Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 52

Having read the little works which I lately elaborated for you, my dearest son Marcellinus, on the baptism of infants and on the perfection of man's righteousness—that no one seems either to have attained it or to be about to attain it in this life, save the one Mediator, who bore human things in the likeness of sinful flesh without any sin whatever—you wrote back that you were troubled by this: that in the latter of the two books I said it could come to pass that a man should be without sin, if his will be not lacking, with divine aid assisting, but that nevertheless, save the One in whom all shall be made alive, there has been or will be no one in whom, while living here, this perfection existed.

For it seems absurd to you that anything should be said to be possible of which there is no example, since, as I believe, you do not doubt that it never happened that a camel should pass through the eye of a needle, and yet He said that this too is possible with God; you may read also that twelve thousand legions of angels could have fought for Christ, that He might not suffer, and yet it was not done; you may read that it could have come to pass that the nations should at once be exterminated from the land which was being given to the sons of Israel, yet that God willed it to be done gradually; and six hundred other things can occur to us which we confess either could have been or can be, and yet of which we are unable to bring forward examples that they were done.

Whence we ought not on that account to deny that it can come to pass that a man should be without sin, because there is no man—save Him who is not only man, but by nature also God—in whom we can demonstrate that this was made perfect. Here perhaps you may answer that those things which I have mentioned as not having been done, yet as having been possible, are divine works; but that a man's being without sin pertains to the work of the man himself, and that this work is the best, whereby righteousness is made full and perfect and altogether in every part complete, and therefore that it is not to be believed that no one either has been or is or will be in this life who has fulfilled this work, if it can be fulfilled by a man.

But you ought to consider that, although the doing of this pertains to man, this too is a divine gift, and therefore not to doubt that it is a divine work; 'for it is God,' says the Apostle, 'who worketh in you both to will and to work according to good will.' Accordingly, they are not much troublesome, and one must press them, that they may show, if they can, that it is so, who say that a man lives here, or has lived, without any sin at all. For if any one could teach that the testimonies of Scripture, by which I judge it defined that no man living here—though he use free will—is found without sin, such as this:

'Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified,' and other like sayings—and could demonstrate that some one man or several men have lived here without any sin—he not only would not have opposed me in the least, but would even have congratulated me most heartily; he is not stirred by any mean goads of envy.

Nay, even if there is not, nor has been, nor will be—which I rather believe—anyone perfect in such purity, and yet someone is defended and thought to be, or to have been, or to be about to be such, as far as I can judge, there is no great error, nor is anyone perniciously deceived, being deceived with a certain benevolence, provided nevertheless that he who thinks this does not think himself to be such, unless he has truly and clearly perceived himself to be such.

But those must be resisted most keenly and most vehemently who think that, without the aid of God, the power of the human will by itself can either perfect righteousness or, by tending toward it, make progress; and who, when they begin to be pressed as to how they presume to assert that this comes to pass without divine aid, restrain themselves and dare not utter this voice, since they see how impious and intolerable it is.

But they say that these things are not done without the aid of God for this reason: because both God created man with free choice of will, and by giving precepts He Himself teaches how a man ought to live; and in this at least He aids, in that by teaching He removes ignorance, so that man may know in his works what he ought to avoid and what to seek after, whereby, entering upon the way shown to him through the free choice naturally implanted, by living continently and justly and piously he may deserve to attain to the blessed and likewise eternal life.

But we say that the human will is thus divinely aided to do righteousness, that—besides the fact that man was created with free choice, and besides the teaching by which it is enjoined upon him how he ought to live—he receives the Holy Spirit, whereby there arises in his soul a delight in and love of that supreme and unchangeable Good which is God, even now while he walks by faith, not yet by sight, so that by this, as it were, given as an earnest of a gratuitous gift, he may kindle to cleave to the Creator and be inflamed to come to a participation of that true light, that from Him it may be well with him, from whom he has his very being. For neither is free choice worth anything except for sinning, if the way of truth lie hidden;

And even when what is to be done and what is to be striven for has begun to be no longer hidden, still, unless it also delights us and is loved, it is not done, not undertaken, not lived out well. But that it may be loved, the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not through free choice which arises from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For that teaching by which we receive the command to live continently and rightly is a letter that kills, unless the life-giving Spirit is present. For it is not in that one way alone that we must understand what we read:

'The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' — as though it meant only that we should not take something figuratively written, whose literal sense would be absurd, according to the sound of the letter, but rather, gazing upon that other thing which it signifies, should nourish the inner man with spiritual understanding, since to be wise according to the flesh is death, but to be wise according to the Spirit is life and peace; as, for example, if someone should take carnally the many things written in the Song of Songs, not toward the fruit of luminous charity, but toward the affection of lustful desire. Therefore what we read — 'the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' — is not to be understood in that one way only, but also, and indeed especially, in that other way which he states most plainly in another place: 'I did not know concupiscence, unless the law had said:

'You shall not covet,' I would not have known concupiscence; and a little later he says: 'sin, having seized the occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it slew me.' Behold, this is what 'the letter kills' means. And certainly nothing figurative is being said, that ought not to be taken according to the sound of the letter, when it is said 'You shall not covet'; rather it is a most plain and most wholesome precept, which if anyone fulfills he will have no sin at all. For the Apostle chose this general thing, by which he embraced all things, as though this were the voice of the law forbidding every sin — his saying 'You shall not covet'; for no sin is committed except by coveting. Accordingly, the law that enjoins this is good and praiseworthy.

But where the Holy Spirit does not help by inspiring a good concupiscence in place of an evil one — that is, by pouring out charity in our hearts — then assuredly that law, however good, increases the evil desire by forbidding it, just as the rush of water, if it does not cease to flow toward the barrier set in its path, becomes more violent, and when it has overcome the mass of the obstacle, being hurled down with a greater accumulation it rolls more violently down the slopes. For in some way or other this very thing that is coveted becomes more delightful while it is forbidden. And this is how sin deceives through the commandment and slays through it, when transgression also is added, which is nothing where there is no law.

But let us, if you please, consider that whole passage of the apostolic epistle, and treat of it as the Lord shall help. For I wish, if I can, to demonstrate that what the Apostle says — 'the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' — was not said of figurative expressions, although it may fittingly be taken there also, but rather of the law openly forbidding what is evil.

And when I have shown this, it will surely appear more manifestly that to live well is a divine gift — not only because God gave man free choice, without which one lives neither ill nor well, nor only because He gave the precept by which He teaches how one ought to live, but because through the Holy Spirit He pours out charity in the hearts of those whom He foreknew, that He might predestine them; predestined, that He might call them; called, that He might justify them; justified, that He might glorify them.

And when this has appeared, you will see, as I think, that it is said in vain that only those things are possible without example which are works of God — as we mentioned concerning the passing of the camel through the eye of the needle, and whatever other things are impossible with us but easy with God — and that human righteousness is therefore not to be reckoned among these, since it ought to pertain not to God's work but to man's, whose perfection, if it is possible in this life, there is no reason why it should be believed to be without example. This, then, will shine forth clearly enough to be said in vain, once it has become plain that even human righteousness itself is to be attributed to the working of God, although it does not come about without man's will.

And therefore we cannot deny that its perfection is possible even in this life, since all things are possible to God — both what He does by His will alone, and what He has determined can be done by Him with the cooperating wills of His creation. And by this, whatever of these He does not do is indeed without example among the works actually done, yet with God and in His power it has a cause by which it could be done, and in His wisdom a reason why it has not been done; and though this cause be hidden from man, let man not forget that he is man, nor on that account impute folly to God, because he does not fully grasp His wisdom. Attend, therefore, to the Apostle explaining to the Romans and sufficiently showing what he wrote to the Corinthians:

'The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' — this is rather to be understood as we said above, since the letter of the law which teaches that one must not sin, if the life-giving Spirit is absent, kills; for it makes sin to be known rather than to be avoided, and thus rather increased than diminished, because to evil concupiscence there is added also the transgression of the law. Therefore the Apostle, wishing to commend the grace which came to all nations through Jesus Christ — lest the Jews should exalt themselves above the other nations on account of the law they had received — after he had said that sin and death entered into the human race through one man, and righteousness and eternal life through one man, most plainly intimating the one to be Adam and the other Christ, says:

'But the law entered in, that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Then, putting to himself the question, he says: 'What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.' For he saw that what he had said could be perversely taken by the perverse — 'the law entered in, that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace did much more abound' — as though he had said that sin is profitable because of the abundance of grace. Dissolving this, he answered: 'God forbid,' and subjoined: 'We who are dead to sin, how shall we live in it?' That is:

'Since grace has granted that we should die to sin, what else shall we be doing, if we live in it, but being ungrateful to grace?' For neither does he who praises the benefit of medicine say that diseases and wounds are profitable, from which it heals the man; but the more the medicine is proclaimed with praises, the more are the wounds and diseases blamed and abhorred, from which that which is so praised delivers us. So the praise and proclamation of grace is the blame and condemnation of offenses.

For the foulness of his sickness had to be shown to man — the sickness against which, opposed to his iniquity, not even the holy and good precept availed him, whereby his iniquity was rather increased than diminished, since indeed the law entered in that the offense might abound — so that, in this way convicted and confounded, he might see that not only a teacher was necessary to him, but also God as helper, by whom his steps might be directed, lest all iniquity should have dominion over him, and that, by fleeing to the help of mercy, he might be healed, and thus, where the offense abounded, grace might much more abound — not by the merit of the sinner, but by the aid of Him who comes to his rescue. Consequently the Apostle shows the same medicine mystically demonstrated in the passion and resurrection of Christ, saying:

'Or do you not know that all we who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that as Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in that of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he who is dead is justified from sin. But if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Him; knowing that Christ rising from the dead dies no more, and death shall no more have dominion over Him.'

