Voices from the Past: Meditations on the Person and Work of Christ
Gregory of Nyssa was born in Caesarea between 335 and 340 and died some time after 394 in Nyssa, where he was the bishop from 372. In 381 Gregory attended the Council of Constantinople where the Nicene Creed was confirmed and the Arian question was discussed. Gregory was a great intellect and the church is indebted to him for his contribution to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. At the Council of Constantinople he was considered one of the “pillars of orthodoxy” and an advocate of peace in the church. On returning from a peace mission to Jerusalem he lamented that there were men in Jerusalem “who showed a hatred towards their brethren, such as they ought to have towards the devil, towards sin, and towards the avowed enemies of the Saviour.”
Reading “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Matthew 3:14–15
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.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ
