Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 49 part 6/10

From this dreadful domination those were to be freed to whom He says: 'If the Son shall have freed you, then shall you be truly free.' By these and other innumerable testimonies of this kind I cannot doubt either that God has commanded man nothing impossible, or that anything is impossible to God for His helping and aiding, whereby what He commands may be done. And through this a man can, if he will, be without sin, aided by God. But if it be asked, as I had placed second, whether he is—I do not believe that he is. For I rather believe the Scripture saying: 'Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for no living person shall be justified in Thy sight.'

And therefore there is need of the mercy of God, which exults over judgment, which will not be for him who does not show mercy. And that the prophet, when he had said: 'I said, I will pronounce against myself my offense to the Lord, and Thou didst forgive the impiety of my heart,' immediately subjoined: 'for this shall every holy one pray to Thee in an acceptable time'—therefore not every sinner, but every holy one; for it is the voice of the saints: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'

Hence in the Apocalypse of the same apostle those one hundred and forty-four thousand of the saints, who did not defile themselves even with women — for they remained virgins — are said to be those in whose mouth no lie was found. There is no lesser falsehood in them, because they are blameless; and assuredly they are blameless for this very reason, that they truly reproved themselves; and therefore no lie was found in their mouth, because, if they were to say that they have no sin, they would be deceiving themselves and the truth would not be in them — and surely there would be a lie where there was no truth, since the righteous man, when at the opening of his speech he is his own accuser, in no way lies. And by this, from what is written:

'Whoever is born of God does not sin and cannot sin, because his seed abides in him' — and whatever else has been said in that manner — many are greatly deceived because they give too little consideration to the Scriptures. For they do not observe that men are made sons of God in that respect in which they begin to exist in newness of spirit and to be renewed in the inner man according to the image of him who created them. For it is not the case that from the very hour in which anyone is baptized all his old infirmity is consumed;

but the renewal begins from the remission of all sins, and proceeds in the measure in which each one who now has spiritual wisdom savours the things of the spirit; but the rest of things are done in hope, until they also come to pass in reality, even up to the renewal of the body itself into the better state of immortality and incorruption, with which we shall be clothed in the resurrection of the dead. For the Lord himself calls this too a regeneration — not indeed such as takes place through baptism, but that in which even in the body there will be brought to completion what is now begun in the spirit: 'In the regeneration,' he says, 'when the Son of Man shall sit upon the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'

For in baptism, although the remission of sins is made whole and full, nevertheless, if the whole and full transformation of the man into eternal newness were made at once — I do not speak even of the body, which is certainly manifestly still tending toward the old corruption and toward death, to be renewed afterward at the end, when there will truly be complete newness; but leaving the body aside, if in the very soul, which is the inner man, complete newness were made in baptism — then the apostle would not say: 'Though our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner man is renewed day by day.' For assuredly he who is still renewed day by day is not yet wholly renewed; and in the measure in which he is not yet renewed, to that extent he is still in the oldness.

Accordingly, from this — that they are still in the oldness, though already baptized — from this too they are still sons of the age; but from this — that they are in the newness, that is, from the full and perfect remission of sins, and to whatever degree they savour spiritually and lead a manner of life conformable to it — they are sons of God. For inwardly we put off the old man and put on the new, since there we lay aside falsehood and speak the truth, and the rest by which the apostle explains what it is to put off the old man and put on the new, who according to God is created in righteousness and the holiness of truth. And that they may do this, he exhorts those already baptized and faithful — whom he would not still need to admonish, if this had already been perfectly done in baptism.