'For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He lives, He lives unto God. Likewise reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.' Surely it is clear enough that by the mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection there is figured the setting of our old life and the rising of the new, and demonstrated the abolishing of iniquity and the renewal of righteousness. Whence, then, comes this so great benefit to man — through the letter of the law, or through faith in Jesus Christ?

This holy meditation keeps the sons of men, hoping under the protection of God's wings, so that they may be inebriated with the abundance of His house, and drink of the torrent of His pleasure; for with Him is the fountain of life, and in His light we shall see light — He who extends His mercy to those who know Him, and His righteousness to those who are upright in heart. For not because they know Him, but that they may also know Him, does He extend His mercy; nor because they are upright in heart, but that they may also be upright in heart, does He extend His righteousness, by which He justifies the ungodly. This meditation does not carry one off into pride, which vice arises when a man over-trusts himself and makes himself his own head for living.

By which movement one withdraws from that fountain of life, from whose draught alone righteousness — that is, the good life — is drunk, and from that unchangeable light, by participation in which the rational soul is in a manner kindled, so that it too may be a made and created light, just as John was a burning and shining lamp, who nevertheless, acknowledging whence he shone, said: 'Of His fullness have we all received' — of whose fullness, but assuredly of His, in comparison with whom John was not a light? For that was the true light which enlightens every man that comes into this world. Accordingly, when he had said in the same psalm: 'Extend Your mercy to those who know You, and Your righteousness to those who are upright in heart':

'Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me. There have fallen all who work iniquity; they were cast out, and could not stand.' For by this impiety, whereby each man attributes to himself what is God's, he is driven into his own darkness, which are the works of iniquity. For these plainly he himself does, and to the fulfilling of these he is competent of himself. But the works of righteousness he does not do, except insofar as he receives from that fountain and from that light, where is the life needing nothing, and where there is no change nor shadow of a moment.

Therefore the Apostle Paul — who, when he was previously called Saul, chose this name, as it seems to me, for no other reason than to render himself small, as it were the least of the apostles — strives strongly and keenly against the proud and arrogant, who presume upon their own works, for the commending of this grace of God; because in truth it appeared more evident and clear in him, who, when he was doing such things, vehemently persecuting the Church of God — for which he was worthy of the utmost punishment — received mercy instead of condemnation, and instead of penalty obtained grace. Deservedly, therefore, he cries out and contends especially in its defense, and does not, in a matter deep and too hidden, mind the envy of those who do not understand and who twist his sound words into a perverse sense, provided only that he may unhesitatingly proclaim the gift of God, by which alone are saved the sons of promise, the sons of the divine benefit, the sons of grace and mercy, the sons of the new covenant.

First, because his every salutation runs thus: 'Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ'; then, in the epistle to the Romans, almost this very question alone is handled so pugnaciously, so manifoldly, that it indeed wearies the attention of the reader, yet with a weariness useful and wholesome, so that it exercises rather than breaks the members of the inner man. Hence come those things which I have mentioned above; hence it is that he reproves the Jew, and says that he is surnamed a Jew and yet by no means fulfills what he professes.

'But if you,' he says, 'are surnamed a Jew, and rest in the law, and glory in God, and know His will, and being instructed out of the law approve the things that differ, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law: you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who glory in the law, do you by transgression of the law dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law;

'But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not that which is by nature uncircumcision, if it fulfill the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.' Here he made manifest in what sense he had said: 'You glory in God.'

For assuredly, if such a Jew were truly to glory in God in that manner which grace demands — grace which is given not by the merits of works but freely — his praise would be of God, not of men. But they gloried in God as those who alone had merited to receive His law, according to that voice of the psalm in which it is said: 'He has not dealt so with any nation, and His judgments He has not made manifest to them.' Yet this law of God they thought to fulfill by their own righteousness, whereas they were rather transgressors of it. Whence it wrought wrath for them by abounding sin, which was perpetrated by those who knew, because even whoever did what the law commanded, without the help of the Spirit of grace, did it from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness.

And by this, before God there was not in the will what before men appeared in the deed, and they were rather held guilty on this account, that God knew that they preferred, if it could be done with impunity, to commit sin. But He speaks of the heart — that is, a will pure from all unlawful concupiscence — which comes about not by the letter teaching and threatening, but by the Spirit helping and healing. Therefore the praise of such is not of men, but of God, who by His grace bestows that for which they are praised — of whom it is said: 'In the Lord shall my soul be praised,' and to whom it is said: 'With You is my praise' — not such as are those who wish God to be praised because they are men, but themselves because they are righteous.

