On the Spirit and the Letter

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1–17 · 18–33 · 34–48 · 49–59 · 60–66

1. 1Augustine answers Marcellinus's objection that it is absurd to call sinlessness possible when no one but Christ has achieved it.
2. 2Even if sinlessness is a human work, it is also God's gift and work, as Paul says in Phil 2:13.
3. 3Augustine considers it a harmless error to think someone might live without sin, provided one does not claim it for oneself.
4. 4Augustine states the view of his opponents: God's help consists only in creating free will and giving commands that remove ignorance.
5. 5Augustine's position: beyond free will and teaching, the Holy Spirit gives delight in and love of God, without which the will cannot do good.
6. 6“The letter kills” refers not only to figurative texts taken literally but chiefly to the law's command “You shall not covet,” which without the Spirit only increases desire.
7. 7Augustine proposes to show that “the letter kills” refers to the law without the Spirit, and that righteousness is God's work in the human will.
8. 8Romans shows that the letter of the law kills when the Spirit is absent, because it makes sin known and adds transgression.
9. 9Paul's teaching that the law came in to increase the offense shows humanity its sickness so that it will seek God as helper, not only as teacher.
10. 10Baptism into Christ's death and resurrection signifies the end of the old life and the beginning of the new, a benefit that comes through faith in Christ, not the letter of the law.
11. 11Augustine meditates on Psalm 36: righteousness is drawn from God as fountain and light, and pride, which claims God's work for oneself, drives one into darkness.
12. 12Paul, himself a persecutor who received grace, defends God's grace above all, especially in Romans.
13. 13Paul's rebuke of the Jew who boasts in the law shows that true circumcision is of the heart, given by the Spirit, and praise comes from God, not from works done out of fear.
14. 14The law that cannot justify is not only the ceremonial law but the moral law that gives knowledge of sin, including “You shall not covet.”
15. 15The righteousness of God revealed in Rom 3:21–24 is not God's own righteousness but the righteousness he gives, freely by grace through faith, healing the will to fulfill the law.
16. 16Augustine reconciles “the law is good if used lawfully” with “the law is not laid down for the righteous”: the law leads the unrighteous to grace, and the righteous use it to frighten others toward grace.
17. 17Augustine gives two readings of “boasting is excluded” (Rom 3:27): good boasting is brought into prominence, or proud boasting is thrown out by the law of faith.
18. 18True wisdom is godliness, which gives thanks to God rather than claiming righteousness for oneself; the righteousness of God in Rom 1:17 is the righteousness God gives.
19. 19The pagans who knew God through creation but did not glorify him or give thanks fell through pride into idolatry, as Rom 1:18–23 shows.
20. 20Augustine restates his aim: God helps us to righteousness not merely by giving the law but by the Spirit of grace, without which knowledge of the law, like pagan knowledge of God, does not save.
21. 21The difference between the law of works and the law of faith is not that between Judaism and Christianity, since the gospel too says “You shall not covet.”
22. 22The law of works commands, “Do what I command”; the law of faith prays, “Give what you command”; justification is by faith and free grace, not by the merits of deeds.
23. 23The law that cannot justify includes the Decalogue, which Christians keep except for the literal Sabbath, since it contains “You shall not covet.”
24. 24In 2 Cor 3 the letter that kills is the whole Decalogue engraved on stone, not merely the Sabbath command.
25. 25Augustine quotes Rom 7:6–25 in full to show that Paul's argument concerns the law that forbids sin, not ceremonial observances.
26. 26Without the Spirit, the letter only brings guilt; with faith working through love, one delights in God's law, though the struggle continues until the old nature is wholly renewed.
27. 27The Sabbath, the only figurative command of the Decalogue, signified the hidden grace of sanctification later revealed in Christ.
28. 28The Holy Spirit, the “finger of God,” who wrote the law on stone, came at Pentecost fifty days after Christ's Passover, as the law came fifty days after the first Passover.
29. 29At Sinai the law was written on stone and frightened sinners; at Pentecost the Spirit wrote charity on hearts, which fulfills the whole law.
30. 30Paul's “letter of Christ” written on hearts contrasts the law written outside to terrify with the Spirit working within to justify; the veil is removed when one turns to Christ.
31. 31Paul calls the law the ministry of death and the gospel the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness; he preaches grace received by mercy, and “the righteousness of God” is the righteousness God gives.
32. 32Grace is not merely the giving of the law and teaching; without the Spirit these kill, but the Spirit writes within what is loved.
33. 33Augustine introduces Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant, the only Old Testament passage that names it.