And yet it has been done, just as we have also been saved; for he saved us by the washing of regeneration. But in another place he says in what manner this has been done: 'Not only so,' he says, 'but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. For by hope we are saved; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it with patience.' Therefore the full adoption of sons will come to pass in the redemption also of our body. And so we now have the firstfruits of the Spirit, whereby we have already in reality been made sons of God;

but in the remaining respects, in hope — just as we are saved, and just as we are renewed, so also we are sons of God — yet in reality, because we are not yet saved, therefore we are not yet fully renewed, not yet even sons of God, but sons of the age. We advance, then, into renewal and righteous living through that whereby we are sons of God, and through this we cannot sin at all, until the whole be transformed into this — even that whereby we are still sons of the age; for through this we can still sin as well. Thus it comes about both that he who is born of God does not sin, and that, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That whereby we are sons of the flesh and of the age will therefore be consumed, and that whereby we are sons of God and born of the Spirit will be brought to perfection. Whence the same John:

'Beloved,' he says, 'we are now the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be.' What is this 'we are' and 'we shall be,' except that we are so in hope, and shall be so in reality? For it follows and he says: 'We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Now, then, we have already begun to be like him, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we are still unlike him through the remnants of the oldness. Accordingly, in the measure in which we are like him, to that extent we are, by the regenerating Spirit, sons of God; but in the measure in which we are unlike him, to that extent we are sons of the flesh and of the age. From that side, therefore, we cannot sin;

but on this side, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves — until the whole pass over into adoption, and there be no sinner, and you seek his place and find it not. In vain, therefore, do some also argue thus, saying: 'If a sinner has begotten a sinner, so that in the reception of baptism the guilt of original sin in his little one is loosed, then a righteous man ought also to beget a righteous one.' As if anyone begat carnally by virtue of this — that he is righteous — and not rather by virtue of this, that in his members concupiscence is stirred, and for the use of propagation the law of sin is turned against the law of the mind. It is therefore from this that he begets — from what, still old, he draws among the sons of the age — not from that whereby he has advanced into newness among the sons of God;

for the sons of this age beget and are begotten. Hence also what is born is such, because what is born of the flesh is flesh. But the righteous are none other than sons of God. Yet in the measure in which they are sons of God, they do not beget by the flesh, because they too are born of the Spirit, not of the flesh. But by the flesh do they beget — whoever among them beget — from that whereby they have not yet transformed all the remnants of oldness into perfect newness. Whence whatever son is born from this old and infirm part, it is necessary that he too be old and infirm; and therefore it is fitting that he too be renewed by the Spirit in another generation through the remission of sin. But if this does not take place in him, his righteous father will profit him nothing; for the father is righteous by the Spirit, by which he did not beget him.

But if it does take place, even an unrighteous father will do him no harm; for the one has, by spiritual grace, made his passage into the hope of eternal newness, while the other has remained wholly in the oldness by his carnal mind. That testimony, then, in which it is said, 'Whoever is born of God does not sin,' is not contrary to that testimony in which it is said even to those born of God, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.' For as long as a man — although now wholly renewed in hope and already in reality renewed in part by spiritual regeneration — still bears a body which is corrupted and weighs down the soul, it must be distinguished, even in one and the same man, what pertains to what, and what is said from what.

For, as I judge, the Scripture of God does not easily bear such great testimony of righteousness to anyone as to his three servants, Noah, Daniel, and Job, whom the prophet Ezekiel says could alone be delivered from a certain impending wrath of God — prefiguring, assuredly, in those three men three kinds of men to be delivered: in Noah, as I judge, the righteous rulers of the peoples on account of the governance of the ark as of the Church; in Daniel, the righteous who practise continence; in Job, the righteous who are married — and if perchance there is some other meaning, about which it is not now necessary to inquire. But in truth, how greatly these excelled in righteousness is sufficiently apparent both from this prophetic and from other divine testimonies.

Nor on that account would any sober person say that drunkenness is not a sin — which nevertheless crept upon so great a man; for Noah, as we read, was once drunk, although far be it that he was a drunkard. But Daniel, after the prayer which he poured out to God, says of himself: 'While I was praying and confessing my sins and the sins of my people to the Lord my God.' For this reason, unless I am mistaken, it is said through the aforementioned Ezekiel to a certain most arrogant man: 'Are you then wiser than Daniel?' Nor can it be said here — as some argue against the Lord's Prayer — that, even though the holy and now perfect apostles, having no sin at all, did pray it, yet they said it not for themselves but for the imperfect and those still sinners:

