 You have read that the three witnesses in baptism, the water, the blood, and the spirit, are one. This means that if you take away one of these, the sacrament of baptism is not conferred. What is water without the cross of Christ? Only an ordinary element without sacramental effect. Again, without water, there is no sacrament of rebirth. Unless a man is born again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.