On Man's Perfection in Righteousness

Your love, which is so great and so holy in you that it is a delight to serve it even when it commands, has asked me to answer the definitions that are said to be Caelestius's. For so the paper you gave me was headed: “Definitions, as it is said, of Caelestius.” This heading, I believe, is not his but that of those who brought it from Sicily, where Caelestius is said not to be, but many who chatter such things and, as the apostle says, are themselves in error and lead others into error. Yet we too can judge that these things come from his teaching, or even that of some of his associates. For these brief definitions, or rather arguments, are not unlike his mind, which I have seen in another work of his of which he is known to be the author; and I think these brothers who brought them did not hear without reason in Sicily that he taught or wrote these things. I would like, if I could, to comply with your brotherly kindness by answering as briefly myself. But unless I also quote what I am answering, who will be able to judge how I have answered? I will try, however, as far as I can, helped with the Lord's mercy by your prayers too, that my discourse may not run on further than is necessary. “Before all else,” he says, “one who denies that man can be without sin must be asked what any sin is: something that can be avoided, or something that cannot be avoided? If something that cannot be avoided, it is not sin; if something that can be avoided, a man can be without sin, which can be avoided. For no reason or justice allows even calling sin what can in no way be avoided.” We answer that sin can be avoided if damaged nature is healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For it is unhealthy to the extent that it either does not see what must be done because of blindness, or does not fulfil it because of weakness, while the flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that a man does not do what he wills.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask whether sin is of will or of necessity. If it is of necessity, it is not sin; if it is of will, it can be avoided.” We answer as above; and, that we may be healed, we call on him to whom it is said in the psalm: “Bring me out of my necessities.”

“Again,” he says, “one must ask what sin is: natural or accidental? If natural, it is not sin; but if it is accidental, it can also depart; and what can depart can be avoided; and what can be avoided, a man can be without, since it can be avoided.” The answer is that sin is not natural; but that for nature, especially damaged nature (whence we have become by nature children of wrath), the choice of the will is too little for not sinning unless it is helped and healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask what sin is: an act or a thing? If it is a thing, it must have an author; and if it is said to have an author, then another besides God will seem to be brought in as the author of some thing. But if it is impious to say this, one must confess that every sin is an act, not a thing. If, then, it is an act, or rather because it truly is an act, it can be avoided.” We answer that sin is indeed called an act and is one, not a thing. But in the body too, limping is for the same reason an act, not a thing, since the thing is the foot itself, or the body, or the man who limps with a damaged foot; and yet he cannot avoid limping unless he has had his foot healed. This can happen in the inner man too, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The defect itself by which a man limps is neither the foot, nor the body, nor the man, nor the limping itself, which certainly is not there when he is not walking, though the defect is there by which limping occurs when he walks. Let him ask, then, what name to give that defect: whether he wants to call it a thing, or an act, or rather a bad quality of a thing, from which a misshapen act arises. So too in the inner man the soul is a thing, robbery is an act, greed is a defect, that is, a quality according to which the soul is bad even when it does nothing. Hence it serves its greed even when it hears, “You shall not covet,” and blames itself, and yet remains greedy; but through faith it is renewed, that is, healed, day by day, yet only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask whether man ought to be without sin. Without doubt he ought. If he ought, he can; if he cannot, then he ought not. And if man ought not to be without sin, then he ought to be with sin; and then it will no longer be sin, if it is established that it ought to be had. Or if even to say this is absurd, one must confess that man ought to be without sin, and it is established that he ought to do nothing other than what he can.” The answer is by the same likeness with which we answered above. For when we see a lame man who can be healed, we certainly say rightly: “This man ought to be without lameness; and if he ought, he can.” Yet he cannot as soon as he wills, but when he has been healed by the treatment applied and the medicine has helped his will. This happens in the inner man, as regards sin, which is like its lameness, through the grace of him who came not to call the righteous but sinners, since those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask whether it is commanded to man to be without sin. Either he cannot, and it is not commanded; or, because it is commanded, he can. For why would something be commanded that could not be done at all?” The answer is that man is most wisely commanded to walk with straight steps, so that when he sees he cannot, he may seek the medicine, which, for healing the inner man's lameness of sin, is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask whether God wills man to be without sin. Without doubt he wills it, and without doubt he can. For who is so mad as to doubt that what he does not doubt God wills can be done?” The answer is: if God did not will man to be without sin, he would not send his Son without sin to heal men of their sins. This happens in those who believe and make progress, by the renewal of the inner man day by day, until righteousness is made perfect, like full health.

“Likewise,” he says, “one must ask how God wills man to be: with sin or without sin. Without doubt he does not will him to be with sin. We must consider how great a blasphemy of impiety it is to say that man can be with sin, which God does not will, and to deny that he can be without sin, which God wills; as though God had created someone so that he could be what God does not will and could not be what God wills, and so that he would exist against God's will rather than according to it.” This has already been answered above, but I see that I must add that we have been saved in hope; “but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Full righteousness, then, will be when there is full health; full health when there is full love (for love is the fullness of the law); and full love when we shall see him as he is. For there will be nothing to add to love when faith has arrived at sight.

“Again one must ask,” he says, “through what man comes to be with sin: through necessity of nature or through freedom of choice? If through necessity of nature, he is free of blame; if through freedom of choice, one must ask from whom he received this freedom of choice. Without doubt from God. But what God has given is certainly good; this cannot be denied. On what ground, then, is it proved good if it is more inclined to evil than to good? For it is more inclined to evil than to good if through it man can be with sin and cannot be without sin.” The answer is that it came about through freedom of choice that man was with sin; but a penal corruption followed and made necessity out of freedom. Hence faith cries to God: “Bring me out of my necessities.” Placed under them, we either cannot understand what we will, or, having understood, we will it and are not able to fulfil it. For freedom itself is promised to believers by the Deliverer: “If the Son sets you free,” he says, “then you will be truly free.” For when the will was overcome by the fault into which it fell, nature lost its freedom. Hence another scripture says: “For by whatever a man is overcome, to that he is bound as a slave.” As, then, those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick, so the free do not need a deliverer, but slaves, so that the thanksgiving for freedom may say to him: “You have saved my soul from necessities.” For health itself is true freedom, which would not have perished had the will remained good. But because the will sinned, the hard necessity of having sin followed the one who sinned, until the whole infirmity is healed and so great a freedom is received that, just as the will to live in blessedness must remain in it, so there will also be a voluntary and happy necessity of living well and never sinning.