'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' — so that by this, they say, in that they said 'our,' they might show that they and those still having sins were in one body: both those still having sins, and themselves, who now lacked sin in every respect. In the case of Daniel, certainly, this cannot be said; for he, as I believe, foreseeing as a prophet that this presumption would one day arise, when in his prayer he had often said 'we have sinned,' did not so leave it to us that it should be uncertain why he said this — rather he made us hear from him: 'While I was praying and confessing the sins of my people to the Lord my God,' nor even then with the distinction confounded, so that it should be uncertain on account of the fellowship of the one body. If he had said:

'While I was confessing our sins to the Lord my God' — but altogether so distinctly, as though busying himself with a distinction concerning his own self, and commending it especially and most emphatically, he says: 'my sins and the sins of my people.' Who contradicts this evidence, unless one whom it pleases more to defend what he holds than to find out what ought to be held? But let us see what Job himself says after so great a testimony of righteousness borne to him by God. 'In truth,' he says, 'I know that it is so. For how shall a man be righteous before the Lord? For if he should wish to contend with him, he will not be able to obey him.' And a little after: 'Who,' he says, 'will withstand his judgement? But if I were righteous, my mouth would speak impiously.' Again a little after:

'I know,' he says, 'that he will not let me go unpunished. Since I am ungodly, why have I not died? But if I were cleansed with snow and made clean with clean hands, you have plunged me sufficiently in filth.' Likewise in another of his discourses: 'For you have written down,' he says, 'evils against me and have clothed me with the sins of my youth, and you have set my foot in restraint; you have watched all my works and looked into the roots of my feet — which grow old like a wineskin or like a garment eaten by a moth. For man, born of woman, is of short time and full of wrath; and, as a flower when it has bloomed and fallen, he departs; like a shadow he does not remain. And have you not made even his account come into your judgement? For who shall be clean from filth?

No one — not even if his life were of a single day.' And a little after: 'You have numbered,' he says, 'my necessities, and nothing has escaped you of my sins; you have sealed up my sins in a bag, and have noted if I have committed anything unwillingly.' Behold, Job too confesses his sins, and says that he knows in truth that no one is righteous before the Lord. And therefore this man knows this in truth, because, if we say that we have no sin, the truth itself is not in us. Accordingly, God bears him so great a testimony of righteousness in respect of the measure of human conduct; but Job himself, measuring himself by that rule of righteousness which, as far as he can, he beholds with God, knows in truth that it is so, and adds: 'For how shall a man be righteous before the Lord?'

'For if he should wish to contend with him, he will not be able to obey him,' that is: 'If, when he is to be judged, he should wish to show that nothing can be found in him which God might condemn, he will not be able to obey him'; for he loses even that obedience by which he could obey the one who commands that sins are to be confessed. Whence he rebukes certain men, saying: 'Why do you wish to contend with me in judgement?' And forestalling this, one says: 'Enter not into judgement with your servant, for in your sight shall no living man be justified.' Therefore Job too says: 'For who shall withstand his judgement? But if I were righteous, my mouth would speak impiously'; for this is:

'If I should call myself righteous against his judgement, where that perfect rule of righteousness convicts me of being unrighteous, assuredly my mouth would speak impiously, because it would speak against the truth of God.' Showing also the very fragility, or rather the condemnation, of carnal generation arising from the transgression of original sin, when he was treating of his own sins, as it were rendering their causes, he said that man, born of woman, is of short time and full of wrath. Of what wrath, unless that whereby all are, as the apostle says, 'by nature,' that is, by origin, 'children of wrath,' since they are children of the concupiscence of the flesh and of the age? He shows consequently that even the death of man belongs to this same wrath. For when he had said:

'He is of short time and full of wrath,' he added also: 'and, as a flower when it has bloomed and fallen, he departs; like a shadow he does not remain.' And when he subjoins: 'And have you not made even his account come into your judgement? For who shall be clean from filth? No one, not even if his life were of a single day,' he assuredly says this: 'You have made the account of man, of brief life, come into your judgement. For however brief his life may have been, even if it were of a single day, he could not be clean from filth, and therefore he will most justly come into your judgement.' But as for what he said: 'You have numbered all my necessities, and nothing has escaped you of my sins;'

'you have sealed up my sins in a bag, and have noted if I have committed anything unwillingly' — did he not sufficiently make plain that even those sins are justly imputed which are committed, not by the enticement of pleasure, but for the sake of avoiding some trouble or pain or death? For these too are said to be committed under a certain necessity, when all things ought to be overcome by the love and delight of righteousness. What he said — 'and you have noted if I have committed anything unwillingly' — can also seem to pertain to that utterance in which it is said: 'For what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do.'

