{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050406.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050406.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050406.htm","text":"Chapter 21 [VIII.]\u2014The Same Continued.\nIt is not nature, therefore, which, sold as it is under sin and wounded by the offence, longs for a Redeemer and Saviour; nor is it the knowledge of the law\u2014through which comes the discovery, not the expulsion, of sin\u2014which delivers us from the body of this death; but it is the Lord\u2019s good grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1665\nChapter 21 [IX.]\u2014The Same Continued.\nThis grace is not dying nature, nor the slaying letter, but the vivifying spirit; for already did he possess nature with freedom of will, because he said: \u201cTo will is present with me.\u201d 1666 Nature, however, in a healthy condition and without a flaw, he did not possess, for he said: \u201cI know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth nothing good.\u201d 1667 Already had he the knowledge of God\u2019s holy law, for he said: \u201cI had not known sin but through the law;\u201d 1668 yet for all that, he did not possess strength and power to practise and fulfil righteousness, for he complained: \u201cWhat I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.\u201d 1669 And again, \u201cHow to accomplish that which is good I find not.\u201d 1670 Therefore it is not from the liberty of the human will, nor from the precepts of the law, that there comes deliverance from the body of this death; for both of these he had already,\u2014the one in his nature, the other in his learning; but all he wanted was the help of the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Work on the Pro...","type":"page"}