3. Слово в неделю пред Крещением (Наитствующая в Крещении Благодать Духа Святого запечатлевает внутренние изменения сердца и движения духа и из них образует в нас нового внутреннего человека)

Now is the week before Enlightenment, or Epiphany; the next week is called the week of Enlightenment or Epiphany; in the middle of them stands the Baptism of the Lord. All three, keeping our attention on holy baptism, encourage us to talk about it. Let us talk about holy baptism! Last time, on New Year's, looking for something new, we found in our own person the only news - newness, rebirth (new life), or rebirth in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, through holy baptism. Now, therefore, would it not be inconsistent to explain what kind of new birth this is and what it consists of? The Holy Apostle Paul, speaking about the holy sacrament of baptism, compares its hidden power with the death and Resurrection of the Lord. Immersing, he says, in the font, we die, and emerging from the font, we are resurrected; we die in the font for a carnal and sinful life, and are resurrected from the font for a spiritual, holy, godly life - “or don’t you understand, just as we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death! We were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ has risen from the dead in the glory of the Father, so we too will begin to walk in newness of life... Our old man will be crucified with him, so that the body of sin may be abolished, for no one will work for us through sin” (Rom. 6:3,6) Just as the risen Lord is bright, so our nature becomes bright, being renewed in the bath of rebirth by the grace of the Holy Spirit. But do not think, brethren, that everything here is accomplished by grace alone and is accomplished only externally or somehow mechanically. No. This saving action takes place invisibly within; Moreover, the grace of the Spirit that flows in baptism captures a number of internal changes of the heart and movements of the spirit and from them forms a new hidden heart of a person in us. Why does the holy Apostle Peter call baptism of conscience the question of good things from God, which means the formation of a special, strong, moral character by grace. What and how it happens and should be here, I will explain to you with a few thoughts. The All-merciful Lord, having created man in His image and likeness, thereby indicated to him the final goal in internal communication with Himself, protecting it with known conditions at hand to man. God laid the path to achieving this goal in the zealous fulfillment of His holy will, which He imprinted on the pure and immaculate conscience of man, but did not bind him in the direction of his activity, but gave him the freedom to act as he wants, at his own discretion, so that he, arbitrarily and self-willingly, would determine himself to steadily walk in the known will of God. In order for man to have the opportunity to master his freedom, He, in the same spirit in which freedom dwells, introduced the fear of God, or the feeling of comprehensive dependence on God, the Almighty, the All-Provider and the All-Rewarder. These are all the elements of our, according to the original structure, spiritual life. Combining into one, they form a single, moral-spiritual person, whose life had to be built and carried out in such a way that, in a sense of its complete dependence on God, it self-willingly determined to steadily walk in the holy will of God, interpreted by conscience, in the confidence that for this it would remain in inner communion with God - the source of life and bliss in Him. This is what man is destined for, and this is how his life would always go, just as it always goes like this with the Holy Angels, if not for the fall. The fall upset the internal order of spiritual life. Man fell away from God, and direct communication with Him ceased; the feeling of dependence on Him froze or weakened, and man no longer had the strength to cope with his freedom, which was no longer striving to follow the will of God, especially since conscience either completely ceased to interpret the will of God, or began to interpret it crookedly. Thus the elements of spiritual life disintegrated - and there was no spiritual life. Meanwhile, the nature of man remained the same, and his purpose remained the same. Why could his restoration be accomplished no other way than through the restoration of his original spiritual powers and their elevation into a predetermined mutual relationship. This is what the sacrament of baptism performs after preliminary preparation for this by a number of internal changes. Let me give you one example to explain this! The Holy Apostle Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. Those who listened, after listening to the sermon, exclaimed: what should we do? The Holy Apostle answered: “Repent”; and in another place: “repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15), and “let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Find out what's here? – The sermon enlightened the conscience; an enlightened conscience has resurrected the feeling of dependence on God, or the fear of God - and now there is a cry from the heart: what to do? – Repent, believe, accept grace through baptism. To repent means to decide to leave deeds contrary to God and turn to God, or, what is the same, to define one’s freedom again to walk in His will, as originally determined. A repentant person would be ready for this; but how to proceed to this when he feels in himself, on the one hand, his moral impotence, and on the other, unpeace with God, whom he has always angered, and with his conscience, which he has always offended. To heal these main infirmities, the grace of the Spirit is given to him, as the support of moral strength, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only means to pacify the conscience and reunite with God. Do you notice how here, in the new, grace-filled dispensation, all the former elements and forces