“Therefore,” he says, “God made man good, and besides making him good he commanded him also to do good. How impious it is that we should confess man to be evil, which he was neither made nor commanded to be, if we deny that he can be good, which he was made and was commanded to do!” We answer: since, then, it was not man himself but God who made man good, it is God, not man himself, who remakes him so that he may be good, while he frees the man who wills, believes, and calls on him from the evil that he made for himself. This happens while by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord the inner man is renewed day by day, so that the outer man may rise on the last day not to everlasting punishment but to life.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask in how many ways every sin consists. In two, unless I am mistaken: if either those things are done which are forbidden, or those things are not done which are commanded. Certainly all the things that are forbidden can be avoided just as surely as the things that are commanded can be accomplished. For it would be pointless to forbid or command what could not be avoided or fulfilled. And how shall we deny that man can be without sin, when we must confess that he can avoid all the things that are forbidden just as he can do all the things that are commanded?” The answer is that there are many divine commandments in the holy Scriptures, which it would be too laborious to list all; but the Lord, who, completing and shortening the word, did it upon the earth, said that the law and the prophets hang on two commandments, so that we might understand that whatever else is commanded by God has its end in these two and is to be referred to these two: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “On these two commandments,” he says, “hang all the law and the prophets.” Whatever, then, we are forbidden by God's law, and whatever we are commanded to do, we are forbidden and commanded so that we may fulfil these two. And perhaps the general prohibition is, “You shall not covet,” and the general command, “You shall love.” Hence the apostle Paul too, in one place, briefly embraced both. For the prohibition is, “Do not be conformed to this age,” and the command, “but be reformed in the newness of your mind.” The former belongs to not coveting, the latter to loving; the former to continence, the latter to righteousness; the former to turning away from evil, the latter to doing good. For by not coveting we are stripped of the old, and by loving we are clothed with the new. But no one can be continent unless God gives it, and the love of God is poured into our hearts not through ourselves but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This happens day by day in those who make progress by willing, believing, and calling on him, and who, forgetting what lies behind, stretch forward to what lies ahead. For this is why that law commanded, so that when a man fails in fulfilling these things, he may not lift himself up, swollen with pride, but, worn out, may flee to grace; and so the law, by terrifying him, in the role of a tutor, may lead him to love Christ.

“Again one must ask,” he says, “why man cannot be without sin: by will or by nature? If by nature, it is not sin; if by will, the will can very easily be changed by the will.” We answer by urging that it be considered how great a presumption this is, which says not only that the will can be changed by the will (which, with the help of God's grace, is not to be denied) but that it can very easily be changed, when the apostle says: “The flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you will.” For he does not say, “these are opposed to each other, so that you do not will what you can do,” but “so that you do not do what you will.” Why, then, has the desire of the flesh (which is certainly blameworthy and corrupt, and is nothing but the desire for sin, which the same apostle commands not to reign in our mortal body, where he shows clearly enough that it is nevertheless in our mortal body, though it must not be allowed to reign), why, then, has this desire not been changed by that will which the apostle expressed clearly enough in saying, “so that you do not do what you will,” if the will can easily be changed by the will? Nor, in this way, do we accuse nature, whether of soul or of body, which God created and which is wholly good; but we say that, damaged by its own will, it cannot be healed without the grace of God.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask, if man cannot be without sin, whose fault it is: the man's own, or someone else's? If the man's own, how is it the man's fault if he is not what he cannot be?” We answer that it is the man's fault that he is not without sin, because it came about by man's will alone that he came into this necessity, which man's will alone cannot overcome.

“Again,” he says, “one must ask: if man's nature is good, which no one but Marcion or Manichaeus will dare deny, how then is it good if it is not possible for it to be free of evil? For who doubts that every sin is evil?” We answer both that man's nature is good and that it can be free of evil. That is why we cry out, “Deliver us from evil.” This is not accomplished as long as the body, which is corruptible, weighs down the soul. But it is being done by grace through faith, so that some day it may be said: “Where, O death, is your struggle? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”; because the law, by forbidding, increases the desire for sin unless the Spirit pours in love, which will be full and perfect when we see face to face.

“And this,” he says, “must be said: God is certainly just (for this cannot be denied); and God imputes every sin to man. And this too I think must be confessed, that whatever will not be imputed as sin is not sin. And if there is some sin that cannot be avoided, how is God called just if he is believed to impute to anyone what cannot be avoided?” We answer that long ago it was cried out against the proud: “Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” For he does not impute it to those who say to him faithfully, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” And he justly does not impute it, because what he says is just: “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” But there is sin when the love that ought to be is either absent or less than it ought to be, whether this can be avoided by the will or not. For if it can, the present will does this; but if it cannot, a past will did it. And yet it can be avoided, not when a proud will is praised, but when a humble will is helped.

After this, the man who wrote these things introduces himself as if disputing with someone else, and has himself questioned, and has the questioner say to him: “Can you show me a man without sin?” And he answers: “I can show you one who could be.” And again the questioner says to him: “Who is it?” And he answers: “You yourself. And if you say,” he says, “‘I cannot be,’ the answer must be: ‘Whose fault is it?’ And if he says, ‘Mine,’ it must be said: ‘And how is it yours, if you cannot be?’” Again he has himself questioned and has it said to him: “Are you yourself without sin, who say that man can be without sin?” And he answers: “That I am not without sin, whose fault is it? And if he says,” he says, “‘It is yours,’ the answer must be: ‘How is it mine, if I cannot be?’” We answer that there should be no conflict with them over these words, because he did not dare to say that a man is without sin, whether someone or himself, but only answered that he can be, which we do not deny either. But when he can be, and through whom he can be, is the question. For if he is so now, then not every faithful soul placed in the body of this death must pray and say, “Forgive us our debts,” since all past sins were already forgiven in holy baptism. But whoever tries to persuade the faithful members of Christ that this is not to be prayed professes nothing else than that he himself is not a Christian. Further, if man can be without sin by himself, then Christ died for nothing. But Christ did not die for nothing; therefore man cannot be without sin, even if he wishes, unless he is helped by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That this may be accomplished is being done now in those who make progress, and it will be fulfilled completely when the struggle with death has been swallowed up and love, which is nourished by believing and hoping, is made perfect by seeing and possessing.

