But the descent into the water, and the person's being in it three times, contains another mystery.
For the manner of our salvation became effective not so much through instruction by teaching as through the very deeds of the One who entered into fellowship with humanity and made life effective in deed, so that through the flesh He assumed and which was also deified, everything kindred to it and of the same nature might be saved together with it. It was therefore necessary to devise a way in which what is done by the follower would bear a certain kinship and likeness to the One who leads.
We must therefore consider what is seen in the One who led us toward life, so that, as the Apostle says, those who follow may successfully imitate the Leader of our salvation.
For just as those being trained by skilled instructors learn military skill by watching orderly armed movements, while the one who does not practice what is demonstrated remains without such skill, so in the same way all who are equally earnest for the good must necessarily follow by imitation the One who leads us toward salvation, putting into practice what He has shown. For no one can reach the same goal without traveling by corresponding paths.
For just as people who cannot find their way through the wanderings of a labyrinth, if they meet someone experienced in it, pass through its many deceptive turns by following behind him—and could not get through unless they followed their guide step by step—so understand the labyrinth of this life to be impassable for human nature unless one takes the same path by which the One who entered it came out beyond what enclosed Him.
By 'labyrinth' I mean, figuratively, the inescapable prison of death by which the wretched human race was enclosed. What, then, did we behold in the Leader of our salvation? A three-day state of death and then life again. Some corresponding likeness must therefore be devised in us as well. What, then, is the means by which the imitation of what happened in Him is fulfilled in us? Everything that has died has a place proper and natural to it: the earth, in which it is laid and hidden.
Earth and water have a close kinship with one another, for they alone among the elements are heavy and downward-moving, remain within one another, and are held by one another. Since, then, the death of the One who leads our life took place beneath the earth in accordance with our common nature, our imitation of His death is represented in the neighboring element.
And just as that Man from above, having taken death upon Himself, after being placed beneath the earth returned again to life on the third day, so everyone united with Him according to bodily nature and looking toward the same successful outcome—I mean the goal of life—has water poured over him instead of earth and, by going beneath that element in three successive passages, imitates the grace of the three-day resurrection.
Something like this was also said earlier: that by divine providence death was introduced into human nature as a dispensation, so that, when evil had flowed away in the dissolution of body and soul, the human being might through the resurrection be reconstituted whole, free from passion, intact, and free from every admixture of evil. But in the One who leads our salvation, the dispensation accomplished through death reached perfection, being completely fulfilled according to its own purpose.
For through death what had been united was separated, and what had been divided was brought together again, so that, when nature had been purified in the dissolution of the things naturally joined together—I mean soul and body—the return of what had been separated might take place free from the foreign admixture. But in those who follow the One who leads, nature cannot receive an exact imitation in every respect. It receives now as much as it is capable of receiving, while what remains is reserved for the time afterward.
In what, then, does this imitation consist? In the image of death produced through the water, it brings about the destruction of the evil that has been mixed in—not, however, its complete destruction, but a certain break in the continuity of evil. Two things work together toward the removal of evil: the repentance of the one who has sinned and the imitation of death. Through these a person is in some measure released from the bond with evil that has grown together with him: through repentance he advances toward hatred of and estrangement from evil, and through death he brings about the destruction of evil.
But if it were possible for the one imitating to enter into complete death, what occurred would no longer be imitation but identity, and evil would be entirely destroyed from our nature, so that, as the Apostle says, one would die to sin once for all.
But since, as has been said, we imitate the transcendent Power only to the extent that the poverty of our nature can contain it, by having water poured over us three times and then rising again from the water we enact the saving burial and resurrection that took place over three days. We keep in mind that just as the water is in our power, both to enter it and to emerge from it again, so in the same way the One who possesses lordship over the whole had it in His power, as we descend into the water, to descend into death and return again to His own blessedness.
If, then, someone looks to what is reasonable and judges what happens according to the power in each case, he will find no difference in what takes place, since each accomplishes what lies within its power according to the measure of its nature. For just as a human being can, if he wishes, come into contact with water without danger, so with infinitely greater ease death lies within the reach of divine power, which can enter it without being altered by it toward suffering.
For this reason, then, it is necessary for us to rehearse beforehand in the water the grace of the resurrection, so that we may know that, as far as ease is concerned, it is the same for us to be baptized in water and to rise again from death.
But just as among the things that occur in this life some have priority over others, without which the result could not be accomplished, even though the beginning, if compared with the end, may seem to be nothing in comparison with the completed result—for what equivalence is there between a human being and what is deposited for the formation of a living being? Yet if the latter did not exist, neither would the former come to be—so too what takes place in the great resurrection, though greater by nature, has its beginnings and causes here. For that cannot take place unless this goes before it.
When I say that without regeneration through the bath a human being cannot come to be in the resurrection, I am not referring to the remolding and reconstitution of our composite nature. Human nature must in every case advance to that by its own necessities, being driven according to the dispensation of the One who ordained it, whether it receives the grace from the bath or remains without such initiation. Rather, I mean the restoration to what is blessed and divine and separated from every gloom.
For not everything that receives through resurrection a return to existence returns to the same kind of life; there is a great interval between those who have been purified and those who still need purification. For those in whom purification through the bath has gone before during this life, their departure will be toward what is kindred to them. What is free from passion is kindred to the pure, and there can be no doubt that blessedness is found in freedom from passion.
But for those whose passions have become hardened and to whom no means of cleansing the stain has been applied—no mystical water, no invocation of divine power, no correction through repentance—it is altogether necessary that they too come to be in what is appropriate to their condition. The refining furnace is appropriate for adulterated gold, so that, after the evil mixed into them has been melted away over long ages, their nature may be brought back pure to God.
Since, then, there is a cleansing power in both fire and water, those who through the mystical water have washed away the defilement of evil have no need of the other form of purification; but those who have not been initiated into this purification are necessarily purified by fire.