Baptism sermon by Gregory of Nazianzus

Today is the commemoration of the Cappadocian Fathers and this coming Sunday is the Baptism of our Lord so this selection from a sermon for the Baptism of Jesus from Gregory of Nazianzus seems appropriate.

Christ, then, was born as it were a few days ago— He Whose generation was before all things, sensible and intellectual. Today He is baptized by John 

that He might cleanse him who was defiled, 
that He might bring the Spirit from above, and exalt man to heaven, 
that he who had fallen might be raised up and he who had cast him down might be put to shame. 

And marvel not if God showed so great earnestness in our cause: for it was with care on the part of him who did us wrong that the plot was laid against us; it is with forethought on the part of our Maker that we are saved. 

And he, that evil charmer, framing his new device of sin against our race, drew along his serpent train, a disguise worthy of his own intent, entering in his impurity into what was like himself—dwelling, earthly and mundane as he was in will, in that creeping thing. But Christ, the repairer of his evil-doing, assumes manhood in its fullness, and saves man, and becomes the type and figure of us all, to sanctify the first-fruits of every action, and leave to His servants no doubt in their zeal for the tradition. 

Baptism, then, is 
a purification from sins, 
a remission of trespasses, 
a cause of renovation and regeneration. 

By regeneration, understand regeneration conceived in thought, not discerned by bodily sight. For we shall not, according to the Jew Nicodemus and his somewhat dull intelligence, change the old man into a child, nor shall we form anew him who is wrinkled and gray-headed to tenderness and youth, if we bring back the man again into his mother's womb: but we do bring back, by royal grace, him who bears the scars of sin, and has grown old in evil habits, to the innocence of the babe.

A Sermon for the Day of the Lights – Gregory of Nazianzus