{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2111034.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2111034.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2111034.htm","text":"How a man can be shown to be under grace.\nWhoever then strives to reach the perfection of evangelical teaching, this man living under grace is not oppressed by the dominion of sin, for to be under grace is to do those things which grace commands. But whoever will not submit himself to the complete requirements of evangelical perfection, must not remain ignorant that, although he seems to be baptized and to be a monk, yet he is not under grace, but is still shackled by the chains of the law, and weighed down by the burden of sin. For it is the aim of Him, who by the p. 518 grace of adoption accepts all those by whom He has been received, not to destroy but to build upon, not to abolish but to fulfil the Mosaic requirements. But some knowing nothing about this, and disregarding the splendid counsels and exhortations of Christ, are so emancipated by the carelessness of a freedom too hastily assumed, that they not only fail to carry out the commands of Christ as if they were too hard, but actually scorn as antiquated, the commands given to them as beginners and children by the law of Moses, saying in this dangerous freedom of theirs that which the Apostle execrates: \u201cWe have sinned, because we are not under the law but under grace.\u201d 2224 He then who is neither under grace, because he has never climbed the heights of the Lord\u2019s teaching, nor under the law, because he has not accepted even those small commands of the law, this man, ground down beneath a twofold rule of sin, fancies that he has received the grace of Christ, simply and solely for this, that by this dangerous liberty of his he may make himself none of His, and falls into that state, which the Apostle Peter warns us to avoid, saying: \u201cAct as free, and not having your liberty as a cloak of wickedness.\u201d The blessed Apostle Paul also says: \u201cFor ye, brethren, were called to liberty,\u201d i.e., that ye might be free from the dominion of sin, \u201conly use not your liberty for an occasion of the flesh,\u201d 2225 i.e., believe that the doing away with the commands of the law is a licence to sin. But this liberty, the Apostle Paul teaches us is nowhere but where the Lord is dwelling, for he says: \u201cThe Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.\u201d 2226 Wherefore I know not whether I could express and explain the meaning of the blessed Apostle, as those know how, who have experience; one thing I do know, that it is very clearly revealed even without anyone\u2019s explanation to all those who have perfectly acquired \u03c0\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u1f74, i.e., practical training. For they will need no effort to understand in discussion what they have already learnt by practice.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Works of John Cassian.: Chapter XXXIV. How a man can be shown to be under grace.","type":"page"}