of spiritual life, weakened and disintegrated in the fall, are raised again to their meaning and union! The feeling of dependence on God is resurrected in repentance, conscience is enlightened by the word of God, freedom is strengthened by grace, communication with God is mediated through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Intercessor of God and men. So all the elements - each with its own special and life-giving healing - come to life. All that remains is to merge them together, to collect them, like rays, into one focus. This is done in the font of baptism, which in this regard is, as it were, a gracious crucible, where from the previously restored elements of spiritual life, through all-effective grace, a new creation is created in Christ Jesus, the hidden man of the heart is formed. We emerge from the font new in this very sense, we feel so new, having tasted a new life, and we begin to feel blissful. Look what is said about those who converted to the preaching of the holy Apostle Peter. Having received the word, it says in the book of Acts of the Saints, the apostles were baptized, and it is immediately added: they began to remain in teaching, fellowship, prayer, they were all together, they had everything in common, as if they were one soul and one body - they remained unanimous in the church, they constantly praised God in joy and simplicity of heart (Acts 2). As soon as they were baptized, they began to live a new life. This new life is recognized by all those who are baptized and is their destiny and inheritance. Having now collected into one thought all the principles of spiritually grace-filled life in accordance with their original structure, we see that the baptized are like this in their inner mood. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been reconciled with God and having received grace-filled power from Him, Christians feel determined and strong to steadily walk in the will of God, for which they are zealous with readiness for all kinds of work and sacrifices, feeling the joy of Communion with God - temporary, still here, anticipating the never-ending joy that will be in eternity. This is what the conscience consists of: questioning the good, or the formation of a Christian moral character. I bring this to you so that you do not forget that the power of baptism consists not only in the grace-filled renewal of the natural powers of the spirit, but also in a moral change of character, both together. According to God’s dispensation, first moral changes take place in a person’s spirit, and then grace, indwelling a person through the sacrament, imprints them on him and thereby renews his very nature. A Christian no longer has only nature, but also grace. In appearance, he is the same as all non-Christians, but in reality he is a dissolution and confusion of nature and grace. Copper, for example, alone produces a dull sound, but when combined with silver it sounds cleaner and more sonorous, although the difference in appearance is not noticeable in both. Copper alone is our nature; copper combined with silver is the same nature blessed in baptism. Take an apple from a wild apple tree and a garden apple. In appearance they may be completely similar, but the inner dignity of both is completely different. Thus, a Christian and a non-Christian seem to be the same in appearance, but their inner character is not only the same, but also their composition is not the same. All the glory of a Christian is within. Christians themselves cannot help but be aware of this difference and change, not to the detriment of their humility, but to give glory to God who saves them. Not everything perishes in fallen man. Traces of his former beauty remain on all his powers, only these powers have become scattered and disintegrated. It's the same as a broken mirror. When the inner world of spiritual life is restored, then it is the same as a whole mirror, which clearly reflects all the features and parts of the face of the beholder. Turning inwards, for he lives within himself, how can a Christian fail to recognize within himself this wholeness given to him? I'll use another comparison. Before baptism, a person is the same as someone who is paralyzed in his limbs: he can neither stand nor move. After baptism, he is the same as the healed paralytic about whom the Gospel says that he walked around jumping and rejoicing. So, can the feeling of vigor and strength inherent in a Christian blessed in baptism not be evidenced in consciousness? Here's another image! Telescopes have three compositions. When these compositions are pushed one into another, the tubes do not show things properly, but when they are moved apart in proportion, everything is then clearly visible in them. The pipe is an image of our three-component composition - spirit, soul and body. In the fall, the spirit submitted to the soul, and the soul and spirit to the body, and through this they began to see their relationships poorly and behave poorly in them. In one who has received a new birth of grace, the spirit is elevated to its right - to keep the soul in its rank, and through it the body. Man then receives a predetermined order of the parts of nature, clearly recognizes his relationship to heaven and earth, and behaves with dignity in these relationships. Can such a restoration be hidden from the eyes of the mind and conscience? Do you see now what the power of holy baptism is and how its saving effects in us cannot hide from ourselves? Now go inside yourself and decide for yourself whether what holy baptism gives is there or not? If there is, let us thank the Lord, without self-exaltation, however, for everything is from Him; and if not, we will expose ourselves, and reproach ourselves, and hasten to make up for this deprivation through the sacrament of repentance, in which those who sin are again baptized, not in the font, but in tears, although they receive a new life the same as that given in the font. Amen You might be interested in: