St. Augustine on Grace and Free Will...

A discussion over at All Too Common has gotten me thinking about the nature of early Christian defenses against Pelagianism, particularly that of the Church Fathers, while defending against both Judaizing tendencies on the one hand and antinomianism on the other. This quote from St. Augustine is quite telling:

Therefore, brethren, you ought by free will not do evil but do good; this, indeed, is the lesson taught us in the law of God, in the Holy Scriptures-both Old and New. Let us, however, read, and by the Lord's help understand, what the apostle tells us: "Because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Observe, he says "the knowledge," not "the destruction," of sin. But when a man knows sin, and grace does not help him to avoid what he knows, undoubtedly the law works wrath. And this the apostle explicitly says in another passage. His words are: "The law worketh wrath." The reason of this statement lies in the fact that God's wrath is greater in the case of the transgressor who by the law knows sin, and yet commits it; such a man is thus a transgressor of the law, even as the apostle says in another sentence," For where no law is, there is no transgression." It is in accordance with this principle that he elsewhere says, "That we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter;" wishing the law to be here understood :,by "the oldness of the letter," and what else by "newness of spirit" than grace? Then, that it might not be thought that he had brought any accusation, or suggested any blame, against the law, he immediately takes himself to task with this inquiry: "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid." He then adds the statement: "Nay, I had not known sin but by the law;" which is of the same import as the passage above quoted: "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Then: "For I had not known lust," he says, "except the law had said, `Thou shalt not covet.'" But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, just, and good. Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good,-in order that the sinner, or the sin, might by the commandment become beyond measure." And to the Galatians he writes: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, except through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.""

Why, therefore, do those very vain and perverse Pelagians say that the law is the grace of God by which we are helped not to sin? Do they not, by making such an allegation, unhappily and beyond all doubt contradict the great apostle? He, indeed, says, that by the law sin received strength against man; and that man, by the commandment, although it be holy, and just, and good, nevertheless dies, and that death works in him through that which is good, from which death there is no deliverance unless the Spirit quickens him, whom the letter had killed,-as he says in another passage, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." And yet these obstinate persons, blind to God's light, and deaf to His voice, maintain that the letter which kills gives life, and thus gainsay the quickening Spirit. "Therefore, brethren" (that I may warn you with better effect in the words of the apostle himself), "we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through: the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." I have said this to deter your free will from evil, and to exhort it to good by apostolic words; but yet you must not therefore glory in man,-that is to say, in your own selves,-and not in the Lord, when you live not after the flesh, but through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh. For in order that they to whom the apostle addressed this language might not exalt themselves, thinking that they were themselves able of their own spirit to do such good works as these, and not by the Spirit of God, after saying to them, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live," he at once added, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." When, therefore, you by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, that you may have life, glorify Him, praise Him, give thanks to Him by whose Spirit you are so led as to be able to do such things as show you to be the children of God; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Chapter 22 and 23 of On Grace and Free Will -Who is the Transgressor of the Law? the Oldness of Its Letter. The Newness of Its Spirit.

It seems thus, that Augustine does not exclude the third use of the law. The Pelagians essentially thought that man's spirit alone was indeed strong enough to maintain holy living by the "assistance of the law," as Augustine states. The Catholic tradition, in this regard, rejects the idea that the law is in any way salvific. However, this does not discount the law as helpful in identifying the works of the flesh, namely mortification.

This is where the Protestant errs. Having no proper understanding of mortification of the flesh, and nearing on Gnosticism, he posits that Paul has not use for the law whatsoever. Not so. For Paul, indeed the law is useful for identification of sin in the continual work of repentance and mortification, that life in the Spirit may overcome life in the flesh. But, he is not an antinomian by any standard. This, indeed is something the Protestant mind cannot comprehend. Having an insufficient understanding of the Incarnation, the work of Christ in the combatting of temptation in both Natures by the application of Divine Law makes little sense. His sinlessness is rather a showing forth of the Divine Glory, rather than at the same time a showing forth of sanctified living.

Thus, the Catholic believes that the New Law consists in the grace of the Holy Spirit, leading the Christian to fulfill the Law, just as the Lord Jesus Christ came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. (Matt 5:17) It is in this full view of Christian moral life that the Protestant claims wrongly that the Catholic lives by the law. Rather the Catholic lives by the grace of the Holy Spirit, made manifest in the corporate action of the Body which is led by the Holy Spirit, the Church.