Baptism & Born Again
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon
the
dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing
upon thine offspring.
Isaiah 44, 3
[H]e saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness,
but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through
Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus 3, 5-6
Since ancient times, Catholics have rightly understood that the expression “born again” refers to water baptism. What Catholics mean by being born again is the interior transformation that is achieved upon being baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. It means much more than affirming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior who died for our sins and consciously deciding to accept Christ in our hearts and be his disciple. Being born again means much more than believing in who Jesus is and what he has accomplished for those who do believe in him. The expression, in fact, is the mental equivalent of “regeneration.”
Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us “holy and without blemish,” just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is “holy and without blemish.” Nevertheless, the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of the Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.
{Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1426}
Regeneration
(being “born again”) is the transformation from death to life that occurs in
our souls when we first come to God and are justified through the sacrament. He
washes us clean of our sins and gives us a new nature, breaking the power of
sin over us so that we will no longer be its slaves but its enemies, who must
combat it as part of the Christian life and our baptismal commitment (cf. Rom.
6:1–22; Eph. 6:11–17).
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Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…
Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3, 3- 5
In the conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus, our Lord says to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3). The Greek phrase often translated as “born again” (γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν or gennatha anothen in the English transliteration) also occurs in V.7 in which Jesus says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The Greek word anothen sometimes can be translated “again,” but in the New Testament, it most often means “from above” or “from heaven.” In the King James Version, which I am using, the only two times it is translated “again” are in John 3:3 and 3:7. Every other time it is given a different rendering. However, we have our mental equivalent in Vv.5-6, in which Jesus says, ““Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Now, in V.3, our Lord declares that one must be “born again” to enter the kingdom of God, while in V.5 he reiterates more clearly that one must be “born of water and spirit” to enter the kingdom of God. Thus, the expression “born again” refers to the Sacrament of Baptism in water and Spirit which is salvific. One who is born or reborn “of Spirit” is born “from above” or “from heaven.” Jesus does say on another occasion, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mk 16:16). One cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless they are saved, and this requires not only belief in Jesus but also the sacrament of initiation that washes away the stain of original sin and marks a new life in the Spirit.
St. Paul describes the Sacrament of Baptism as a “washing of regeneration” that is “poured out on us” with reference to water baptism. The original Greek verb for “washing” is loutron (λουτρόν) which generally refers to a ritual washing of purification (Titus 3:5-6). Paul also wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3–4). Baptism unites us with Christ’s death and resurrection so that we might die to sin and receive new life.
In
Colossians 2:11–13, he tells us, “In [Christ] you were also circumcised, in the
putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of
men but with the circumcision [of] Christ, having been buried with him in
baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God.” These NT
passages evoke the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus: “That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Being born again
is a movement from being a child of Adam to a child of God.
Soon
after Paul had converted, he was told, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be
baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). The
“washing away” refers to water baptism. Ananias’ phrase “wash away” comes from
the Greek word apolouo (ἀπολούω). Apolouo means an actual
cleansing that removes sin. It is not a symbolic covering up of sin. Paul’s
faith in Jesus wasn’t enough to save him. He also had to be baptized to have
his sins forgiven or “blotted out” and to receive the Holy Spirit who justifies
us in our collaboration with Him. So, baptism is necessary for our salvation
and isn’t merely a symbolic ritual that serves as a testimony of faith. In fact, Paul says we are “washed,
sanctified, and justified” in the name of the Lord Jesus in reference to water
baptism. The “washing” of baptism gives birth to sanctification and
justification, which proves baptism is not just symbolic (1 Cor 6:11).
In Acts
2:38, Peter tells us, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). We must not only repent but also be baptized
for the forgiveness of sin so that we receive the graces and gifts of the Holy
Spirit for a new life with God. Simply believing in Jesus and accepting him as
our personal Lord and Savior won’t regenerate us. We are saved by grace through
faith (Eph 2:8). Jesus suffered and died to expiate sin, but he also merited
for us the dispensation of divine grace. We aren’t saved by faith alone.
Indeed,
there are many passages in the Old Testament that foreshadow the regenerative
power of baptism by water and the Holy Spirit. For instance, Naaman took seven
dips in the Jordan and, as a result, his flesh was restored like that of a
child (2 Kings 5:14). Being born again is a restorative experience of the heart
and mind of the human soul through the power of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah
prophesies the time is coming when the Lord pours out His water and His Spirit
which refers to the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism by Christ our Lord.