'But,' they say, 'we praise God also as the author of our justification, in that He gave the law, by whose regard we may know how we ought to live'; nor do they hear what they read: 'that by the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God.' For it can come about before men, but not before Him who is the inspector of the heart itself and of the innermost will, where He sees, even if he who fears the law does otherwise, what nevertheless he would rather do if it were allowed. And lest anyone should suppose that here the Apostle said no one is justified by that law which contains in the ancient sacraments many figurative precepts — whence also is that very circumcision of the flesh, which infants were commanded to receive on the eighth day — he immediately subjoined what law he meant, and says:

'For by the law is the knowledge of sin.' That, then, is the law concerning which he afterwards says: 'I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known concupiscence, unless the law had said: You shall not covet.' For what else is 'by the law is the knowledge of sin'? Here perhaps that human presumption, ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish its own, may say that the Apostle rightly said 'by the law shall no one be justified'; for the law only shows what is to be done and what is to be avoided, so that what it has shown the will may fulfill, and thus man may be justified not by the command of the law but by free choice. But, O man, attend to what follows. 'But now,' he says, 'without the law the righteousness of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.'

Does it sound too faintly to the deaf? 'The righteousness,' he says, 'of God is made manifest.' This they are ignorant of, who wish to establish their own; to this they are unwilling to be subject. 'The righteousness of God,' he says, 'is made manifest' — he did not say 'the righteousness of man, or the righteousness of one's own will' — the righteousness of God, not that by which God is righteous, but that with which He clothes man when He justifies the ungodly. This is witnessed by the law and the prophets; to this, indeed, the law and the prophets bear witness: the law, by this very fact, that by commanding and threatening and justifying no one, it sufficiently indicates that man is justified by the gift of God through the help of the Spirit; the prophets, moreover, because what they foretold the advent of Christ fulfilled. For hence it follows, and he adds, saying:

'But the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ' — that is, through the faith by which one believes in Christ. And just as this 'faith of Christ' is so called, not that by which Christ believes, so that 'righteousness of God' is not that by which God is righteous. For each is ours; but it is therefore called God's and Christ's, because it is bestowed on us by His bounty. Therefore the righteousness of God is without the law, yet not manifested without the law. For how is it witnessed by the law, if it is manifested without the law? But the righteousness of God is without the law, in that God confers it through the Spirit of grace on the believer without the help of the law — that is, not aided by the law — since indeed through the law He shows man his infirmity, that fleeing by faith to His mercy he might be healed.

For concerning His wisdom it is said that it carries the law and mercy on its tongue — the law, namely, by which it makes the proud guilty, but mercy, by which it justifies the humbled. Therefore the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is unto all who believe; for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and need the glory of God, not their own glory. For what have they that they did not receive? But if they received it, why do they glory as if they had not received it? They need therefore the glory of God; and see what follows: 'being justified freely by His grace.' Not, then, justified by the law, not justified by their own will, but justified freely by His grace;

not that it comes about without our will, but our will is shown to be infirm through the law, so that grace may heal the will, and the healed will may fulfill the law, being neither set under the law nor in need of the law. For the law is not made for the righteous; which law is nevertheless good, if one use it lawfully. These two things the Apostle, connecting them as if contrary to each other, admonishes and moves the reader to search out and solve the question. For how is the law good, if one use it lawfully, if also what follows is true: 'knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous man'? For who uses the law lawfully but the righteous? Yet it is not made for him, but for the unrighteous.

Or ought even the unrighteous man, in order that he may be justified — that is, that he may become righteous — to use the law lawfully, so that by it as by a schoolmaster he may be led to grace, through which alone he can fulfill what the law commands? For by that grace itself he is justified freely — that is, with no preceding merits of his own works (otherwise grace is no longer grace) — since indeed it is given, not because we have done good works, but that we may be able to do them; that is, not because we have fulfilled the law, but that we may be able to fulfill the law. For He said: 'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it' — He of whom it is said: 'We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' This is the glory of which it is said:

'For all have sinned and need the glory of God'; and this is the grace of which he immediately says: 'being justified freely by His grace.' The unrighteous man therefore uses the law lawfully, that he may become righteous; and when he has become so, let him no longer use it as a vehicle now that he has arrived, or rather, to use the comparison of the Apostle mentioned above, as a schoolmaster now that he has been instructed. For how is the law not made for the righteous, if it is necessary even for the righteous — not that the unrighteous may be led by it to justifying grace, but that the righteous man may now use it lawfully?

