Baptism is a birth of another kind. Christ begets us and we are the ones who begot him. He who begets gives life to him who begot him. And here is what is amazing: not only the baptized rise, but also those who were unable to prepare for immortal life by the power of the sacraments rise in the next life with their immortal bodies. It is amazing that those who did not accept the sacrament of baptism, by which we share in his life-giving death, share in the resurrection that the death of the Savior brought to the world. If they fled from the doctor and refused his help and refrained from the only medicine, what is the reason for their immortality, I wonder? I believe that there are two considerations: either everyone enjoys equally the goods that Christ gave to mankind by his death, so we rise and live and reign with him and attain bliss, if he does not ask anything of us, or only those who believe in the Savior rise on the basis that the resurrection imposes a personal contribution on us.

Here is the answer. The resurrection is the restoration of nature. It is a free gift from God, and as He created us without our will, so He will raise us up without our participation. But that kingdom, either seeing God and being with Christ, this enjoyment of the soul for those who love Him and long for Him, God reserves for those who desire and long for Him. As for those who do not desire and long for Him, how can they see Him or unite with Him and enjoy His beauty, as the Lord says: “The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him” (John 14:17). In fact, they have gone to the other life blind in sight and spirit, deprived of the knowledge and love of the Savior and of the will and power to unite with Him. We should not wonder if all are immortal and if all do not enjoy bliss. Everyone enjoys the nature of divine providence, but the reward is given only to the faithful servants of God. The reason is that God wants the salvation of all, wishes good for all, and gives to all equally what strengthens the will and corrects nature. There is no room for rejecting the blessings of God that He gives us and which we accept in spite of ourselves. God does good by force on our behalf, driven by the abundance of His mercy, and presses His compassionate mercy upon us so that we cannot, even if we wanted to, reject His blessings. This applies to what is characteristic of the resurrection. We cannot be born and not be born, to rise and not rise after death. As for what is within the will, it is known that choosing the good, forgiveness of sins, uprightness of habits, purity of spirit, and bliss are rewards of the will, and the achievement of these virtues or some of their parts depends on the will. The reward is according to the work. But if we do not want, if we do not willingly accept any suggestions, can we demand a reward?

The second answer is that the Savior in Himself, by becoming the firstborn of creation among the dead, uprooted nature from corruption, and by entering the Holy of Holies as our forerunner, He freed the soul from sin after having destroyed it, and reconciled man with God, and destroyed the dividing wall, and sanctified Himself for our sake, so that we might be truly holy. It is clear, then, that those who share in His nature and will are the ones who are saved from sin and corruption, as people who share in His nature and will and willingly obey His commands for what He wants. The first answer applies to the unbaptized. The fact is that human nature is one for the baptized and the unbaptized, and this is not said about the hope of salvation through the Savior, nor about the unity of heart and spirit with Him. As a result, the unbaptized are deprived of the forgiveness of sins and the crown of righteousness because they have voluntarily departed from Christ, and the resurrection of these in the flesh does not conflict with this, because they possess a nature that shares in the human nature of Christ, except for their deprivation of the blessed life, as has been said. Baptism, indeed, gives only the happy life, not the present life, and the death and resurrection of Christ gave us only the eternal life. Therefore, the resurrection grants the free gift to all men. As for the forgiveness of sins, the heavenly crown and the kingdom, they are the right of those who participate from here and comply with the requirements of this life, the requirements of the heavenly Bridegroom, the right of those who are born again, for the sake of the new Adam and who radiate grace, with the ray that baptism spreads in them, because Christ is “the fairest of all mankind” (Psalm 44:3), those who raise their foreheads high as victors in the Olympic Games because Christ is the crown and shout with their ears because He is the Word, and fix their eyes on high because He is the sun, and breathe because He is the fragrance “a fragrant fragrance” (Song of Songs 1:3), and wear a garment without spot because of the weddings of this Bridegroom.

From this research we are led to another research that we cannot pass over in passing. If accepting baptism actually requires us to want and believe in this sacrament in order to obtain graces, and if neglecting this triple duty of baptism, the duty of will for baptism, and the duty of faith in it means deprivation of bliss, then what is the status of the believer who renounces baptism after accepting it? He renounced his first faith and denied Christ, then returned in repentance to the Church.

It is natural to lead them into the streams of baptism, to renew their baptism as spirits stripped of everything, but the Church requires that they be anointed with oil and does not require more than that, and then accepts them into the ranks of believers. What can we conclude from this? Can we conclude other than the two conditions for entering into a relationship with God? Evil fulfills both of these conditions. The unbelievers lose the one condition, the knowledge of the use of sight, the vision of light, and they retain the other condition, the possibility of being able to see, and the reason is that the use of the member is optional. It is up to us to search for the sun and to close our eyes to the light. But to pluck these out and destroy this member completely is absolutely not within our competence. If we cannot remove one of the members that nature has given us, we cannot at least do so with the member that God Himself gave us when He created us. Since God created the power of thinking in us and all the thoughts resulting from our spiritual nature, it makes no difference whether they are called spiritual powers or anything that affects the soul and pushes it to baptism to purify it so that it submits to God without pressure, and nothing pressures the human will, not even God, and God does not withdraw His gifts “for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). He wants our good as all goodness, and His goodness is endless, and He gives us His blessings without taking away our will’s freedom of the right to work. This is the act of baptism and its blessings.

The virtue of baptism does not oppress or enslave the will, but is content with its role as a virtue and never prevents those under its influence from remaining evil. The healthy eye remains in a state of sight even if it is in layers of darkness, as is the faithful witness who abandons himself in the hands of unbelief and temptation after receiving the sacrament of baptism and divine graces. Therefore, the priest does not re-baptize those who do not need it, on the grounds that they have not cast off all the powers they received in the second creation. The priest resorts to a simple anointing to convey to them the grace of obedience, fear of God, and love that restores to them their former trusts. What we have mentioned on this subject is sufficient.