John Chrysostom on Baptism
Infants included, and effective for regeneration
For it does not simply take away our sins, nor simply cleanse us from our faults, but so as if we were born again. For it creates and fashions us anew... For it does not simply wipe the vessel clean, but entirely remoulds it again.
THE POSITION
Baptism regenerates, and he presses the word deliberately: it is not called a laver of remission, because it does not merely wipe the vessel clean — a wiped vessel keeps traces of what it was — but recasts it in a new mould. The baptized come out "not only clean, but both holy and just." He also attacks the widespread fourth-century habit of deferring baptism to the deathbed, praising his catechumens for not coming "as the most slothful among men, at your last breath."
5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
8 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Archbishop of Constantinople and the most prolific preacher of the patristic era — the largest surviving body of Greek expository preaching is his. This entry rests on the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translations of his homilies on Romans, 1 Corinthians, John, Hebrews and 2 Thessalonians, together with the Instructions to Catechumens.
Cite this page
"John Chrysostom on Baptism", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chrysostom/baptism (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chrysostom/baptism).