Chapter VI.
The fruits of a promulgated law are the confession of sin, humility, and indeed grace itself, and a pledge of charity: to which is added an exhortation to gratitude, along with a enumeration of the benefits granted to man.
So what was the need for the Law to be promulgated if it was not going to benefit? We already had the law of nature; for each person had the law written in their heart. We did not keep that law: why was another added, in whose works the flesh cannot be justified? A bond was added, not a solution; the recognition of sins was added, not the remission. We all sinned, who could claim an excuse through ignorance: the mouth was stopped for everyone.
However, it was beneficial for me; I began to confess what I was denying: I started to recognize my sin and not cover up my injustice. I began to proclaim my injustice to the Lord, and you forgave the wickedness of my heart. But also this benefits me, that we are not justified by works of the Law. Therefore, I have no basis for boasting in my works, I have no reason to boast; and so I will boast in Christ. I will not boast because I am righteous, but I will boast because I am redeemed. I will boast, not because I am free from sins, but because my sins have been forgiven. I will not boast because I have profited, nor because anyone has profited me, but because Christ is my advocate before the Father; because Christ's blood has been shed for me. My guilt has become the reward of my redemption, through which Christ has come to me. Christ tasted death for me. Guilt is more fruitful than innocence. Innocence made me arrogant, guilt made me humble.
So you have the means by which the Law has been beneficial to you. But you say that sin has abounded through the Law. But where sin abounded, grace also abounded. You died to sin, therefore the Law no longer hinders. You rise through grace, therefore the Law has been beneficial, for it has acquired grace. You have also received the pledge of Christ's love, for he who died for you is your advocate and preserves the reward of his own blood, and he who reconciled the sinner to the Father much more commends the innocent and protects the subject who has united with the guilty.
So, will you not repay the kindness with obedience? He made you an heir, he made you a co-heir; an heir of God, a co-heir of Christ: he poured the spirit of adoption into you. Count these things, and join them not so much to the bond of debt, as to the preservation of the gift received. You are a co-heir of Christ, if you suffer with him, if you die with him, if you are buried with him. Take on his sufferings, so that you may truly deserve to be above sufferings with the same. See how he has forgiven your past sins, so that nothing you do will harm you, since you have sinned. See how he encourages you not to lose what you have received. The goal of this short labor is a crown of eternal fruit: tolerable suffering, immeasurable reward. What troubles you? The rejection of lowly status? But in the future, you will have a glorious nobility of devotion and faith. Is your income meager, your sustenance meager? But you will have riches of eternal recompense, of which you will never be in need. Does not the loss of children affect you? You will receive perpetual ones, whom you have taken on temporarily, and it will be said of you: Blessed is he who has offspring in Zion and domestics in Jerusalem (Isaiah 31:9). The sufferings of this present time are unworthy, it says, of the future glory (Romans 8:18). Scripture tells you.
24. Add to this, that the blessed life is not diminished by these adversities of worldly troubles or bodily sufferings, but rather is proven. Add that it either does not feel the loss of possessions or hides the expenses of obligations with a strong mind, absorbing the pain. Add that one who is always in the harbor of tranquility does not experience shipwrecks. What about the fact that labor is common to you with every creature; because the world itself endures the bondage of corruption for your sake; because there is a shared fellowship with the saints in this toil and expectation? The Sun recognizes its setting, the Moon its waning, the stars their course, while the redemption of our whole body is awaited.
But you fear the uncertain twists of life and the snares of your adversaries, even though you have the help of God, and you have such great favor from Him that He did not spare His own Son for you (Rom. VIII, 32). Scripture uses beautiful words to declare the loving purpose of God the Father towards you, who offered up His Son to death. And the Son could not bear the bitter agony of death. What was in the Father, He did not keep for Himself: He offered up everything for you. What was in the fullness of divinity, He did not lose Himself, and He redeemed you. Consider the love of a father. He, out of his love and as if dying, took on the danger, and as if orphaned, bore the grief; lest the fruit of redemption would perish for you. Such was the zeal of the Lord for your salvation, that he nearly endangered himself in order to gain you. He took on our losses for your sake; in order to insert you into divine things and consecrate you to heavenly things. He even added marvelously: For all of us he handed over his beloved Son; in order to show that he loves everyone so much, that for each, he would give up his Beloved Son. For whom, therefore, he has given what is above all things, can it be possible that he has not given everything in him? For he has received nothing, who has granted the author of all things.
26. Therefore, there is nothing that we should truly fear being denied; there is nothing in which we should doubt the perseverance of divine generosity, which has been so long-lasting and unceasing; that it first predestined, then called; and those whom it called, it also justified; and those whom it justified, it also glorified. Will it be able to abandon those whom it has supported with such great benefits up to rewards? Among so many benefits of God, should we fear any accusations or traps from an accuser? But who would dare to accuse those chosen by divine judgment? Surely God the Father, who granted them, can revoke his gifts; and those whom he has adopted, can he cast them aside from the grace of paternal affection? But there is fear that the judge may be more severe. Consider who the judge is. Indeed, the Father has given all judgment to Christ. Therefore, can that very one condemn you, whom he redeemed from death, for whom he offered himself, and whose life he knows to be the reward of his own death? Will he not say: What is the benefit in my blood (Psalm 29:10) if I harm the one whom I myself saved? Then you consider the judge, but do not consider the advocate. Can he not pronounce a harsher sentence, who does not cease to intercede so that the grace of paternal reconciliation may be bestowed upon us?