On the Spirit and the Letter 1–17

Having read the little works I recently composed for you, my dearest son Marcellinus, on the baptism of little ones and on the perfection of human righteousness (that no one seems to have attained or to be going to attain it in this life except the one Mediator, who endured human things in the likeness of sinful flesh without any sin at all), you wrote back that you were troubled by what I said in the later of the two books: that it is possible for a person to be without sin if his will does not fail, with the help of divine aid, but that apart from the one in whom all will be made alive, there has been and will be no one in whom this perfection existed while he lived here. For it seems absurd to you to say that something is possible of which there is no example. Yet, I believe, you do not doubt that it has never happened that a camel passed through the eye of a needle, and still he said that this too is possible for God. You read also that twelve thousand legions of angels could have fought for Christ so that he would not suffer, and yet it did not happen; you read that it could have happened that the nations were exterminated at once from the land that was being given to the children of Israel, and yet God willed that it be done little by little. And six hundred other things may occur to us which we would admit either could have happened or can happen, and yet we cannot produce examples of their having been done. Hence we ought not to deny that it is possible for a person to be without sin merely because there is no human being, apart from him who is not only man but also God by nature, in whom we can show that this has been accomplished.

Here perhaps you may answer that the things I mentioned, which have not happened and could have happened, are divine works, whereas for a person to be without sin belongs to the work of the person himself, and that this work is the best, by which a full and perfect righteousness, complete in every part, comes about; and that therefore it is not to be believed that no one has been, is, or will be in this life who has fulfilled this work, if it can be fulfilled by a human being. But you ought to consider that, although it belongs to the person to do this, it is also a divine gift, and therefore not to doubt that it is a divine work. “For it is God,” says the apostle, “who works in you both to will and to work according to his good will.”

Accordingly, those who say that a person lives or has lived here without any sin at all are not very troublesome, and they must be pressed to show, if they can, that it is so. For if anyone could teach that the testimonies of the Scriptures by which I think it is settled that no human being living here, although he uses free choice, is found without sin (such as, “Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living shall be justified in your sight,” and others like it) are to be taken otherwise than they sound, and could demonstrate that some one or several have lived here without any sin, whoever not only did not oppose him in the least but did not greatly congratulate him would be driven by no small goads of envy. Indeed, even if there is not, has not been, and will not be anyone perfect with such purity (which I rather believe), and yet it is maintained and thought that there is, has been, or will be, as far as I can judge, the error is not great nor is it harmful for someone to be mistaken with a certain goodwill, provided that the one who thinks this does not think himself to be such, unless he has really and clearly perceived himself to be such.

But those must be resisted most sharply and vehemently who think that without God's help the very power of the human will can by itself either perfect righteousness or make progress by striving toward it. When they begin to be pressed as to how they presume to assert that this happens without divine aid, they check themselves and do not dare to utter this saying, since they see how ungodly and intolerable it is. But they say that these things do not happen without divine aid because God both created man with free choice of the will and, by giving commands, himself teaches how man should live; and he certainly helps in this, that by teaching he takes away ignorance, so that man may know what he ought to avoid and what to seek in his actions; so that, entering by his naturally implanted free choice on the way that has been shown, by living continently, justly, and piously he may merit to attain the blessed and also eternal life.

We, however, say that the human will is so helped by God to do righteousness that, besides man's having been created with free choice, and besides the teaching by which he is commanded how he ought to live, he receives the Holy Spirit, by whom there comes to be in his mind a delight in and love of that supreme and unchangeable good which is God, even now while we walk by faith, not yet by sight; so that, given this as a pledge, as it were, of the free gift, he may burn to cleave to the Creator and be set on fire to approach participation in that true light, so that it may be well with him from the one from whom he has his being. For free choice avails for nothing but sinning if the way of truth is hidden; and when what is to be done and what is to be striven for has begun not to be hidden, unless it also delights and is loved, it is not done, not undertaken, there is no good living. But in order that it may be loved, the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not through the free choice that arises from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For that teaching by which we receive the command to live continently and rightly is the letter that kills, unless the life-giving Spirit is present. For what we read, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” is not to be understood only in the sense that we should not take according to the sound of the letter something written figuratively whose literal meaning is absurd, but, looking to something else that it signifies, should nourish the inner man with spiritual understanding, since “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”; as if someone were to take carnally many things written in the Song of Songs, not for the fruit of luminous charity but for the feeling of lustful desire. It is not, then, only in this sense that what we read is to be understood, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” but also, and indeed chiefly, in that sense which he states most plainly in another place: “I would not have known concupiscence if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’”; and a little later he says, “Sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me.” See what “the letter kills” is. And certainly nothing figurative is said, which is not to be taken according to the sound of the letter, when it is said, “You shall not covet”; it is a most plain and most wholesome command, and whoever fulfills it will have no sin at all. For the apostle chose this general command, in which he embraced everything, as if this were the voice of the law forbidding every sin, when he says, “You shall not covet”; for no sin is committed except by coveting. Accordingly, the law that commands this is good and praiseworthy. But where the Holy Spirit does not help, inspiring good desire in place of evil desire, that is, pouring out charity in our hearts, that law, though good, certainly increases evil desire by forbidding it; as the rush of water, if it does not cease to flow in that direction, becomes more violent when an obstacle is set against it, and when it has overcome the mass of it, rushes more violently down the slope with a greater volume. For in some way the very thing that is desired becomes more pleasant while it is forbidden. And this is what it means that sin deceives through the commandment and kills by it, when transgression also is added, which does not exist where there is no law.

