Long before Chesterton, however, St. Paul knew well the force that paradox gives to the meaning of words. The Christian faith is prolific with paradoxes. The central Christian paradox is that of death and life. It says that one must die in order to live. The sacrament of Christian initiation is founded on this paradox.
Baptism symbolizes a dying and a rising to new life.
If the grain of wheat sown in the ground does not die, it remains only a seed. It does not germinate and sprout up into a living plant. There is already a paradox for Christianity in the opposition of nature and grace. To be saved one must have a human nature but one cannot be saved by one's human nature. Admittance to the eternal banquet requires another wedding garment.