Again, Christ says, John 8:31: “If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples.” “Therefore they are disciples who abide in His word.

He speaks in like fashion, John 14: 12, 20-26.

And Paul, Rom. 6:3-4, most clearly teaches that those who have enlisted under Christ must begin a new life, saying: “Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We are buried therefore ’ with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we

also might walk in newness of life.” What else does Paul teach here than that all we who have been baptized have been admitted to the death of Christ, as the act of baptism bears witness, which first plunges us into the water to recall the death and burial of Christ, and then draws us out again, signifying nothing else than that, as Christ rose again from the dead to die no more, so we while buried in baptism are dead to the world and our former life, but when drawn out begin a new life, that is, one worthy of Christ? This the Apostle himself expounds in the following verses, saying [Rom. 6: 5-11]: “For if we are united with him in the likeness of his death, no doubt we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. By this likeness we learn that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. For he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. By this we see that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In these words of Paul, clearer than the sun as they are, there is nothing which everybody cannot easily grasp except the one expression, “to be dead unto sin”; for this expression Paul uses in different senses. When he teaches that Christ died unto sin, he means that Christ died because of sin, that sin might be slain; but when he says that we are dead unto sin, he means that we are freed from sin and hence no more subject to it.

In Gal. 6:15 we read: “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncireumcision, but a new creature.” It is not enough, therefore, to be baptized, but we are baptized in order to be new creatures. It is not enough to say, “Lord, Lord” [cf. Mt. 7:21], but we must live according to the will of the Father. This new life and the laying aside of the old is thus taught in Rom. 13: 11-14: “Since we know this, namely, the time, that now it is high time for us to awake out of sleep: for our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore put away

the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; and let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The same thing is taught in I Peter 4: 1-11. Let him who will look for it there.

All the writings of the Apostles are filled with this idea, — that the Christian religion is nothing else than a firm hope in God through Christ Jesus and a blameless life wrought after the pattern of Christ as far as He giveth us. It is plain, therefore, that repentance is not only knowledge and abnegation of self, but guarding against the abnegated self, so as always to have something to hope for while you walk in hope, and not to be without something to fear, namely, a relapse into sin. This also is clear, that not repentance but hope in Christ washes away sin, and that repentance is the being on guard lest you fall back into the ways you have condemned.

But here there seem to be many obstacles to prevent us from hoping that blamelessness can be preserved. First: “All men are liars” [Ps. 116: 11], and where lying flourishes all things are depraved. Then: “In many things we all offend,” Jas. 3: 2, and as many as offend, sin, Matt. 18: 7-8. Therefore, since we all offend in many ways, we all sin in many ways. Furthermore, St. John declares, I John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” How, therefore, even when Christ is kept before our eyes, can we be saved, since He demands a new life and other ways, but we see ourselves constantly turning back to our natural disposition? Here it is a hard task to satisfy some wise and learned persons; for since they have the clearest testimony of Serip-ture on both sides, namely that the redemption brought by Christ is mighty and effective for all that pertains to salvation, and that, on the other hand, blamelessness is so uniformly demanded, two difficulties seem to them to follow: one, that those who dauntlessly and constantly inculcate faith in Christ seem to be traitors to zeal for blamelessness; the other, that, seeing blamelessness so insistently demanded, they begin to doubt how much Christ can do. These persons, therefore, are very hard to satisfy; for since they are devoid of that which is

wrought here in the pious by faith in Christ, they do not grasp that which is spoken spiritually. For piety is a matter of fact and experience, not of speech or knowledge. For as Abraham knew that the-voice of God which bade him slay the son [Gen. 22:1-14] through whom a holy posterity had been promised was the voice of Him who had made the promise, even though human reason might fairly have maintained something else, namely, that it was the voice of the tempter, the Devil—“How could it be that he should bid you slay him whom he had but just given you for raising up a posterity?”—he girds himself with unshaken faith, arranges the wood for the fire, inexperienced as either lietor or priest he binds the loved and tender form, draws the sword with hardly less pain surely than if he were drawing it through his own heart, and raises it, oh, with what trouble of soul! over the blameless neck so often covered with his kisses. All of which was the work of God alone, that He might be marvelous in our eyes [cf. Mt. 21:42]. For if He had not so impressed Himself upon the understanding of Abraham that he had no doubt the voice was God’s, the command would have been given in vain. As, I say, that voice was known to Abraham only as the voice of God, while everybody else would have thought it the voice of an impostor, so the things that I am going to say about faith in Christ and Christian blamelessness will not be understood by those whose faith is a matter of teaching rather than of experience. For I see them here at once scoff and say: “I have faith. It is you who lack it. Why do you judge me?” We will, therefore, bring right before you those who dare solemnly to boast of themselves, saying, “Seek ye a proof of Christ who speaketh in me?” II Cor. 13: 3— and whose faith is would be impious to doubt—and we will hear what they have to say on this question. When Paul magnified grace so highly, there were not lacking persons to snarl, as some also do today: “If the goodness and bounty of the grace of God are made manifest in my sin, what forbids my sinning almost without limit, that the bounty of God may become known to all?” Rom. 3:7. And again: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” [Rom. 6:1]. He replied to them in the way I quoted a little while ago from chapter 6. On the other hand, when he saw that some were beginning to have

confidence in themselves because the law so emphatically demands blamelessness, he says that Christ is of no use to us if righteousness come from our works, Gal. 2:16; and that grace through Christ is of no avail if salvation be due to works, Rom. 4:4 and 11:6. Placed, therefore, in this dilemma, he shows his true self and gives us an example from which we can learn what really happens to those who trust in Christ: how, namely, through faith they are sure of salvation, but through the weakness of the flesh are constantly sinning, though their sins are not imputed to them as such because of their faith.

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