But let us, if you please, consider that whole passage of the apostle's letter and treat it as the Lord helps us. For I want, if I can, to show that what the apostle says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” was not said of figurative expressions, although it is also fittingly taken in that sense, but rather of the law that openly forbids what is evil. When I have shown this, it will certainly appear more clearly that to live well is a divine gift, not only because God has given man free choice, without which one lives neither badly nor well, nor only because he has given a command by which to teach how one should live, but because through the Holy Spirit he pours out charity in the hearts of those whom he foreknew in order to predestine, predestined in order to call, called in order to justify, justified in order to glorify. When this has become clear, you will see, I think, that it is idle to say that only those things can be without example which are works of God (as we mentioned regarding the camel passing through the eye of a needle and whatever other things are impossible with us but easy with God), and that human righteousness is therefore not to be counted among these, because it ought to belong not to the work of God but to that of man, and that, if its perfection is possible in this life, there is no reason why it should be believed to be without example. That this is idle will be clear enough when it has become plain that human righteousness itself is to be attributed to the working of God, although it does not come about without the will of man. And therefore we cannot deny that its perfection is possible even in this life, because all things are possible to God, both those which he does by his own will alone and those which he has determined can be done by him with the cooperating wills of his creature. And so whatever of these he does not do is indeed without example among works done, but it has with God, in his power, a cause by which it could be done, and in his wisdom a reason why it has not been done; and even if this cause is hidden from man, let him not forget that he is a man, nor attribute folly to God because he does not fully grasp his wisdom.

Note, then, how the apostle, writing to the Romans, explains and shows sufficiently that what he wrote to the Corinthians, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” is rather to be taken as we said above: that the letter of the law, which teaches that one must not sin, kills if the life-giving Spirit is absent; for it makes sin known rather than avoided, and therefore increased rather than diminished, since transgression of the law is added to evil desire.

The apostle, then, wishing to commend the grace that came to all nations through Jesus Christ, so that the Jews would not exalt themselves above the other nations because they had received the law, after saying that sin and death entered the human race through one man, and righteousness and eternal life through one man, plainly indicating Adam by the one and Christ by the other, says, “But the law came in so that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace abounded still more; so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then, raising a question against himself, he says, “What then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin so that grace may abound? Far from it.” For he saw that what he had said, “The law came in so that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace abounded still more,” could be taken perversely by perverse people, as though he had said that sin is profitable because of the abundance of grace. Refuting this, he answered, “Far from it,” and added, “We who have died to sin, how shall we live in it?” That is: since grace has granted that we should die to sin, what else shall we be doing, if we live in it, but being ungrateful to grace? For one who praises the benefit of medicine does not say that the diseases and wounds from which it heals a person are profitable; but the greater the praise with which medicine is proclaimed, the more the wounds and diseases from which the medicine so praised sets free are blamed and dreaded. So the praise and proclamation of grace is the blame and condemnation of offenses. For the foulness of his sickness had to be shown to man, against whose iniquity not even a holy and good command availed, by which iniquity was increased rather than diminished, since the law came in so that the offense might abound; so that, convicted and confounded in this way, he might see that he needs God not only as teacher but also as helper, by whom his paths may be directed, so that no iniquity may have dominion over him; and that, by fleeing to the help of mercy, he might be healed, and so, where the offense abounded, grace might abound still more, not by the merit of the sinner but by the aid of the one who helps.

Consequently the apostle shows that the same medicine has been mystically displayed in the passion and resurrection of Christ, saying, “Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried with him, then, through baptism into death, so that, as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer serve sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died, he died to sin once; but in that he lives, he lives to God. So you also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” It is clear enough that by the mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection is figured the setting of our old life and the rising of the new, and that the abolition of iniquity and the renewal of righteousness are displayed. Whence, then, comes so great a benefit to man through the letter of the law, if not through faith in Jesus Christ?

