“... for our sake loosing within Himself the bonds of bodily birth, He granted us through spiritual birth, according to our own volition, power to become children of God instead of children of flesh and blood if we have faith in His Name (cf. Jn. 1:12-13). For the Savior the sequence was, first of all, incarnation and bodily birth for my sake; and so thereupon the birth in the Spirit through baptism, originally spurned by Adam, for the sake of my salvation and restoration by grace, or, to describe it even more vividly, my very remaking.” IfsFirstsChildrenChristianSpiritualSpiritNamesGraceBloodBirthSalvationSakeFleshGrantedOrthodoxSaviorHave FaithAdamSequenceRestorationIncarnationOrthodox ChristianChild Of GodBaptismCfsFlesh And BloodVolition Author:Maximus the Confessor
“Time would fail me were I to try to lay before you in order all the passages in the Holy Scriptures which relate to the efficacy of baptism or to explain the mysterious doctrine of that second birth which though it is our second is yet our first in Christ.” TryingFirstsOrderChristFailingBirthHolyLaysScriptureDoctrineMysteriousRelatePassagesBaptismHoly ScripturesEfficacy Book:The Sacred Writings of Saint Jerome (Annotated Edition) Source: The Sacred Writings of Saint Jerome (Annotated Edition)
“Let us think of a Christian believer in whose life the twin wonders of repentance and the new birth have been wrought. He is now living according to the will of God as he understands it from the written Word. Of such a one it may be said that every act of his life is or can be as truly sacred as prayer or baptism or the Lord's Supper. To say this is not to bring all acts down to one dead level; it is rather to lift every act up into a living kingdom and turn the whole of life into a sacrament.” ThinkingMayHas BeensSaidWholeChristianLife IsTurnsPrayerLevelsWonderLordWrittenBirthSacredBelieverGods WillKingdomsLiftsRepentanceTwinsSacramentsBaptismSupperWritten WordLord's Supper Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer
“A funeral is not death, any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which Society would register the quick motions of man.” MenDeathThreeBirthLateUnionsToo LateDevicesFuneralRegisterBaptismClumsyHowards End Book:Howards End Source: Howards End