What of the fact that the Lord himself, who had borne testimony to him — when the Scripture too, that is, the Spirit of God, had said that in all the things which befell him he had not sinned with his lips before the Lord — nevertheless afterward, when he spoke to him, rebuking, addressed him, as Job himself is witness, saying: 'Why am I still judged, being admonished and hearing the reproofs of the Lord?' But no one is justly rebuked except in whom there is something worthy of rebuke. And what is that rebuke itself, which is understood to come from the person of the Lord Christ? He enumerates to him the divine works of his power under this sentiment of rebuke, so that he appears to say:

'Can you do these great things which I can do?' And to what does this pertain, except that Job might understand — this too, we believe, was divinely inspired in him, that he might foreknow that Christ would come to his Passion — that he might understand, then, with how even a mind he ought to bear what he suffered, if Christ, in whom there was absolutely no sin, though for our sake he had been made man, and in whom there is such great power of God, nevertheless in no way refused the obedience of the Passion? Understanding this with a purer intention of heart, Job added to his answer: 'By the hearing of the ear I heard you before, but now behold my eye sees you. Therefore I reproved myself and pined away, and esteemed myself earth and ashes.' Why was he so displeased with himself in this so great understanding?

For the work of God, whereby he was a man, could not rightly displease him, since it is said even to God himself: 'Despise not the works of your hands.' But assuredly it was according to that righteousness by which he had known himself to be righteous that he reproved himself and pined away, and esteemed himself earth and ashes, beholding with his mind the righteousness of Christ, in whom — not only in his divinity, but neither in his soul nor in his flesh — could there be any sin; according to which righteousness, which is from God, even Paul the apostle esteemed that righteousness of his own which was according to the law, in which he was without fault, not only as loss, but even as dung. That illustrious testimony of God, therefore, by which Job was praised, is not contrary to that testimony in which it was said:

'In your sight shall no living man be justified' — because it in no way persuades us that there was nothing in Job which might be truly reproved by himself or rightly reproved by the Lord God, although he was not falsely said to be already righteous, a truthful worshipper of God, and one abstaining from every evil work. For these are the words of God concerning him: 'Have you set your mind on my servant Job? For there is no man like him upon the earth, without fault, righteous, a worshipper of God, abstaining from every evil work.' By the first words he is praised in comparison with the men who are on the earth; accordingly, he excelled all who at that time could be righteous on the earth. He therefore did not on that account have no sin at all, because he went before the rest in the advancement of righteousness.

Then it is added 'without fault' — of whose life no one could justly complain; 'righteous' — who had advanced in such great uprightness of morals that none could be matched with him; 'a true worshipper of God' — inasmuch as he was also a truthful and humble confessor of his own sins; 'abstaining from every evil work' — it would be a marvel if from every evil word and thought as well. How great Job was, indeed, we do not know; but we know that he was righteous, we know also that he was great in enduring the horrifying trials of tribulations; we know that he suffered all those things not on account of sins, but for the demonstration of his righteousness. But nevertheless these words,

by which he is praised by the Lord, could also be said of him who delights in the law of God according to the inner man, but sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind — especially since he says: 'It is not the good that I will that I do, but the evil that I hate, that I do. Now if I do that evil which I hate, it is now no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me.' Behold, this man too, according to the inner man, is a stranger to every evil work, because he himself does not work it, but the evil that dwells in his flesh; and yet, since he has that very thing whereby he delights in the law of God only from the grace of God, still needing deliverance he cries out: 'Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' There are, then, righteous men on the earth; there are great, brave, prudent, continent, patient, godly, merciful men, bearing with an even mind all temporal evils for the sake of righteousness; but if it is true — as indeed it is true — that 'if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,' and that 'in your sight shall no living man be justified,' then they are not without sin, nor is any one of them so arrogantly insane as to think that he has no need of the Lord's Prayer for himself on account of his sins, whatever they may be.