Or perhaps — nay rather, not perhaps but certainly — the man now righteous uses the law lawfully in this way: when he imposes it upon the unrighteous for their terrifying, so that when even in them the disease of inbred concupiscence has begun to be increased by the incentive of prohibition and the heaping-up of transgression, they may flee by faith to justifying grace, and, delighted by the sweetness of righteousness through the gift of the Spirit, may escape the penalty of the threatening letter. Thus these two things will not be contrary, nor will they war with each other — namely, that even the righteous man uses the good law lawfully, and yet the law is not made for the righteous; for he was not justified by it, but by the law of faith, whereby he believed that in no way could his infirmity be aided to fulfill what the law of works commanded, unless divine grace came to his rescue. Therefore he says:

'Where then is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.' Whether he meant the praiseworthy boasting which is in the Lord, and this 'excluded' — that is, not driven off so as to depart, but pressed out so as to stand forth prominently (whence certain craftsmen who work silver are called 'excluders'; and hence too is that saying in the Psalms: 'that those who have been tried by silver may be excluded' — that is, that those tried by the eloquence of the Lord may stand forth prominently; for elsewhere too it is said: 'The words of the Lord are chaste words,

silver tried by fire') — or whether he meant to mention the faulty boasting that comes from pride, namely of those who, when they seem to themselves to live righteously, glory as though they had not received it, and this boasting he says is excluded, not by the law of works but by the law of faith — that is, cast out and rejected, because by the law of faith each one recognizes that, if he lives well in any respect, he has it by the grace of God, and that, in order to be perfected in the love of righteousness, he will obtain it from nowhere else. This meditation makes a man devout, because devotion is true wisdom — devotion, I mean, which the Greeks call θεοσέβεια — for this very thing is commended when it is said to man, as is read in the book of Job: 'Behold, devotion is wisdom.'

Moreover θεοσέβεια, if it were interpreted in Latin according to the origin of the word, could be called 'the worship of God' (dei cultus), which consists chiefly in this, that the soul be not ungrateful to Him; whence also in that most true and singular sacrifice we are admonished to give thanks to the Lord our God. But the soul will be ungrateful if it attributes to itself what it has from God, and especially righteousness — puffed up by its works as by its own, as though acquired by itself for itself; not commonly, as by riches, or beauty of members, or eloquence, and the other goods whether external, or of the body, or of the mind, which even the wicked are wont to have — but as though puffed up, seemingly wisely, over these things which are properly the goods of the good.

By which vice, driven back from the stability of the divine substance, even certain great men have sunk down to the disgrace of idolatry. Whence the same Apostle, in the same epistle in which he is a vehement defender of grace, when he had said that he was a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish, and that therefore, as far as pertained to him, he was ready to preach the gospel also to those who were at Rome, says: 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: But the just shall live by faith.' This is the righteousness of God, which, veiled in the Old Testament, is revealed in the New;

which is therefore called the righteousness of God, because by imparting it He makes men righteous, just as 'salvation is the Lord's,' by which He makes them saved. And this is the faith 'from which' and 'unto which' it is revealed — namely, from the faith of those who announce unto the faith of those who obey. By which faith of Jesus Christ — that is, which Christ has bestowed on us — we believe that it is from God that we have, and shall more fully have, the fact that we live righteously. Whence we give thanks to Him with that devotion by which alone He is to be worshiped. And not undeservedly does the Apostle turn from this point to those who are to be mentioned with detestation, who, by that vice which I have mentioned above, being light and puffed up and, as it were, lifted up by themselves as by an empty void, where they could find no rest but, broken, would fly apart, fell into the figments of idols as into stones.

For because he had commended the devotion of faith, by which, being justified by God, we ought to be grateful, subjoining as it were the contrary thing which we should detest, he says: 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold the truth in iniquity; because that which is known of God is manifest in them, for God has manifested it to them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, being understood through the things that are made, are clearly seen — His eternal power also and divinity — so that they are without excuse. Because, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened;

'professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.' See how he did not say that they were ignorant of the truth, but that they held the truth in iniquity. And because it came to mind that it might be asked whence there could be to them a knowledge of the truth, to whom God had not given the law, neither did he pass over in silence whence they could have had it; for he said that through the visible things of creation they had arrived at the understanding of the invisible things of the Creator, since indeed thus great geniuses persisted in seeking, thus they were able to find. Where then is the impiety?

Because, namely, when they had known God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their thoughts. Their vanity is properly the disease of those who deceive themselves, while they seem to themselves to be something when they are nothing. Finally, overshadowing themselves by this swelling of pride — whose foot the holy singer prays may not come upon him, he who said: 'In Your light we shall see light' — they were turned away from that very light of unchangeable truth, and their foolish heart was darkened. For not a wise heart, although they had known God, but rather a foolish one, because they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks. For He said to man: 'Behold, devotion is wisdom.'

And thus, saying that they were wise — which is to be understood in no other way than as 'attributing this very thing to themselves' — they became fools. What need is there now to speak of what follows? For by this impiety those men — those men, I say, who were able to know the Creator through the creature — how far they fell headlong, since God resists the proud, and where they were plunged, the sequel of the epistle itself teaches better than can here be recounted by us.

For we have not undertaken in this work to expound this epistle, but rather we strive, above all by its testimony, to demonstrate as far as we can that we are divinely aided in the working of righteousness not by the fact that God gave a law full of good and holy precepts, but by the fact that our very will — without which we cannot work the good — is aided and raised up by the imparted Spirit of grace; without which aid that teaching is a letter that kills, because it holds men guilty of transgression rather than justifying the ungodly.