This holy thought keeps the children of men hoping under the protection of God's wings, so that they are drunk with the abundance of his house and drink of the torrent of his pleasure; for with him is the fountain of life, and in his light we shall see light; he who extends his mercy to those who know him and his righteousness to those who are upright in heart. For he extends his mercy not because they know him, but also so that they may know him; and he extends his righteousness, by which he justifies the ungodly, not because they are upright in heart, but also so that they may be upright in heart. This thought does not carry one away into pride, a vice that arises when anyone trusts too much in himself and makes himself his own head for living. By this movement one withdraws from that fountain of life, by drinking from which alone righteousness is drunk, namely a good life, and from that unchangeable light, by participation in which the rational soul is in some way kindled, so that it too may be a made and created light, as John was a burning and shining lamp, who nevertheless recognized whence he shone: “We,” he says, “have received of his fullness.” Of whose, if not certainly of him in comparison with whom John was not the light? For that was the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world. Accordingly, when he had said in the same psalm, “Extend your mercy to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart,” he says, “Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hands of sinners move me. There all who work iniquity have fallen; they were driven out and could not stand.” For by this ungodliness, by which each one attributes to himself what is God's, he is driven into his own darkness, which are the works of iniquity. For these he plainly does himself, and for accomplishing these he is sufficient to himself. But he does not do the works of righteousness except insofar as he receives from that fountain and from that light, where there is life that lacks nothing and where there is no change nor shadow of a moment.

Therefore the apostle Paul (who, when he was first called Saul, chose this name, as far as I can see, for no other reason than to show himself small, as the least of the apostles) fights much, strongly and sharply, against the proud and arrogant who presume on their own works, in order to commend this grace of God; because in him it truly appeared more evidently and more clearly, since, while doing such things by vehemently persecuting the church of God, for which he deserved the ultimate punishment, he received mercy instead of condemnation and obtained grace instead of punishment. Rightly he cries out and contends above all for its defense, and in a matter deep and very hidden he does not care about the ill will of those who do not understand and who twist his sound words into a perverse sense, provided he proclaims without hesitation the gift of God by which alone the children of the promise are saved, the children of the divine benefit, the children of grace and mercy, the children of the new covenant. First, in that every greeting of his runs thus: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; then, in the letter to the Romans almost this question alone is treated, so combatively and in so many ways that it wearies the reader's attention, but with a useful and wholesome weariness, so that it exercises the limbs of the inner man rather than breaking them.

From this come the things I mentioned above; from this it comes that he rebukes the Jew and says that he is called a Jew and by no means fulfills what he professes. “But if you,” he says, “are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve what is excellent, being instructed from the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law: you, then, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God through transgression of the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you, as it is written. Circumcision indeed profits if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If, then, the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And the uncircumcision which is by nature, fulfilling the law, will judge you, who through the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” Here he made clear in what sense he had said, “You boast in God.” For certainly, if such a Jew truly boasted in God in the way that grace requires, which is given not for the merits of works but freely, his praise would be from God, not from men. But they boasted in God as those who alone had deserved to receive his law, according to that saying of the psalm: “He has not dealt thus with any nation, and he has not shown his judgments to them.” Yet they thought they fulfilled this law of God by their own righteousness, when rather they were its transgressors. Hence it worked wrath for them, since sin abounded that was committed by those who knew; because even whoever did what the law commanded, without the help of the Spirit of grace, did it from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness. And so before God it was not in the will, what appeared before men in the deed; and they were held guilty rather for that which God knew they would prefer to commit, if it could be done with impunity. By the circumcision of the heart he means the will pure from all unlawful desire; which does not come about by the letter teaching and threatening, but by the Spirit helping and healing. Therefore the praise of such people is not from men but from God, who by his grace provides that for which they are praised; of whom it is said, “In the Lord my soul shall be praised,” and to whom it is said, “With you is my praise”; not like those who want God to be praised because they are men, but themselves because they are righteous.

“But we too praise God,” they say, “as the author of our justification, in that he gave the law, by looking at which we know how we ought to live.” And they do not hear what they read: “For by the law no flesh will be justified before God.” It can happen before men, but not before him who is the inspector of the heart itself and of the inmost will, where he sees, even if the one who fears the law does something else, what he would nevertheless prefer to do if it were allowed. And lest anyone should think that the apostle here said that no one is justified by that law which contains many figurative precepts in the old sacraments, including the circumcision of the flesh itself, which little ones were ordered to receive on the eighth day, he at once added what law he meant, and said, “For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” It is, then, that law of which he says afterwards, “I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known concupiscence if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” For what else is “through the law comes the knowledge of sin”?

