The washing of regeneration remakes, not merely cleanses

Do you see that uncleanness comes not from the nature of the thing itself, but from the weakness of the reasoning? And again: All things are clean, but it is evil for the person who eats to another's stumbling (Romans 14:20). Do you see that it is not the eating, but the eating to another's stumbling, that causes uncleanness?

The Jewish washing cleansed away that kind of stain. But the washing of grace does not cleanse that kind; it cleanses the uncleanness that is truly real, the stain that has been deeply impressed upon the soul along with the body. For it does not make clean those who have touched dead bodies, but those who have touched dead deeds. If a man is soft, if he is a fornicator, if he is an idolater, if he has done anything dreadful at all, if he possesses every wickedness found among human beings—when he falls into the pool of the waters, he comes up from the divine streams purer than the rays of the sun.

And so that you do not think what I am saying is empty boasting, listen to Paul speaking about the power of the washing: Do not be deceived: neither idolaters, nor fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the soft, nor men who lie with males, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). And what does this have to do with what was said, someone asks? For the question was to show whether the power of the washing cleanses away all these things. Then listen to what follows: And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

We promised to show you that those who approach the washing become clean from all fornication, but the word has demonstrated something more: that they become not only clean, but also holy and righteous. For he did not say only, You were washed, but also, You were sanctified and justified. What could be more astonishing than this, when righteousness is born without labors and sweat and achievements? Such is the loving-kindness of the divine gift: it makes people righteous without sweat.

If a letter from a king, a few written words set before someone, releases people liable to countless charges and sets them free, and brings others to the greatest honor, how much more will the Holy Spirit of God, who can do all things, deliver us from every evil, grant us abundant righteousness, and fill us with great confidence? And just as a spark falling into the middle of a vast sea would immediately be quenched, or rather would disappear, drowned by the mass of waters, so too all human wickedness, when it falls into the pool of the divine streams, is drowned and destroyed more quickly and easily than that spark.

And why, someone asks, if the washing forgives us all our sins, is it not called a washing of forgiveness of sins, nor a washing of cleansing, but a washing of regeneration? Because it does not simply forgive us our sins, nor simply cleanse us of our offenses, but does so as if we had been born again from above. For it creates us anew and fashions us again, not by molding us from earth, but by creating us from another element, the nature of the waters.

For it does not simply wipe the vessel clean, but recasts it entirely anew. Things that are wiped clean, even if they are cleansed with precision, still bear traces of their former quality and carry the remnants of the stain. But things that fall into a smelting furnace and are renewed through the flame put off all filth and, coming out of the furnace, give off the same brightness as vessels newly made.