On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 1–20

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.