Now concerning Zachariah and Elisabeth, who are often cast up against us in the disputations of this question, what shall we say, except that the Scripture evidently testifies that Zachariah was of eminent righteousness among the chief priests, pertaining to the offering of the sacrifices of the Old Testament? But we read in the epistle which is written to the Hebrews — a testimony which I have already set down in the earlier book — that Christ alone is the chief of priests who would not have the necessity, as those who were called chiefs of the priests had, of first offering a sacrifice daily for his own sins, and then for the people.

'For such a chief of priests,' he says, 'it was fitting that we should have — holy, without malice, undefiled, separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens, not having, like the chiefs of the priests, the daily necessity of first offering sacrifice for his own sins.' In this number of priests were Zachariah, in this Phinehas, in this Aaron himself, from whom this order took its beginning, and whatever others lived praiseworthily and righteously in that priesthood — who nevertheless had the necessity of first offering sacrifice for their own sins, Christ alone being he whose figure, as one to come, they bore, who as an inviolable priest would not have this necessity.

But what praiseworthy thing was said concerning Zachariah and Elisabeth which is not comprised in that which the apostle professed concerning himself, when he had not yet believed in Christ? For he said that he had been, according to the righteousness which is in the law, without fault. This too is thus read concerning them: 'And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without fault.' Because, therefore, whatever of righteousness was in them was not feigned before men, it was for this reason said, 'before God.' But what is written concerning Zachariah and his wife, 'in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord,' this the apostle said briefly: 'in the law.'

For they had not one law and he another before the Gospel, but one and the same, which we read was given through Moses to their fathers, according to which Zachariah too was a priest and offered sacrifice in his turn. And yet the apostle, who was then endowed with a similar righteousness, goes on and says: 'What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.'

'But indeed I also count all things to be loss for the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them not only as detriments but even as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is the righteousness from God in faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.'

So far, then, is it from being the case that, on account of those words, we should believe Zachariah and Elisabeth to have had a perfect righteousness without any sin, that we should not judge even the apostle himself to have been perfect at the summit of that same rule — not only in that righteousness of the law which he had similar to theirs, which he reckons among losses and dung in comparison with that most eminent righteousness which is in the faith of Christ, but even in the Gospel itself, wherein he also merited the primacy of so great an apostolate — which I would not dare to say, unless I deemed it wicked not to believe him. For where he goes on and adds: 'Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect; but I follow after, if I may lay hold, in which I have also been laid hold of by Christ Jesus.'

'Brethren, I do not count myself to have laid hold; but this one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things which are before, I follow according to my intention toward the prize of the supernal calling of God in Christ Jesus.' He himself confesses that he has not yet attained, is not yet perfect in the fulness of the righteousness which he loved to obtain in Christ, but that he still follows after according to his intention and, forgetting the things past, is reaching forth unto the things which are before — so that we may know that even to him pertains that which he said: 'And though our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner man is renewed day by day' — although he was already a perfect wayfarer, even if he was not yet by the perfection of the journey itself one who had arrived.

Finally, he wishes to carry off with himself in this course such companions as those to whom he immediately subjoins and says: 'As many, then, as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also God will reveal to you; nevertheless, in that whereunto we have come, let us walk.' This walking is carried on not by the feet of the body, but by the affections of the mind and by the manner of one's life, so that those may be perfect possessors of righteousness who, advancing by the right way of faith in their own renewal day by day, have already been made perfect wayfarers of that same righteousness.

And so all those, whosoever in this life have been extolled by the testimonies of the divine Scriptures for good will and for acts of righteousness, and whosoever were such even after them, though not extolled and praised by the same testimonies, or are such even now, or shall likewise be such hereafter — all are great, all are righteous, all are truly praiseworthy, but they are not without some sin; since by the testimonies of the Scriptures, by which we believe concerning their praises, we also believe this: that no living man is justified in the sight of God, and that therefore he is entreated not to enter into judgement with his servants, and that the Lord's Prayer, which he handed down to his disciples, is necessary not only universally for all the faithful, but even for each individual.