Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 6

We are free to strip away all superfluous argument against those who love to find fault. We are not children or infants when it comes to the childish, easily dismissed kind of learning that those puffed up with knowledge have slandered us for. Having been reborn, we immediately received the perfect reality, the very thing we eagerly pursued. We have been enlightened—and enlightenment is nothing other than knowing God. Therefore, the one who has known the perfect is not imperfect. Do not hold it against me for confessing that I know God. For the Word saw fit to speak in just this way: "You are my Son, the Beloved; today I have begotten you" (Matthew 3:17)—and what the Word speaks is free. Immediately, as the Lord was baptized, a voice from heaven bore witness to the Beloved. Let us learn from the wise: was Christ already perfect the day he was reborn, or was he imperfect—which is absurd? If he were imperfect, he would have needed to learn something. But it is fitting that he learned nothing, because he is God. No one is greater than the Word, nor is anyone a teacher of the only Teacher. Will they not therefore confess, even against their will, that the Word, perfect from the perfect Father, was reborn perfectly according to the divine economy? If he was perfect, why was the perfect one baptized? They say it was necessary to fulfill the human promise. A beautiful answer. I say: did he become perfect the moment he was baptized by John? Obviously. Did he then learn anything additional? No. He is perfected by the bath alone and sanctified by the descent of the Spirit. That is how it stands. The same pattern holds for us; the Lord has become our guarantee. Being baptized, we are enlightened; being enlightened, we are adopted as sons; being adopted, we are perfected; being perfected, we are made immortal. "I said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High" (Psalm 82:6). This work is called by many names: gift, enlightenment, perfection, bath. Bath, because through it we wash away our sins; gift, because through it the penalties due for sins are remitted; enlightenment, because through it we behold that holy, saving light—that is, through it we perceive the divine. By "perfect" we mean what lacks nothing. What could still be lacking to the one who has known God? It would be absurd to call God's gift imperfect; being perfect, he surely gives perfect gifts. Just as all things come into being the moment he commands, so it follows that when he gives, he need only will that the gift be fulfilled. The future is anticipated by the power of his will. Even the removal of evils is the beginning of salvation. Only those who have first grasped the boundaries of life are already perfect—and we who have been separated from death are already alive. Salvation is to follow Christ. "What has come into being in him is life" (John 1:4). "Very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24). Thus, to believe and to be reborn is perfection in life; for God is never weak.