Water and Spirit are always joined in the Scriptures. We are cleansed and
regenerated by the Holy Spirit who moves through the water. Ezekiel (36:25-27)
concurs that the Lord will sprinkle us with water to cleanse us from our sin
and give us a new heart of flesh and spirit. We must be born again or from
above through the Sacrament of Baptism if we hope to be saved.
Early Sacred Tradition
“For Christ also said, ‘Except ye be
born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven.’ Now, that it is
impossible for those who have once been born to enter into
their mothers’ wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and
repent
shall escape their sins, is declared by Esaias the prophet, as I wrote above;
he thus
speaks: ‘Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from your souls;
learn
to do well…And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like
wool; and though
they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow…And for this
[rite] we have learned from
the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we
were born without our own knowledge or
choice, by our parents coming together,
and were brought up in bad habits and wicked
training; in order that we may not
remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may
become the children
of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of
sins
formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again,
and
has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the
universe; he who
leads to the layer the person that is to be washed calling him
by this name alone And this
washing is called illumination because those who
learn these things are illuminated in their
understandings. And in the name of
Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
and in the name of the
Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about
Jesus, he who is
illuminated is washed.”
St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, 61
(A.D. 155)
” ‘And dipped himself,’ says [the
Scripture], ‘seven times in Jordan.’ It was not for
nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being
baptized, but it served as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we
are made clean,
by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord,
from our old transgressions;
being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes,
even as the Lord has declared: ‘Except a
man be born again through water and
the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven.’”
St. Irenaeus, Fragment, 34
(A.D. 190)
“But give me now your best
attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life,
and to view the fountain that gushes with healing. The Father
of immortality sent the
immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man in order
to wash him with water and
the Spirit; and He, begetting us again to incorruption
of soul and body, breathed into us
the breath (spirit) of life, and endued us
with an incorruptible panoply. If, therefore, man has
become immortal, he will
also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit
after the regeneration
of the layer he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the
resurrection
from the dead. Wherefore I preach to this effect: Come, all ye kindreds of the
nations, to the immortality of the baptism.”
St. Hippolytus, Discourse on the Holy Theophany, 8
(A.D. 217)
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“[W]hen they come to us and to the
Church which is one, ought to be baptized, for the
reason that it is a small
matter to ‘lay hands on them that they may receive the Holy Ghost,’
unless they
receive also the baptism of the Church. For then finally, can they be fully
sanctified, and be the sons of God, if they be born of each sacrament; since it
is written,
‘Except a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom
of God.’…[O]nly baptism of the Holy Church, by divine regeneration,
for the kingdom of
God, may be born of both sacraments, because it is written,
‘Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God.’”
St. Cyprian of Carthage, To Stephen, 71:72
(A.D. 253)
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“We are circumcised not with a
fleshly circumcision but with the circumcision of
Christ, that is, we are born again into a new man; for, being buried with Him
in His
baptism, we must die to the old man, because the regeneration of baptism has
the
force of resurrection.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers, Trinity, 9:9
(A.D. 359)
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“And with reason; for as we are all
from earth and die in Adam, so being regenerated
from above of water and Spirit, in the Christ we are all quickened.”
St. Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians, III:33
(A.D. 360)
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“[T]he birth by water and the
Spirit, Himself led the way in this birth, drawing
down upon the water, by His own baptism, the Holy Spirit; so that in all things
He
became the first-born of those who are spiritually born again, and gave the
name of
brethren to those who partook in a birth like to His own by water and the
Spirit.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 2:8
(A.D. 382)
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“The Word recognizes three Births
for us; namely, the natural birth,
that of Baptism, and that of the Resurrection…”
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration on Holy Baptism, I
(A.D. 388)
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“Therefore, read that the three
witnesses in baptism, the water, the blood, and the
Spirit, are one, for if you take away one of these, the Sacrament of Baptism
does not
exist. For what is water without the cross of Christ? A common
element, without any
sacramental effect. Nor, again, is there the Sacrament of
Regeneration without water: ‘For
except a man be born again of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.’”
St. Ambrose, On the Mysteries, 4:20
(A.D. 391)
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“It is this one Spirit who makes it
possible for an infant to be regenerated through the
agency of another’s will
when that infant is brought to Baptism; and it is through this one
Spirit that
the infant so presented is reborn…’Unless a man be born again of water and the
Holy Spirit.’ The water, therefore, manifesting exteriorly the sacrament of
grace, and the
Spirit effecting interiorly the benefit of grace, both regenerate
in one Christ that man who
was in one Adam.”
St. Augustine, To Boniface, Epistle 98:2
(A.D. 408)
Truly,
truly, I say to you, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3, 5
