685. These and the foregoing remarks enable us to see that the three purposes of baptism combine into one, just as do the first cause, the intermediate or efficient cause, and the last cause or the effect, which is the real end in view for the sake of which the others exist. The first purpose is for a person to be named a Christian; the second is what follows from this, so that he may get to know and acknowledge the Lord, the Redeemer, Regenerator and Saviour; the third is so that he may be regenerated by the Lord, and when this happens, he is redeemed and saved. Since these three purposes follow one succeeding the other and combine in the last, so that angels think of them together as one, then when baptism is performed, read about in the Word or mentioned, the angels present understand not baptism, but regeneration. So these words of the Lord:
He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16.
are understood by the angels in heaven as meaning that the person who acknowledges the Lord and is regenerated is saved.
[2] This too is the reason why baptism is called by the Christian churches on earth the washing of regeneration. The Christian ought therefore to know that one who does not believe in the Lord cannot be regenerated, despite being baptised. Baptism without faith in the Lord is of no avail; see above in this chapter, 673. Every Christian ought to be fully aware that baptism involves purification from evils and so regeneration, for when he is baptised as an infant, the priest makes the sign of the cross with his finger on his forehead and chest as a token of the Lord, and then turning to the godparents asks whether he renounces the devil and all his works, and whether he accepts the faith. To which the godparents answer in place of the child: 'Yes, indeed.' The renouncing of the devil, that is, of the evils which come from hell, and faith in the Lord, bring about regeneration.