from John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology (Fordham University Press: New York, 1974), 194, to which the reader is directed for further comment on this passage from the Eastern Father’s perspective.

FLESH IS DEATH, BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE

GREGORY OF NYSSA: We know too that the flesh is subject to death because of sin, but the Spirit of God is both incorruptible and life-giving and beyond death. As at our physical birth there comes into the world with us a potentiality of being again turned to dust, plainly the Spirit also imparts a life-giving potentiality to the children begotten by himself. What lesson, then, do we learn from this? We learn that we should wean ourselves from this life in the flesh, which has an inevitable follower, death; and that we should search for a way of life that does not bring death along with it. ON VIRGINITY 13. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 5:359**.

THE SPIRIT DOES GOD’S WORK OF BEGETTING

CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the dignity of the Spirit? It appears performing the work of God. For above he said that some “were begotten of God.” [1] Here he says that the Spirit begets them. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He means, “The one that is born [2] of the Spirit is spiritual.” For the birth of which he speaks here is not that according to essence [3] but according to honor and grace. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 26.1. [4]

[1] Jn 1:13.

[2] Or”begotten.”

[3] Gk ousian.

[4] NPNF 1 14:91**.

CHRIST TRANSFORMS US INTO SPIRITUAL BEINGS

AMMONIUS: As God the Father is Spirit and as God the Son is Spirit, therefore our God and Father begets by the Spirit the one who is Son and God. Therefore Christ is of one substance with the Father according to his divine nature and of one substance with his mother according to his flesh. The one and the same Christ is from both, unchangeably and without confusion [of the two natures]. But according to what is now canonically held concerning the Logos of the Lord, our minds too are then to be transformed by Christ to be completely conformed to that which is spiritual. FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 75. [1]

[1] JKGK 216.

JESUS SPEAKS OF SPIRITUAL GENERATION

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He means that the work of generating is necessarily similar to the nature of the generator: when flesh generates flesh, necessarily the generation is bodily. When the spirit is the generator, it is necessary that we understand the generation as incorporeal and spiritual. Through this he also demonstrates that the water, which he united to the Spirit, does not operate with him but is mentioned as a symbol and for a [visible] use. Therefore he did not add “what is born of water” but only says “what is born of the Spirit” by clearly attributing the work of generating to the Spirit. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.3.6. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:68.

CHRIST WAS BORN OF SPIRIT AND FLESH

TERTULLIAN: The Lord himself axiomatically and distinctly pronounced, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” because it is born from the flesh. But if he here spoke simply of a human being and not of himself, then you must deny absolutely that Christ is man and must maintain that human nature was not suitable to him. And then he adds, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” because God is a Spirit, and he was born of God. Now this description is certainly even more applicable to him than it is to those who believe in him. But if this passage indeed applies to him, then why does not the preceding one also? For you cannot divide their relation and adapt this to him and the previous clause to all other people, especially as you do not deny that Christ possesses the two substances, both of the flesh and of the Spirit. Besides, as he was in possession both of flesh and of Spirit, he cannot possibly—when speaking of the condition of the two substances that he himself bears—be supposed to have determined that the Spirit indeed was his own but that the flesh was not his own. Forasmuch, therefore, as he is of the Spirit, he is God the Spirit and is born of God; just as he is also born of the flesh of man, being generated in the flesh as man. ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST 18.5-7. [1]

[1] CCL 2:906-7; ANF 3:537. See also Against Praxeas 27.

Jn