Next he sets out to argue his case with divine testimonies. Let us look more carefully at what kind of case it is. “Testimonies,” he says, “by which it is proved that man is commanded to be without sin.” To this we answer: the question is not whether it is commanded, which is very plain; but whether this very thing which is certainly commanded can be fulfilled in the body of this death, where the flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do what we will. Not everyone who ends this life is freed from this body of death, but he who in this life has received grace and has acted with good works so as not to receive it in vain. For it is one thing to leave this body, which the last day of this life forces on all men, and another to be freed from the body of this death, which the grace of God alone through Jesus Christ our Lord imparts to his saints and faithful. After this life the perfecting reward is paid, but only to those by whom the merit of that reward is gained in this life. For no one will come to the fullness of righteousness when he leaves here unless he has run toward it while he is here, hungering and thirsting; for “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

As long, then, as we are away from the Lord and walk by faith, not by sight (whence it is said, “The righteous lives by faith”), this is our righteousness on that very pilgrimage: that we now strive toward that perfection and fullness of righteousness, where in the sight of his beauty love will be full and perfect, by the uprightness and perfection of the course itself: by chastening our body and bringing it into subjection; by doing almsgiving cheerfully and from the heart, in giving benefits and in forgiving sins committed against us; by persevering in prayer without ceasing; and by doing these things in sound teaching, by which right faith, firm hope, and pure love are built up. This is now our righteousness, by which we run, hungering and thirsting, toward the perfection and fullness of righteousness, so that afterwards we may be filled with it. Hence, when the Lord in the gospel had said, “Do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them,” so that we would not measure this course of ours by the goal of human glory, in setting out that righteousness he dealt only with these three: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. By fasting he signified all chastening of the body; by almsgiving, all goodwill and kindness, whether in giving or in forgiving; and by prayer he suggested all the rules of holy desire. For in the chastening of the body, desire is restrained, which ought not to be restrained but not to exist at all, and will not exist in that perfection of righteousness where there will be no sin at all; and often, even in the use of things granted and lawful, it shows its lack of measure. And in the very kindness by which the righteous man takes thought for his neighbor, some things are done that do harm when they were thought to do good; and sometimes, through weakness, when one is not equal to the needs of others, or when what is spent in kindness and labor does little good for them, weariness creeps in, by which the cheerfulness is darkened in which God loves the giver; and it creeps in the more the less a man has progressed, and the less the more he has progressed. Considering these things and the like, we rightly say in prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”; provided that we do what we say, so that even our enemies are loved; or, if anyone still a little one in Christ does not yet do this, that he at least forgives from the depth of his heart anyone who has sinned against him and repents and asks pardon, if he wishes the heavenly Father to hear his prayer.

In this prayer, if we do not wish to be contentious, a mirror is set before us sufficiently, in which to look at the life of the righteous, who live by faith and run perfectly, though they are not without sin. That is why they say, “Forgive us”: because they have not yet arrived where they are running. Hence the apostle says: “Not that I have already received, or am already perfect. Brothers, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let as many as are perfect, then, think this.” That is, as many of us as are running perfectly, let us think this: that we are not yet perfect, so that we may be perfected there, whither we are still running perfectly; so that when what is perfect has come, what is in part may be done away, that is, may no longer be in part but in whole. For the reality itself will succeed faith and hope, no longer believed and hoped for, but seen and possessed; while love, which is the greater among these three, will not be taken away but increased and filled, having beheld what it believed and obtained what it hoped. In this fullness of love that commandment will be fulfilled: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” For while there is still something of carnal desire that must be restrained even by continence, God is not loved in every way with the whole soul. For the flesh does not desire without the soul, although the flesh is said to desire, because the soul desires carnally. Then the righteous man will be without any sin at all, because there will be no law in his members warring against the law of his mind, but he will love God entirely with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole mind, which is the first and greatest commandment. Why, then, should this perfection not be commanded to man, although no one has it in this life? For one does not run rightly if one does not know where one must run. And how would it be known if it were shown by no commandments? So let us run in such a way as to lay hold of it. For all who run rightly will lay hold of it, not as in a contest in the theater, where all run but one receives the prize. Let us run by believing, hoping, desiring; let us run by chastening the body and by doing almsgiving cheerfully and from the heart in giving good things and forgiving evil ones, and by praying that the strength of those who run may be helped; and so let us hear the commandments of perfection, so that we do not neglect to run toward the fullness of love.

With this said beforehand, let us listen carefully to the testimonies which the man we are answering has put forward, as if we had produced them ourselves. In Deuteronomy: “But you shall be perfect before the Lord your God.” Also there: “And there shall be none imperfect among the sons of Israel.” Also the Savior in the gospel: “Be perfect, because your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Also the apostle in Second Corinthians: “Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfect.” Also to the Colossians: “Admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.” Also to the Philippians: “Do all things without grumbling and hesitation, that you may be blameless and simple, as children of God without blemish.” Also to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish in his sight.” Also to the Colossians: “And you, who were once alienated and enemies in mind in evil works, but now reconciled in the body of his flesh through his death, present yourselves holy and without blemish and blameless.” Also to the Ephesians: “That he might present to himself a glorious church, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Also in First Corinthians: “Be sober and righteous, and do not sin.” Also in the letter of holy Peter: “Therefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope perfectly for the grace that is offered to you, as children of obedience, not conformed to the former desires of your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, because I am holy.’” Hence blessed David also says: “Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Or who shall rest on your holy mountain? He who walks without spot and works righteousness”; and elsewhere: “And I shall be without spot with him”; and elsewhere: “Blessed are those without spot in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Also in Solomon: “The Lord loves holy hearts; and all who are without spot are acceptable to him.” Some of these testimonies exhort those who run to run perfectly; others mention the goal itself, toward which they strive by running. And one may not absurdly be said to walk without spot, not only if he is already perfect, but if he runs blamelessly toward perfection itself, free from damnable crimes and not neglecting to cleanse even venial sins by almsgiving. For our walking, that is, our journey by which we strive toward perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer; and prayer is clean when it is said truthfully, “Forgive us, as we also forgive”; so that, since what is not imputed is not blamed, our course toward perfection may be held without blame, that is, without spot; and in that perfection, when we come to it, there will no longer be anything at all to be cleansed by forgiving.