For just as to those who knew the Creator through the creature that very knowledge profited nothing unto salvation — because, though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor gave Him thanks, saying they were wise — so also those who through the law of God come to know how a man ought to live are not justified by that knowledge itself, because, wishing to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. It is therefore worth the effort to consider how the law of deeds — that is, of works — through which that boasting is not excluded, and the law of faith, through which it is excluded, differ from one another, if indeed we are able to perceive and discern.

For anyone might quickly say that the law of works belongs to Judaism, but the law of faith to Christianity, on the ground that circumcision and the other such works belong to the law, which Christian discipline no longer observes. But how much this distinction deceives, we have indeed for a long time now been endeavouring to show, and to men keen at discernment, and to you above all and perhaps to such as you we have already shown it; nevertheless, since the matter is a great one, it is not unfitting that in making it clear we dwell upon it with more and yet more testimonies. For he calls it the very law by which no one is justified, the law which he says entered in that transgression might abound, the law which nevertheless — lest anyone unskilled should on this account arraign it and, sacrilegious, accuse it — he defends, saying: 'What then shall we say?

Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, but I had not known sin except through the law; for I had not known coveting, unless the law had said: Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting.' He also says: 'The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good; but sin, that it might appear sin, through the good wrought death in me.' This, then, is the letter that kills, which says: Thou shalt not covet. Concerning which likewise he says what I mentioned a little before: 'For through the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe; for there is no distinction.'

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to show forth His righteousness on account of the passing over of former sins in the forbearance of God — to show His righteousness at this present time, that He might be just and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus. Then he adds what we are now treating of: 'Where then is thy boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith.' This law of works, then, is the very one which says: Thou shalt not covet, because through it is the knowledge of sin. I wish therefore to know, if anyone dares to say it to me, whether the law of faith does not say:

Thou shalt not covet. For if it does not say this, what is the reason why, being placed under it, we should not sin securely and with impunity? For this too those men supposed the Apostle to say, of whom he says: 'And as some report that we say, Let us do evil that good may come; whose condemnation is just.' But if it also says: Thou shalt not covet — as so many evangelical and apostolic precepts do not cease to testify and proclaim — why is not the law of works itself so called too? For it is not the case that, because it does not have the works of the old sacraments, namely circumcision and the rest, therefore the works which it has in its own sacraments suited now to this present time are not works.

Or was the question really about the works of the sacraments, when mention of the law was made on this account, that through it is the knowledge of sin, and therefore no one is justified by it? Hence not by it was boasting excluded, but by the law of faith, of which the righteous man lives. But does not through this law also come the knowledge of sin, since it too says: Thou shalt not covet? What then is the difference? I will say it briefly. What the law of works commands by threatening, the law of faith obtains by believing. The former says: Thou shalt not covet; the latter says: 'When I knew that no one can be continent unless God grant it, and that this very thing was of wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord and besought Him.'

This is that wisdom which is called piety, by which the Father of lights is worshipped, from whom is every good gift and every perfect gift. And He is worshipped by the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, so that His worshipper may glory not in himself but in Him. And thus by the law of works God says: 'Do what I command'; by the law of faith it is said to God: 'Give what Thou commandest.' For the law therefore commands, in order that it may admonish us what faith is to do; that is, that he to whom the command is given, if he cannot yet obey, may know what to ask; but if he can obey at once and does it obediently, he ought also to know by whose gift he is able. For 'we received not the spirit of this world' — says the same most constant preacher of grace — 'but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given to us by God.'

But what is the spirit of this world except the spirit of pride, by which their foolish heart was darkened — the heart of those who, though they knew God, did not glorify Him as God by giving thanks? Nor are they deceived by any other spirit, those who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own righteousness, were not subject to the righteousness of God. Hence it seems to me that he is more a son of faith who knows from whom to hope for what he does not yet have, than he who attributes to himself what he does have.

Although to both of these is to be preferred the man who both has and knows from whom he has it, provided nevertheless that he does not believe himself already to be what he is not yet, lest he fall into the fault of that Pharisee who, although he gave thanks to God for what he had, yet asked nothing to be given him, as though he lacked nothing for the increasing or perfecting of righteousness. These things therefore having been considered and treated according to our strength, which the Lord deigns to bestow, we conclude that a man is not justified by the precepts of a good life except through faith in Jesus Christ — that is, not by the law of works but by the law of faith, not by the letter but by the spirit, not by the merits of deeds but by free grace.

Although therefore the Apostle seems so to rebuke and correct those to whom circumcision was being urged, that under the name of the law he designates that same circumcision and the other such observances of the law — which Christians now reject as shadows of what was to come, holding fast to that which through those shadows was figuratively promised — yet the law, of which he says that no one is justified, he wishes to be understood not only in those sacraments which had promissory figures, but also in those works which whoever does lives justly; among which is also that: Thou shalt not covet. And that what we say may become plainer, let us look at the Decalogue itself.