34. 34The old covenant failed through Israel's fault, not the law's; the law was given so that grace might be sought, and grace so that the law might be fulfilled.
35. 35The new covenant is new because the Spirit writes the same law on the heart, as Jeremiah foretold and Paul echoed in 2 Cor 3.
36. 36God's laws written on hearts are the presence of the Holy Spirit, who pours out love; the new covenant promises not earthly goods but the good of the heart and mind.
37. 37The reward of the new covenant is God himself, known and seen in eternal life, when believers will be like him; this likeness now begins to be restored.
38. 38The present renewal is small compared with the perfection to come, as childhood is compared with manhood in 1 Cor 13.
39. 39Jeremiah's promise that no one will need to teach “Know the Lord” refers to the eternal reward of the new covenant, the vision of God, since preaching still goes on now.
40. 40“All” who will know God are the spiritual Israel, the children of the promise, predestined, called, justified, and glorified by grace, not by works.
41. 41The old covenant's reward was the promised land; the new covenant's reward is the contemplation of God, when partial knowledge will cease and all will know him, from the least to the greatest.
42. 42Jeremiah's new covenant differs from the old not in rites but in that God writes his law on hearts and gives himself as reward; God helps us not by outward commands but by pouring out love within.
43. 43Augustine raises the question how the new covenant's law written on hearts differs from the gentiles' having the law written on their hearts by nature (Rom 2:14–15).
44. 44Following Paul's argument in Rom 1–2, Augustine argues that the gentiles with the law written on their hearts are gentile believers who belong to the gospel.
45. 45“The doers of the law will be justified” means that justification makes people doers of the law, or that they will be counted righteous; it does not mean justification by works.
46. 46The gentiles of Rom 2:14–15 are believing gentiles, grafted into God's people, in whose hearts the Spirit writes the law, as Jeremiah promised.
47. 47Doing the law “by nature” means nature restored by grace, which rewrites in the heart the law that sin had erased.
48. 48Even if the gentiles of Rom 2 are unbelievers with remnants of God's image, the new covenant's distinctiveness stands; their good works cannot save them, though punishment will differ in degree.
49. 49Whichever reading of Rom 2:14 is taken, the new covenant's grace is the Spirit writing the law on hearts and leading to the vision of God.
50. 50Righteousness comes from Christ's gifts, not the law; Israel failed not because of ceremonies but because it claimed to fulfill God's moral commands by its own power.
51. 51The law's promise of life is fulfilled only by the justified, and justification comes from faith, which obtains the Spirit's sweetness so that one acts from love rather than fear.
52. 52Grace does not abolish free will but establishes it, by healing the will so that it freely loves righteousness; Augustine traces the chain from law to faith, grace, health, freedom, love, and obedience.
53. 53Before asking whether faith is in our power, Augustine defines power as the ability to act joined to the will: what one does if one wills and does not do if one does not will.
54. 54Faith is in our power, since believing is consenting, which is an act of will; yet all power is from God, though evil will is not, and God may give power to the wicked as judgment.
55. 55Not all believing is good; the faith Paul commends is belief in God.
56. 56The faith Paul commends is not servile belief that fears punishment but the faith of sons that asks God for righteousness and continence, obtains the Spirit, and works through love.
57. 57Augustine asks whether the will to believe is God's gift or comes from natural free choice, noting the difficulty on either side.
58. 58Augustine first proposes that the will to believe arises from God-given free choice when God calls; unbelievers resist God's will but cannot escape his judgment.
59. 59Augustine reads Ps 103:2–5 as the order of grace: forgiveness in baptism, healing in this life, resurrection, merciful judgment, and final satisfaction in the vision of God.
60. 60God works the will to believe by outward and inward persuasion, though consent remains the act of one's own will; why one is persuaded and another not lies in the depth of God's judgments.
61. 61Augustine begins to conclude, doubting whether he has persuaded those who prefer their own view to Paul's teaching on grace.
62. 62Augustine recalls Marcellinus's question and his own earlier statement, and gathers examples of things possible to God that have never happened.
63. 63Righteous living is also God's work in us, as faith that moves mountains is; perfect righteousness would be possible with sufficient knowledge and delight, which depend on God's judgment and healing.
64. 64The command to love God with all one's heart will be fulfilled only in the vision of God; in this life, the one who progresses most is the one who knows how far he is from perfection.
65. 65Even the lesser righteousness of this life requires consenting to no unlawful desire, yet Scripture shows that no one lives without sin, so all must pray for forgiveness and grace.
66. 66No one in this life is without sin unless helped by the Spirit of grace; God could make someone perfect here, and why he does not lies hidden in his unsearchable judgments.