Next he brings testimonies to show that the divine commandments are not burdensome. But who does not know that, since love is the general commandment (for the end of the commandment is love, and love is the fulfilling of the law), what is done by loving, not by fearing, is not burdensome? Those labor under God's commandments who try to fulfil them by fearing; but perfect love casts out fear and makes the burden of the commandment light, not only not pressing down with the load of its weight, but even lifting up like wings. Yet for this love to be had, even as great as it can be had in the body of this death, the choice of our will is too little unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord helps; for it is poured into our hearts, as must often be said, not through ourselves but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Nor does Scripture mention that the divine commandments are not burdensome for any other reason than that the soul that feels them burdensome may understand that it has not yet received the strength by which the Lord's commandments may be such as they are commended to be, namely light and sweet, and may pray with the groaning of the will to obtain the gift of ease. For one who says, “Let my heart be without blemish,” and, “Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me,” and, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and, “Lead us not into temptation,” and other such things that it would be long to list, is certainly praying that he may do God's commandments. For their doing would neither be commanded if our will did nothing there, nor prayed for if our will alone sufficed. They are commended, then, as not burdensome, so that one to whom they are burdensome may understand that he has not yet received the gift by which they are not burdensome, and may not think he is fulfilling them when he does them in such a way that they are burdensome (for God loves a cheerful giver); and yet, when he feels them burdensome, may not be broken by despair, but may be driven to seek, ask, and knock.

Let us hear, then, God commending his commandments as not burdensome in the testimonies he put next. “That God's commandments,” he says, “are not only not impossible, but not even burdensome. In Deuteronomy: ‘And the Lord your God will turn again to delight in you for good, as he delighted in your fathers, if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and do all his commandments and his righteous acts and judgments that are written in the book of this law; if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. For this commandment that I command you today is not burdensome, nor is it far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say: Who will go up into heaven and get it for us, and we will hear it and do it? It is not beyond the sea, that you should say: Who will cross the sea and get it for us, and we will hear it and do it? For the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart and in your hands, to do it.’ Also the Lord in the gospel: ‘Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Also in the letter of holy John: ‘This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome.’” Having heard these testimonies from the law, the gospel, and the apostle, let us be built up toward grace, which they do not understand who, being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For they do not understand how the apostle Paul cited that passage from Deuteronomy: that with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; because those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. Certainly by that testimony of the apostle John, which he put last for this view, where he says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome,” they ought to be reminded that God's commandment is not burdensome to the love of God, which is poured into our hearts only through the Holy Spirit, not through human will, to which they give more than they ought and so are ignorant of God's righteousness. Yet this love will be perfect only when all penal fear has departed.

After this he put forward testimonies that are usually cited against them, and did not resolve them, but by citing others as if contrary he tied the questions more tightly. For he says: “Testimonies of the Scriptures to be set against those who ignorantly think they can destroy freedom of choice or the possibility of not sinning by the authority of the Scriptures. For they usually object,” he says, “that holy Job said: ‘Who is clean from sin? Not even an infant whose life on earth is one day.’” Then, as if answering this testimony with other testimonies, he says that Job himself said: “For I, a righteous and blameless man, have become a laughingstock”; not understanding that a man can be called righteous who has come very near to the perfection of righteousness, so as to be close to it; which we do not deny that many have been able to do even in this life, in which one lives by faith.

This is confirmed also by that testimony, which he added next, spoken by the same Job: “Behold, I am near my judgment, and I know that I shall be found righteous.” For this is the judgment of which it is said elsewhere: “And he will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.” Indeed he did not say, “I am there,” but, “I am near.” But if he wanted to be understood as meaning that judgment of his, not in which he himself will judge, but in which he is to be judged at the end, then in that judgment all will be found righteous who say without deceit, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” For through this forgiveness they will be found righteous, and because they have blotted out by almsgiving the sins they had here. Hence the Lord says: “Give alms, and behold, all things are clean for you.” Indeed, this will be said to the righteous as they go into the promised kingdom: “For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat,” and the rest of this kind. But it is one thing to be without sin, which in this life is said of the Only-begotten alone, and another to be without complaint, which could be said of many righteous even in this life, since there is a certain measure of good living about which there can be no just complaint even in this human life. For who justly complains of a man who wishes no one ill, faithfully takes thought for whom he can, and holds no lust for revenge against anyone's injuries, so that he says truly, “As we also forgive our debtors”? And yet by the very fact that he says truly, “Forgive, as we also forgive,” he declares that he is not without sin.

That is why he says: “There was no iniquity in my hands, but my prayer was clean.” For his prayer was clean because he who truly gave pardon did not unjustly ask for it.

And when he says of the Lord, “For he has made many bruises for me without cause,” he does not say, “He made none with cause,” but “many without cause.” For the many bruises were not made for him because of many sins, but for the proving of his patience. For on account of his sins, without which, as he confesses elsewhere, he was not, he judges that he ought to have suffered fewer.