For certainly Moses received the law to be administered to the people on the mountain, written on stone tablets by the finger of God. This is bound up in ten precepts, wherein nothing is commanded about circumcision, nothing about the sacrifices of beasts, which now are not offered by Christians. In those ten precepts, then, except for the observance of the Sabbath, let it be told me what ought not to be observed by a Christian: whether concerning not making and worshipping idols and any other gods besides the one true God, or concerning not taking the name of God in vain, or concerning the honour to be shown to parents, or concerning the avoidance of fornications, murders, thefts, false testimonies, adulteries, coveting of another's property. Which of these would anyone say a Christian ought not to keep?

Or perhaps the Apostle does not call the letter that kills this law which is written on those two tablets, but rather that law of circumcision and of the other ancient and now abolished sacraments? But how shall we suppose this, since in it is 'Thou shalt not covet,' through which commandment — although 'holy and just and good' — 'sin,' he says, 'deceived me and through it slew me'? For what else is the letter that kills? Although more evidently in that very passage to the Corinthians, where he says: 'The letter kills, but the spirit gives life,' he would have no other letter understood than the very Decalogue written on those two tablets. For thus he says:

Forasmuch as ye are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God; not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also made us fit ministers of the new testament, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death, figured in letters upon stone, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is to be done away, how shall not rather the ministration of the spirit be in glory?

For if the ministration of condemnation is glory, much more shall the ministration of righteousness abound in glory. Many things can be said about these words, but perhaps more opportunely afterward. Now, however, mark what letter he calls that which kills, into which, as by contrast, he introduces the life-giving spirit. That surely is the ministration of death figured in letters upon stone and the ministration of condemnation, because the law entered in that transgression might abound. Yet the precepts themselves are so useful and wholesome to the one who does them, that unless one has done them he cannot have life. Or was the Decalogue really called the letter that kills on account of that one precept which is there placed concerning the Sabbath, since whoever observes that day

as the letter sounds, even to this day, is minded carnally — but to be minded according to the flesh is death — while those other nine precepts, which are rightly observed as they are written, are to be thought to pertain not to the law of works, of which no one is justified, but to the law of faith, of which the righteous man lives? Who would think so absurdly, that the ministration of death figured in letters of stone is said to be not from all ten precepts, but from one only which pertains to the Sabbath? Where then shall we place: 'The law works wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there transgression,' and 'Until the law sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed when there was no law,' and that which we have now so often recalled:

Through the law is the knowledge of sin — and above all that where he more evidently expressed what is at issue: 'I had not known coveting, unless the law had said: Thou shalt not covet'? Attend to that whole passage and see whether he says anything on account of circumcision or the Sabbath or any other matter of shadowy sacrament, and not rather says it wholly on this account: that the letter forbidding sin does not give life to a man, but rather kills, by increasing coveting and heaping up iniquity through transgression — unless grace set us free through the law of faith which is in Christ Jesus, when love is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For when he had said: 'that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter,' 'What then shall we say?' he says.

Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin except through the law. For I had not known coveting, unless the law had said: Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for without the law sin was dead. But I lived once without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was unto life, was found by me to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it slew me. Wherefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid!

But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through the good, that sin by the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I know not; for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law, that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good. For to will is present with me, but to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. It appears therefore that the oldness of the letter, if the newness of the spirit be absent, makes men guilty by the knowledge of sin rather than delivers them from sin. Hence too it is written elsewhere:

He that increases knowledge increases sorrow — not because the law itself is evil, but because it has a good commandment in the letter that demonstrates, not in the spirit that aids. Which commandment, if it be done from fear of punishment and not from love of righteousness, is done slavishly, not freely; and therefore is not really done at all. For that is not good fruit which does not rise from the root of charity. But if there be present the faith which works through love, one begins to delight together in the law of God after the inward man; which delight is the gift not of the letter but of the spirit, even though another law in the members still wars against the law of the mind, until in the newness which increases from day to day in the inward man,

the whole oldness may be changed and pass away, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord delivering us from the body of this death. This grace lay hidden, veiled, in the Old Testament, and was revealed in the Gospel of Christ by a most orderly dispensation of the times, as God knows how to arrange all things. And perhaps to that very hiddenness of it pertains the fact that in the Decalogue, which was given on Mount Sinai, this alone was concealed under a figured precept — namely, that which pertains to the Sabbath. But the Sabbath is the day of sanctification. Nor is it without meaning that among all the works which God made, there first sanctification was pronounced, where He rested from all His works — whereof this is not the place to discourse.