Here perhaps that human presumption, ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish its own, may say that the apostle rightly said that no one will be justified by the law; for the law only shows what is to be done and what avoided, so that the will may fulfill what the law has shown, and so man may be justified not by the command of the law but by free choice. But, O man, pay attention to what follows. “But now,” he says, “apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Does this not ring loudly enough in deaf ears? “The righteousness of God,” he says, “has been manifested.” Those who wish to establish their own are ignorant of this; to this they do not want to be subject. “The righteousness of God,” he says, “has been manifested”; he did not say “the righteousness of man” or “the righteousness of one's own will”; “the righteousness of God,” not that by which God is righteous, but that with which he clothes man when he justifies the ungodly. This is witnessed by the law and the prophets; for the law and the prophets bear witness to it: the law in that, by commanding and threatening and justifying no one, it shows sufficiently that man is justified by God's gift through the help of the Spirit; and the prophets, because the coming of Christ fulfilled what they foretold. For next he goes on and adds, “But the righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ,” that is, through the faith by which one believes in Christ. And just as this faith of Christ is so called, not the faith by which Christ believes, so that righteousness of God is not that by which God is righteous. For both are ours; but they are called God's and Christ's because they are given to us by his generosity. The righteousness of God, then, apart from the law, not manifested without the law. For how could it be witnessed by the law if it were manifested without the law? But the righteousness of God apart from the law is that which God confers on the believer through the Spirit of grace without the help of the law, that is, not helped by the law; since through the law he shows man his weakness, so that, fleeing by faith to his mercy, he may be healed. For of his wisdom it is said that it bears law and mercy on its tongue: law, namely, by which it makes the proud guilty, and mercy, by which it justifies the humbled. “The righteousness of God, then, through faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe; for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God,” not their own glory. “For what do they have that they did not receive? And if they received it, why do they boast as if they had not received it?” They lack, then, the glory of God; and see what follows: “being justified freely by his grace.” Not, then, justified by the law, not justified by their own will, but justified freely by his grace; not that it happens without our will, but our will is shown to be weak by the law, so that grace may heal the will and the healed will may fulfill the law, not placed under the law nor needing the law.

“For the law is not laid down for the righteous man”; yet it “is good, if anyone uses it lawfully.” By connecting these two as if contrary to each other, the apostle warns and moves the reader to investigate and resolve the question. For how is the law good, if anyone uses it lawfully, if what follows is also true, “knowing this, that the law is not laid down for the righteous man”? For who uses the law lawfully except the righteous man? Yet it is not laid down for him, but for the unrighteous. Or must the unrighteous man too, in order to be justified, that is, to become righteous, use the law lawfully, so that by it, as by a tutor, he may be led to grace, through which alone he can fulfill what the law commands? For through grace he is justified freely, that is, with no preceding merits of his own works (“otherwise grace is no longer grace”), since it is given not because we have done good works, but so that we may be able to do them; that is, not because we have fulfilled the law, but so that we may be able to fulfill the law. For he said, “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it,” of whom it was said, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is the glory of which it was said, “For all have sinned and lack the glory of God,” and this is the grace of which he at once says, “being justified freely by his grace.” The unrighteous man, then, uses the law lawfully in order to become righteous; and when he has become so, let him no longer use it, as one no longer uses a vehicle when he has arrived, or rather, to use the apostle's comparison mentioned above, as one no longer uses a tutor when he has been educated. For how is the law not laid down for the righteous man, if it is necessary for the righteous man too, not in order that as unrighteous he may be led to justifying grace, but so that, now righteous, he may use it lawfully? Or perhaps (indeed not perhaps, but certainly) the man who is already righteous uses the law lawfully when he imposes it on the unrighteous to frighten them, so that, when in them too the disease of ingrained concupiscence has begun to be increased by the incitement of prohibition and the heap of transgression, they may flee by faith to justifying grace, and, delighted by the sweetness of righteousness through the gift of the Spirit, escape the penalty of the threatening letter. So these two will not be contrary nor fight each other, so that even the righteous man uses a good law lawfully and yet the law is not laid down for the righteous man; for he was not justified by it, but by the law of faith, by which he believed that his weakness could in no way be helped to fulfill what the law of deeds commanded, except by divine grace.

Therefore he says, “Where, then, is your boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Either he meant praiseworthy boasting, which is in the Lord, and said it was excluded, that is, not driven out so as to depart, but pressed out so as to stand out (hence certain silversmiths are called excluders; hence also that saying in the Psalms, “that those who have been tested with silver may be excluded,” that is, that those who have been tested by the word of the Lord may stand out; for elsewhere too it is said, “The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tested by fire”); or he wished to mention the faulty boasting that comes from pride, that of those, namely, who, when they seem to themselves to live righteously, boast as if they had not received it, and he says it is excluded not by the law of works but by the law of faith, that is, cast out and thrown away; because by the law of faith each one knows that, if he lives well in any respect, he has it by God's grace, and that he will not obtain from anywhere else to be made perfect in the love of righteousness.