Again, when he says, “For I have kept his ways and have not turned aside from his commandments, nor will I depart from them”: he keeps God's ways who does not stray so far as to leave them, but makes progress by running in them, even if at times, being weak, he stumbles or staggers; and he makes progress by lessening his sins until he comes where he is without sin. For he cannot make progress in that way except by keeping God's ways. But the apostate turns aside and departs from the Lord's commandments, not the man who, even though he has sin, does not give up perseverance in fighting against it, until he comes where no struggle with death will remain. In this conflict, then, we are clothed with that righteousness by which one lives here by faith, and we are in a way armed with it as with a breastplate. We also take up judgment, which we exercise even against ourselves on our own behalf, when we condemn our sins by accusing them. Hence it is written: “The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.” Hence he also says: “I was clothed with righteousness, and I put judgment around me like a cloak.” For this garment is more usually one of war than of peace, where desire is still being fought, not where righteousness will be full, without any enemy at all, when the last enemy, death, has been destroyed.

As for what the same holy Job says again, “For my heart does not reproach me in all my life”: in this life, in which we live by faith, our heart does not reproach us if that same faith, in which one believes with the heart unto righteousness, does not neglect to reproach our sin. Hence the apostle says: “For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I hate, this I do.” For it is good not to desire, and the righteous man who lives by faith wants this good; and yet he does what he hates, because he desires, although he does not go after his desires. If he did, then he himself would truly be doing it, so as to yield, consent, and obey the desire for sin. Then his heart reproaches him, because it reproaches him himself, not that sin of his which dwells in his members. But when he does not let sin reign in his mortal body so as to obey its desires, nor present his members to sin as weapons of iniquity, sin is indeed in his members, but it does not reign, because its desires are not obeyed. And so, while he does what he does not want, that is, he does not want to desire and he desires, he agrees with the law that it is good. For he wants what the law wants, since he wants not to desire, and the law says, “You shall not covet.” Since in this he wants what the law also wants, without doubt he agrees with the law; yet he desires, because he is not without sin; but it is no longer he who does it, but the sin that dwells in him. Therefore his heart does not reproach him in all his life, that is, in his faith, because the righteous lives by faith, and so his faith is his life. For he knows that good does not dwell in his flesh, where sin dwells; but by not consenting to it he lives by faith, because he calls on God to be helped as he fights against sin. That sin may not be there at all, to will is present with him, but to accomplish the good is not present. Not to do good is not present, but to accomplish it. For in not consenting he does good; in hating his desire he does good; in not ceasing to give alms he does good; in forgiving one who sins against him he does good; in asking that his debts be forgiven him, and saying truly that he himself also forgives his debtors, and praying not to be led into temptation but to be delivered from evil, he does good. Yet to accomplish the good is not present to him; that will be when that desire which dwells in his members is no more. So his heart does not reproach him when it reproaches the sin that dwells in his members and finds no unbelief of his to reproach. Thus he is neither reproached by his heart in his life, that is, in his faith, nor proved to be without sin. Job himself also confesses this of himself, where he says: “None of my sins has escaped you. You have sealed up my iniquities in a bag, and noted if I have transgressed in anything unwillingly.” The testimonies, then, that he put forward from the words of the holy man Job we have shown, as best we could, how they are to be taken. But he did not resolve what he stated that the same Job said: “For who is clean from sin? Not even an infant whose life on earth is one day.”

“Again,” he says, “they usually put forward: ‘Every man is a liar.’” Nor did he resolve this, which he himself put forward against his own side; but by citing other testimonies as if contrary, he left the divine words in dispute before those who do not understand holy Scripture. For he says: “They must be answered with what is written in the book of Numbers: ‘A truthful man’; and of holy Job we read thus: ‘There was a man living in the land of Ausis named Job, truthful, without crime, righteous, a worshiper of God, keeping himself from every evil thing.’” I am surprised that he dared to put this testimony, where it is said, “keeping himself from every evil thing,” wanting this to be understood as from every sin, when he said above that sin is an evil act, not a thing. Let him remember, then, that even if it is an act, it can be called a thing. But he keeps himself from every evil thing who either never at all consents to the sin without which he is not, or, if at times he is pressed, is not overpowered; as a stronger wrestler, even if he is sometimes held, does not for that reason lose the advantage by which he is found superior. Certainly we read of a man without crime, we read of one without complaint, but we do not read of one without sin except the Son of Man, who is one and the same, the only Son of God.

“Also,” he says, “in Job himself: ‘And wonder took hold of the truthful man’; also in Solomon, about wisdom: ‘Lying men will not remember her, but truthful men will be found in her’; also in the Apocalypse: ‘And in their mouth no lie was found; they are without spot.’” To these we too answer, pointing out how a man is to be called truthful through God's grace and truth, who by himself is without doubt a liar. Hence it is said: “Every man is a liar.” This too is what the testimony about wisdom that he himself put forward means: “But truthful men will be found in her”; who without doubt will be found to be liars not in her but in themselves; as it is said: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” When he said “darkness,” he did not add “in the Lord”; but when he said “light,” he certainly added “in the Lord,” because they could not be light in themselves; so that “he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” But those in the Apocalypse are called such because no lie was found in their mouth, because they did not say that they had no sin. If they said so, they would deceive themselves and the truth would not be in them; and if the truth were not in them, a lie would be found in their mouth. And if, to avoid ill will, being without sin, they said they were not without sin, this very thing would be a lie, and what was said would be false: “No lie was found in their mouth.” So they are without spot for this reason: because, as they forgave their debtors, so they were cleansed by God's forgiving them. See, we have explained, as best we could, how the testimonies he cited for his case should be taken. But he himself did not at all resolve how what is written should be taken, “Every man is a liar,” nor will he be able to resolve it unless he corrects the error by which he believes that man can be truthful by his own will alone, without the help of God's grace.