Nevertheless — which I judge to be sufficient for the matter in hand — it was not in vain that the people were commanded on that day to abstain from all servile work, whereby sin is signified, since sin is nothing other than the lack of sanctification, that is, of the gift of God through the Holy Spirit; which in the law, that was written on the two stone tablets, was placed alone among the rest under a shadow of figure, in which the Jews observe the Sabbath, so that by this very thing it might be signified that the time then was for the hiding of grace, which was to be revealed in the New Testament through the passion of Christ, as it were by the rending of the veil. For 'when thou shalt have passed over,' he says, 'to Christ, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.'

But this Spirit of God, by whose gift we are justified, by whom it comes to pass in us that not to sin is a delight — where there is liberty — just as, apart from this Spirit, to sin is a delight, where there is bondage, from whose works we must abstain, that is, must spiritually keep Sabbath — this Holy Spirit, through whom love is poured out in our hearts, which is the fulfilment of the law, is even called in the Gospel the finger of God. Hence, since both those tablets were written by the finger of God, and the finger of God is the Spirit of God, through whom we are sanctified, so that living by faith we may work well through love — whom would not this correspondence, and at the same time distinction in the same place, move?

For fifty days are reckoned from the celebration of the Passover — which was commanded to be figuratively performed by the slaying of a lamb through Moses, in signification indeed of the future Lord's passion — up to the day on which Moses received the law on the tablets written by the finger of God; likewise, from the slaying and resurrection of Him who as a lamb was led to the slaughter, when fifty days were completed, the finger of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, filled the faithful gathered together into one. In this marvellous correspondence, this certainly differs very greatly: that there the people were forbidden by a dreadful terror to approach the place where the law was being given, but here the Holy Spirit came upon those who, awaiting Him as promised, had been gathered together into one;

there the finger of God wrought on tablets of stone, here in the hearts of men. There, therefore, the law was placed outwardly, that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, that they might be justified. For: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not covet,' and if there be any other commandment — which certainly is written on those tablets — 'it is summed up,' he says, 'in this saying, in that: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love works no evil to the neighbour; but the fulfilment of the law is charity.' This is not written on tablets of stone, but is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. The law of God, therefore, is charity. To this the prudence of the flesh is not subject; neither indeed can it be.

But when, for the terrifying of this prudence of the flesh, the works of charity are written on tablets, it is the law of works and the letter that kills the transgressor; but when charity itself is poured out in the heart of believers, it is the law of faith and the spirit that gives life to the one who loves. See now how this distinction agrees with those apostolic words which a little before I mentioned for another purpose and deferred to be more diligently treated. 'Being made manifest,' he says, 'that ye are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart.'

Behold how he shows that the one is written outside the man, to terrify him from without, the other in the man himself, to justify him from within. And he called them 'fleshly tablets of the heart' not from carnal prudence, but as living and having sense in comparison with the stone, which is without sense. And what he says a little after, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold to the end the face of Moses, and therefore he spoke to them through a veil, signifies this: that the letter of the law justifies no one, but a veil is placed upon the reading of the Old Testament, until it be passed over to Christ and the veil be taken away — that is, until it be passed over to grace, and it be understood that from Him is our justification, whereby we may do what He commands.

Who therefore commands, in order that when we fail in ourselves we may flee to Him. Therefore most vigilantly, when he had said: 'Such confidence we have through Christ toward God,' lest this should be attributed to our own strength, he immediately commended that which is at issue, saying: 'not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also made us fit ministers of the new testament, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.' Accordingly, because the law, as he says elsewhere, 'was placed for the sake of transgression' — that is, that letter written outside the man — therefore he calls it both the ministration of death and the ministration of condemnation;

but this, that is, the ministration of the New Testament, he calls the ministration of the spirit and the ministration of righteousness, because through the gift of the Spirit we work righteousness and are freed from the condemnation of transgression. Therefore that is done away, this remains, since the terrifying pedagogue is taken away when love has succeeded fear; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And that this ministration is not of our merits but of mercy, he thus says: 'Wherefore, having this ministration, according as we have obtained mercy, let us not faint, but let us cast away the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of God by guile.' By this craftiness and guile he would have hypocrisy understood, whereby the proud wish to seem righteous.

Hence too in that psalm which the same Apostle cites for the testimony of this very grace: 'Blessed,' he says, 'is he to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose mouth there is no guile.' This is the confession of the humble saints, who do not boast themselves to be what they are not. And a little after: 'For we preach not ourselves,' he says, 'but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ Jesus.' This is the knowledge of His glory, by which we know that He Himself is the light by which our darkness is illumined. And I mark this very thing, how he drives it home:

But we have this treasure,' he says, 'in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.' And a little after, when, commending the same grace more abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to that garment of the righteousness of faith, wherewith being clothed we may not be found naked, and on account of this we groan, being burdened by mortality, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life — see what he adds: 'Now He that has wrought us,' he says, 'for this very thing is God, who also has given us the earnest of the Spirit.' And after a little he brought in: 'that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.' This is that righteousness of God, not that whereby He Himself is righteous, but whereby we are made righteous by Him.