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(the birth) ‘of the Spirit’ is potentially united with being born (the birth) ‘of water.’ The general inseparability of these two is indicated (in John 3:5) by the form of the expression ‘born of water and Spirit’ ( ejx u{dato" kai; pneuvmato" ) as distinguished from the double phrase ‘born of water and of Spirit’ ( kai; ejk pneuvmato" ).

With the dia; loutrou' paliggenesiva" of Tit. 3:5 may be compared tw'/ loutrw'/ tou' u{dato" of Eph. 5:26. Here the initiatory sacrament of Baptism is the hallowing of the Bride. In this she is at once cleansed and hallowed ( i{na aujth;n aJgiavsh/ kaqarivsa" ). The actions are coincident.

To the Corinthians St Paul had written (1 Cor. 6:11): ‘But ye were washed ( ajpelouvsasqe ), but ye were sanctified ( hJgiavsqhte ), but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God’; and (12:13) ‘For in one Spirit we all were baptized into one Body.’

And to the Romans (Rom. 6:3): ‘all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him through our Baptism ( dia; tou' baptivsmato" ) into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might also walk in newness of life.’

In the Epistle to the Colossians these ‘two complementary aspects of baptism’ (Lightfoot ad loc. ) appear in the passage Col. 2:18 (parallel to Eph. 2:45): ‘being buried with Him ( suntafevnte" aujtw'/ ) in the act of baptism ( ejn tw'/ baptismw'/ ), in Whom also ye were raised together with Him ( sunhgevrqhte ) through your faith in the operation (the working) of God, Who raised Him from the dead and quickened together with Him you, that were dead by reason of your transgressions’ [ v. Lightfoot's note].

Here in the Epistle to the Ephesians St Paul (at Eph. 4:4-6) lays open a view of the unity of the whole Christian Society in its objective foundation: and while ( a ) its unity is established by the acknowledgment of one Lord : and ( b ) in proclaiming that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ it confesses one Faith : ( c ) it is entered by one Baptism. [Cf. 1 Cor. 12:13.]

And of this ‘material act’ that confession ( rJh'ma ) is the spiritual accompaniment, a Confession involved in, and implying the acceptance of, the Baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19) ‘Into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’

The ‘teaching of baptisms’ ( baptismw'n didach;n ) of Heb. 6:2, where the plural and the peculiar form seem used to include Christian Baptism and other lustral rites, would naturally be directed to shew their essential difference. And the ‘different washings’ ( diafovroi" baptismoi'" ) to which reference is made in the same Epistle (9:10) as accompaniments of the Levitical offerings (cf. Ex. 29:4, Lev. 11:25 ff., 16:4, 24 f., Num. 8:7, 19:17) recall the ‘washings, or baptizings, of cups and pots and brazen vessels’ ( baptismou;" pothrivwn kai; xestw'n kai; calkivwn ) and other ceremonial lustrations ( k. ajpj ajgora'" eja;n mh; rJantivswntai v. l. baptivswntai oujk ejsqivousin ) of Mark 7:4 [ v. Swete ad loc. ].

The outward rite draws its virtue from the action of the Spirit. [Cf. 1 Pet. 3:21: dij u{dato": o} kai; uJma'" ajntivtupon nu'n swvzei bavptisma, ouj sarko;" ajpovqesi" rJuvpou ajlla; suneidhvsew" ajgaqh'" ejperwvthma eij" qeovn, dij ajnastavsew" jIhsou' Cristou' .]

On ‘Sin’ in the Pauline Epistles.

Apostolic writers distinguish clearly between ‘sin,’ the principle, and ‘sins,’


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