So he put forward the next question too and did not resolve it; indeed, he increased it and made it harder by putting forward against himself a proven testimony, “There is none who does good, not even one,” and by citing testimonies as if contrary, to show that there are men who do good. This he did show; but it is one thing not to do good, and another not to be without sin, even if a man does many good things. Therefore the testimonies he put forward are not against the statement that there is no man in this life without sin. But he did not show how it was said, “There is none who does good, not even one.” For he says: “Holy David says: ‘Hope in the Lord and do goodness.’” This is a command, not a deed; and this command those were certainly not doing of whom it was said: “There is none who does good, not even one.” He also says that holy Tobit said: “Do not fear, my son; we have lived a poor life, but we have many good things if we fear God and depart from all sin and do well.” Most truly will a man have many good things when he has departed from all sin; for then he will have no evils, so that he will not need to say, “Deliver us from evil.” Yet even now everyone who makes progress with right intention departs from all sin as he progresses, and becomes the farther from it the nearer he is to the fullness and perfection of righteousness; because desire itself, which is the sin dwelling in our flesh, though it still remains in our mortal members, does not cease to be lessened in those who make progress. It is one thing, then, to be departing from all sin, which is now the work in hand, and another to have departed from all sin, which will be then, in that perfection. But neither the one who has already departed nor the one who is still departing is to be denied to do good. How, then, was it said, “There is none who does good, not even one,” which he put forward and left unresolved? Only because that psalm blames a certain people among whom there was not even one who did good, since they wish to remain sons of men and not be sons of God, by whose grace a man becomes good so as to do good. For we must take it as said here of that good of which it says there: “God looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there is any who understands or seeks God.” This good, then, which is to seek God, there was none who did, not even one; but in that kind of men which is predestined to destruction. For it was on these that God's foreknowledge looked down and pronounced sentence.

“Also they say,” he says, “what the Savior says: ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’” This proposition too he did not resolve at all, but set other testimonies against it, as if from the opposite side, to prove that man too is good. For he said the answer must be what the same Lord says elsewhere: “The good man brings forth good things from the good treasure of his heart”; and again: “Who makes his sun rise on the good and the evil.” “And elsewhere it is written,” he says, “‘Good things were created for the good from the beginning’; and again: ‘Those who are good will be inhabitants of the earth.’” He must be answered in such a way that we also understand how it was said, “No one is good but the one God.” Either it is because all things that have been created, although God made them very good, yet compared with the Creator are not good, just as compared with him they do not even exist (for most loftily, and in a way proper to himself, he said of himself, “I am who I am”); so it was said, “No one is good but the one God,” in the way that it was said of John, “He was not the light,” though the Lord calls him a lamp, as he did the disciples, to whom he said, “You are the light of the world; no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel”; but in comparison with that light which is the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world, he was not the light. Or it is because even the sons of God themselves, compared with what they will be in that eternal perfection, are good in such a way that they are still also evil. I would not dare to say this of them (for who would dare to say that those whose father is God are evil?) were it not that the Lord himself says: “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” When he says “your Father,” he certainly showed that they were already sons of God, yet he did not keep silent that they were still evil. But he did not resolve how these are good and yet no one is good but the one God. That is why the man who had asked what good he should do was reminded to seek him by whose grace he would be good, for whom to be good is to be himself, because, being unchangeably good, he cannot be evil at all.

“Also they say,” he says, “‘Who will boast that he has a chaste heart?’” And to this he answered with many testimonies, wishing to show that there can be a chaste heart in man; yet he does not say how what he put forward as said against him is to be taken, “Who will boast that he has a chaste heart?”, so that the divine Scripture may not seem to contradict itself in this testimony and in those by which he answered. We, answering him, say that “Who will boast that he has a chaste heart?” followed because it was preceded by: “When the righteous king sits on the throne.” For however much righteousness a man is endowed with, he ought to consider whether something may not be found blameworthy in him which he himself does not see, when the righteous king sits on the throne, from whose thought no faults can escape, not even those of which it is said, “Who understands his faults?” When, then, the righteous king sits on the throne, who will boast that he has a chaste heart, or who will boast that he is clean from sin? Unless perhaps these people, who wish to boast in their own righteousness, not in the mercy of the judge himself.

Yet the things he added in answer are also true: what the Savior says in the gospel, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”; and what David says, “Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands and pure in heart”; and elsewhere, “Do good, Lord, to the good and the upright in heart”; also in Solomon, “Good is the substance of one who has no sin on his conscience”; also there, “Turn away from sin, and direct your hands, and cleanse your heart from all sin”; also in the letter of John, “If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask we shall receive from him.” For this is done by the will: by believing, hoping, loving, chastening the body, giving alms, forgiving injuries, praying earnestly, begging for strength to make progress, and saying truly, “Forgive us, as we also forgive,” and, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This is precisely what is being done, so that the heart may be cleansed and all sin removed, and whatever the righteous judge, when he sits on the throne, finds hidden and less cleansed may be forgiven by his mercy, so that for seeing God everything may be rendered healthy and clean. For judgment is without mercy, but to one who does not show mercy; and mercy triumphs over judgment. If it were not so, what hope would there be? For when the righteous king sits on the throne, who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sin?

Then, therefore, through his mercy the righteous, fully and perfectly cleansed, will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father; then fully and perfectly the church will have no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, because then she will also be truly glorious. For since he did not say only “that he might present to himself a church having no spot or wrinkle,” but added “glorious,” he indicated clearly enough when she will be without spot and wrinkle or any such thing: certainly then, when she is glorious. For she is not to be called glorious now, amid so many evils, so many scandals, so great a mixture of the worst men, so many insults from the ungodly, because kings serve her, which is a more dangerous and greater temptation; but she will rather be glorious then, when there will happen what the same apostle says: “When Christ your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” For since the Lord himself, in the form of a servant, through which as mediator he joined himself to the church, was not glorified except by the glory of the resurrection (whence it is said, “For the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”), how can his church be called glorious before her resurrection? He cleanses her now, then, by the washing of water with the word, washing away past sins and driving out from her the dominion of evil angels; and then, completing her healings, he makes her come to that glorious state without spot and wrinkle. For “those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” In this mystery, I think, it was said: “Behold, I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am finished,” that is, I am made perfect. For he said this in the person of his body, which is the church, putting days for distinct and ordered times, which he also signified in his resurrection on the third day.

I think there is a difference between the upright in heart and the pure in heart. For the upright in heart stretches forward to what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind, so that by an upright course, that is, by upright faith and intention, he may arrive where the pure in heart will dwell. So the individual parts are to be assigned to the individual parts in the passage, “Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? The innocent in hands and pure in heart”: the innocent in hands will ascend, and the pure in heart will stand; the former is in the work, the latter in the goal. And in that sense it is better to understand what was said: “Good is the substance of one who has no sin on his conscience.” For then the substance will be truly good, that is, true riches, when all poverty has passed away, that is, when all infirmity has been brought to an end. But now let a man turn away from sin, when by making progress he departs from it and is renewed day by day; and let him direct his hands in works of mercy, and cleanse his heart from all sin; let him show mercy, so that what remains may be forgiven by pardon. For this is well understood, wholesomely and without vain and empty boasting, in what holy John said: “If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask we shall receive from him.” For in this place he seems to have warned that our heart should not reproach us in prayer and petition itself; that is, that when we begin to say, “Forgive us, as we also forgive,” we should not be pricked with the knowledge that we do not do what we say, or not even dare to say what we do not do, and so lose our confidence in asking.

Next he set against himself the testimony of the Scriptures that is usually cited to them: “For there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin”; and he answered, as it were, with other testimonies, since the Lord says of holy Job: “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on earth, a man without complaint, truthful, a worshiper of God, keeping himself from all evil.” We have already discussed this above. Yet he did not show us how Job, if these words are to be understood in his way, was without any sin on earth, and it is also true, as he said was written: “There is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin.”

“Also they say,” he says, “‘For no one living will be justified in your sight’”; and to this testimony he replied, as it were, to no other effect than to make the holy Scriptures seem to quarrel, whose harmony we ought to show. For he says: “They must be answered with what the evangelist testifies of holy Zechariah, saying: ‘And Zechariah and Elizabeth his wife were both righteous in the sight of the Lord, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord without complaint.’” These two righteous people had certainly read, among those very commandments, how they should cleanse their sins. For Zechariah, as the letter to the Hebrews says of every priest taken from among men, certainly offered sacrifices for his own sins too. And how “without complaint” should be understood we have, I think, sufficiently shown above. “And the blessed apostle,” he says, “says: ‘That we should be holy and without blemish in his sight.’” This is being done so that we may be this, if those without blemish are to be understood as those who are altogether without sin; but if those without blemish are those who are without crime, we cannot deny that there have been such even in this life and are such, because someone is not without any sin just because he has no blemish of crime. Hence the apostle too, when choosing ministers to be ordained, did not say, “if anyone is without sin” (which he could not find), but, “if anyone is without crime,” which he certainly could. Yet he did not show how, according to his case, we should take what is written, “For no one living will be justified in your sight.” For the meaning is plain, declared more clearly by the preceding verse: “Do not enter into judgment with your servant,” he says, “for no one living will be justified in your sight.” He fears judgment because he desires mercy, which triumphs over judgment. For this is the meaning of “Do not enter into judgment with your servant”: “Do not judge me according to yourself, who are without sin; for no one living will be justified in your sight”; which is understood without difficult question as said of this life. And “will not be justified” he referred to that perfection of righteousness which is not in this life.

“Also they say,” he says, “‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’” And to this most evident testimony he tried to reply with testimonies as if contrary, since the same holy John says in the same letter: “But I say this, brothers, that you may not sin. Everyone who is born of God does not commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin.” Also there: “He who is born of God does not sin, because the generation of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.” “Also there,” he says, “where he says of the Savior: ‘For he appeared to take away sins. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.’ Also there: ‘Beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him sanctifies himself, as he also is holy.’” And yet, though all these testimonies are true, that one is true also which he put forward and did not resolve: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So, according as we are born of God, we remain in him who appeared to take away sins, that is, in Christ, and we do not sin (this is the inner man being renewed day by day); but according as we are born of that man through whom sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so it passed to all men, we are not without sin, because we are not yet without his infirmity, until, by that renewal which takes place day by day, since according to it we are born of God, the whole infirmity is healed in which we were born of the first man and in which we are not without sin. While its remnants remain in the inner man, though they are lessened day by day in those who make progress, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. For how is it true that “everyone who sins has not seen him or known him,” when, according to the seeing and knowing that will be in sight, no one sees and knows him in this life? But according to the seeing and knowing that is in faith, there are many who sin, certainly the apostates themselves, who nevertheless once believed in him, so that of none of them can it be said, according to the seeing and knowing that is still in faith, that he has not seen him or known him. But I think it is to be understood that the renewal that is being perfected sees and knows him, while the infirmity that is to be consumed neither sees nor knows him; and while any remnants of it, however great, are situated within, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Although, then, we are children of God by the grace of renewal, yet because of the remnants of infirmity it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Then there will be no sin, because no infirmity, inner or outer, will remain. “And everyone who has this hope in him sanctifies himself, as he also is holy”: he sanctifies himself not through himself but by believing in him and calling on him who sanctifies his saints. The perfection of this sanctification, which now progresses and grows day by day, will take away all the remnants of infirmity.

“Also they say,” he says, “‘It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.’” He says they must be answered with what the same apostle says elsewhere of a certain man: “Let him do what he wills.” “Also,” he says, “to Philemon, about Onesimus: ‘I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might serve me on your behalf; but I wanted to do nothing without your consent, so that your good deed might not be as if from necessity but voluntary.’ Also in Deuteronomy: ‘He has set life and death before your face, good and evil. Choose life, that you may live.’ Also in Solomon: ‘God from the beginning established man and left him in the hand of his own counsel. He added his commandments and precepts: if you will keep the precepts, they will keep you, and hereafter to do the faith that pleases. He has set before you water and fire; stretch out your hand to whichever you wish. Before man are good and evil, life and death. Poverty and honor are from the Lord God.’ Also in Isaiah: ‘And if you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are unwilling and do not listen to me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.’” Here, however much they cover themselves, they are laid open. For they declare that they argue against the grace or mercy of God, which we wish to obtain when we say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” or, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” For why do we ask for these things with so much groaning in prayer, if it is of man who wills and runs, not of God who shows mercy? Not that this is done without our will, but that the will does not accomplish what it does unless it is helped by God. This is the soundness of faith that makes us pray: seek, that we may find; ask, that we may receive; knock, that it may be opened to us. Whoever argues against this shuts the door of God's mercy against himself. I do not want to say more about so great a matter, because I commit it better to the groanings of the faithful than to my words.

Yet see, I beg you, what sort of argument it is that God's mercy, which even went before him so that he might run, is therefore not necessary to one who wills and runs: because the apostle says of a certain man, “Let him do what he wills,” in the place, I think, where he continues and says, “He does not sin; let him marry”; as though willing to marry were to be counted something great where the help of divine mercy is being argued about so laboriously; or as though even there willing did any good unless God, by the providence by which he governs all things, joined man and woman. Or because the apostle wrote to Philemon, “so that his good deed might not be as if from necessity but voluntary”; as though a good deed were voluntary in any other way than when God works in us both to will and to work for his good will. Or because it is written in Deuteronomy, “He has set life and death before man's face, good and evil,” and he urged him to choose life; as though this very admonition did not come from mercy, or as though choosing life did any good unless God breathed in the love of choosing it and granted that what was chosen be held, of whom it is said, “For wrath is in his indignation, and life in his will.” Or because it is said, “If you will keep the precepts, they will keep you”; as though he who willed the precepts ought not to give thanks to God, since, deserted by all light of truth, he could not will them. With fire and water set before man, he does stretch out his hand where he wills; but higher than all human thought is he who calls from on high, since the beginning of correcting the heart is faith, as it is written, “You will come and pass on from the beginning of faith”; and each chooses good according as God has assigned to each a measure of faith; and, “No one can come to me,” says the prince of faith, “unless the Father who sent me draws him.” That this was said of the faith by which one believes in him he explains clearly enough afterwards, where he says: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were believing and who would betray him. And he said: This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given him by my Father.”

But he thought he had found something great for his case in the prophet Isaiah, where God said: “If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are unwilling and do not listen to me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.” As though the whole law were not full of conditions of this kind; or as though these commandments were given to the proud for any other reason than that the law was placed because of transgression, until the offspring should come to whom the promise was made; whence the law came in so that trespass might abound; and where trespass abounded, grace superabounded. That is, so that man, proudly trusting in his own strength, might receive the commandments, and, failing in them and becoming even a transgressor, might seek a deliverer and savior; and so the fear of the law, having made him humble, might, like a tutor, lead him to faith and grace. So, “their infirmities were multiplied; afterwards they made haste,” and for healing them Christ came at the fitting time. In his grace even the righteous of old believed, helped by that same grace of his, so that they joyfully foreknew him, and some even foretold that he would come: whether within that people of Israel, like Moses, Joshua son of Nun, Samuel, David, and others like them; or outside that people, like Job; or before that people, like Abraham, like Noah, and any others whom the divine Scripture mentions or passes over. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, without whose grace no one is freed from condemnation, whether that which he contracted from him in whom all sinned, or that which he added afterwards by his own iniquities.

And what of what he put at the end: “If anyone says, ‘Can it be that a man does not sin even in word?’, the answer must be: If God wills, he can; and God wills, therefore he can.” He also says: “If anyone says, ‘Can it be that a man does not offend in thought?’, the answer must be: If God wills, he can; and God wills, therefore he can.” See how he would not say, “If God helps, he can,” to whom it is said, “Be my helper, do not forsake me,” certainly not for obtaining bodily goods and avoiding evils, but for doing and accomplishing righteousness. That is why we say, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And no one is helped unless he himself also does something; but he is helped if he calls on God, if he believes, if he is called according to his purpose; for “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” We run, then, when we make progress, while our health runs forward in those who make progress (as a scar too is said to run, when a wound is well and carefully treated), so that we may be perfect in every part, without any infirmity of sin at all; which God not only wills, but also brings about and helps to be fulfilled. And the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord does this with us, not only by commandments, sacraments, and examples, but also by the Holy Spirit, through whom love is secretly poured into our hearts, who intercedes with groanings too deep for words, until health is perfected in us and God is shown, to be seen as he is, in eternal truth.

Whoever, then, thinks that there has been or is in this life any man or men, except the one mediator between God and men, for whom forgiveness of sins was not necessary, is contrary to the divine Scripture, where the apostle says: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned”; and he must assert with ungodly contention that there can be men who are free and saved from sin without Christ the mediator freeing and saving them, though he said: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners.” But whoever says that, after receiving forgiveness of sins, any man has lived or lives so righteously in this flesh that he has no sin at all contradicts the apostle John, who says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” For he does not say “had” but “have.” If anyone asserts that this was said of that sin which dwells in our mortal flesh, according to the defect contracted by the will of the first man in sinning, whose desires the apostle Paul commands us not to obey; and that he does not sin who does not consent at all to that same sin, though it dwells in the flesh, for any evil work, whether of deed, word, or thought, although desire itself is stirred (which in another sense has received the name of sin, because to consent to it is to sin, and it is stirred in us against our will): he distinguishes these things subtly, but let him see what becomes of the Lord's Prayer, where we say, “Forgive us our debts.” This, unless I am mistaken, would not need to be said if we never consented even a little to the desires of that same sin, whether in a slip of the tongue or in taking pleasure in a thought; but we would only need to say, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Nor would the apostle James say: “We all offend in many things.” For no one offends except one whom evil desire, against the rule of righteousness, persuades, whether by deceiving or by overpowering, to do or say or think something he ought not, in seeking or in avoiding. Finally, if it is asserted that, except for that head of ours, the savior of his body, there have been or are in this life some righteous men without any sin, either because they never consent to its desires or because what is so small that God does not impute it to godliness is not to be counted as any sin (although it is one thing to be blessed as being without sin, and another to be blessed as one to whom the Lord does not impute sin), I do not think it should be resisted too strongly. For I know that some have held this view, whose opinion on this matter I do not dare to reprove, though I cannot defend it either. But plainly, whoever denies that we ought to pray that we may not enter into temptation (and he denies this who contends that the help of God's grace is not necessary for man not to sin, but that human will suffices once the law has been received), I do not doubt should be removed from the ears of all and anathematized by the mouth of all.