Presumption about oneself must be avoided in the mortification of the flesh.
When the Apostle therefore said: "But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live," that is, those desires of the flesh, to not consent to which is great praise, to not have which is perfection: if you by the Spirit put to death these morbid deeds of the flesh, and those holding contention of death, you will live. Here it is now to be feared, lest anyone should again presume to put to death the deeds of the flesh by his own spirit. For not only is God a spirit: but also your soul is a spirit, and your mind is a spirit. And when you say: "With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;" because the spirit desires against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. Therefore, lest you presume to put to death the deeds of the flesh by your own spirit, and perish through pride, and resistance be made to you being proud, not grace granted to you being humble; for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Lest perchance that pride should arise in you, see what follows. For when he had said: If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live; lest human spirit should be uplifted here, and boast itself adequate and firm for this work, he added and said: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Why then would you now wish to exalt yourself, when you heard: If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live? For you would have said: My will can do this, my free will can do this. What will? What free will? Unless He guides, you fall; unless He raises, you lie prostrate. How then by your own spirit, when you hear the Apostle saying: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God? Do you wish to lead yourself, and to be led by yourself to mortify the deeds of the flesh? What does it profit you that you will not be an Epicurean, and will be a Stoic? Whether you be an Epicurean, or be a Stoic, among the sons of God you will not be. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Not those who live according to their own flesh, not those who live according to their own spirit; not those who are led by the pleasure of the flesh, not those led by their own spirit; but: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
To good, we are driven and we act.
Someone says to me: Therefore we are acted upon, we do not act. I reply: On the contrary, you both act and are acted upon; and you act well when you are acted upon by the good. For the Spirit of God that acts upon you is your helper when you act. The very name of helper proclaims to you, because you yourself also do something. Recognize what you ask for; recognize what you confess, when you say: Be my helper, do not forsake me. You indeed invoke God as helper. No one is helped, if by Him nothing is done. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God: not by the letter, but by the Spirit; not by the law commanding, threatening, promising, but by the Spirit exhorting, enlightening, helping. The same Apostle says, We know that all things work together for good to those who love God. If you were not a worker, He would not be a co-worker.
Nothing good without the help of God. What is freedom without grace?
But here be diligently vigilant, lest perhaps your spirit says: If the cooperation and help of God withdraws, my spirit can do this; even if with toil, even if with some difficulty, it can still accomplish it. Just as if someone says: We indeed arrived with oars, but with some labor; oh, if we had wind, we would arrive more easily. The help of God is not so, the help of Christ is not so, the help of the Holy Spirit is not so. Without a doubt, if it is lacking, you will not be able to do any good. Indeed, you act with free will not being helped by Him, but badly. To this your will is adequate, which is called free, and by acting badly becomes the servile condemned. When I say to you: Without the help of God you do nothing, I mean nothing good. For to do evil you have free will without the help of God: although it is not truly free. For by whom anyone is overcome, to him he is a slave; and: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; and: If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free.
Grace is necessary not only so that you may do it more easily, but that you may do it at all.
Absolutely believe this, thus you act with good will. Because you live, surely you act. For he is not a helper if you do nothing: he is not a co-operator if you do not work. Thus, nevertheless, know that you do good, so that the Spirit is the guiding helper; if he is absent, you can do no good at all. Not like some have begun to say, who have sometimes been forced to confess grace; and we bless God, because they have said this at some times; for by approaching they will be able to advance, and reach that which is truly correct. Now therefore they say that the grace of God helps, for doing things more easily. For these are their words: "To this end," they say, "God gave his grace to men, so that what they are commanded to do by free will, they can more easily fulfill through grace." By sail more easily, by oar more difficultly: yet even by oar it is traveled. On a mount more easily, on foot more difficultly: but even on foot it is reached. It is not thus. For the true Master who does not flatter anyone, does not deceive anyone, the truthful teacher, and also the Savior, to whom the most troublesome pedagogue has led us; when speaking of good works, that is, of the fruits of the branches and shoots, does not say: Without me indeed you can do something, but more easily through me; does not say: Your fruit you can produce without me, but richer through me. He did not say this. Read what he said: The Gospel is holy, all proud necks are bowed. Augustine does not say this, the Lord says this. What does the Lord say? Without me you can do nothing. Now when you hear this: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, do not let yourselves be downcast. For God does not build his temple from you as from stones which have no movement of their own: they are lifted and placed by the builder. Living stones are not like this: And you, as living stones, are being built into a temple of God. You are led, but also run; you are led, but also follow; because when you have followed, it will be true that without him you can do nothing. For it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God's mercy.
The old law and the new law. The spirit of servitude and of freedom.
Perhaps you were about to say: And the law is sufficient for us. The law gave fear: and see what the Apostle added here, when he said: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; because when they are led by the Spirit of God, they are led by love: For the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us; then he added: For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. What is: again? As with a most troublesome schoolmaster terrifying. What is: again? Just as on Mount Sinai you received the spirit of bondage. Someone might say: One is the spirit of bondage, another the spirit of liberty. If it were another, the Apostle would not say: again. It is therefore the same spirit, but on tablets of stone in fear, on tablets of the heart in love. Now, three days ago, you who were present heard how the people, far off, were terrified by voices, fire, smoke on the mountain; but how the Holy Spirit, the same finger of God, coming on the fiftieth day after the shadow of Passover, came, and sat upon each of them with tongues of fire. Therefore now not in fear, but in love; that we may not be slaves, but sons. For he who still does good because he fears punishment does not love God, he is not yet among the sons; nonetheless, one should at least fear punishment. Fear is a servant, love is free; and so to speak, fear is the servant of love. Let not the devil possess your heart, let the servant precede in your heart, and keep the place for the coming mistress. Act, act at least out of fear of punishment, if you cannot yet out of love for righteousness. The mistress will come, and the servant will depart; because: Perfect love casts out fear. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. It is the New Testament, not the Old. The old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new; all of them from God.
Father and Father, because two peoples in Christ.
Finally, what follows? What then have we received, as if you would say: But you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. The Lord is feared, the father is loved. You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. This cry is of the heart, not of the throat, not of the lips; it sounds within, it sounds to the ears of God. With mouth closed, and lips unmoved, Susanna cried out with this voice. But you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. Let the heart cry out: Our Father who art in heaven. Then why not only Father? What does: Abba, Father, mean? For if you ask what abba is, it is answered to you: Father. For abba means father in Hebrew. Why did the Apostle wish to place both? Because he saw the cornerstone, which the builders rejected, and has become the head of the corner, not without reason called angular, except because it receives into its embrace both walls coming from different directions. On this side circumcision, on the other the foreskin, as far from each other and themselves as they are from the corner; however, as close to the corner as they are to each other; in the corner, however, they are joined together. For he is our peace, who made both one. Thus on this side circumcision, on the other the foreskin, the concord of the walls, the glory of the corner. You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father.
The Spirit is rather an earnest than a pledge.
What kind of thing is it, if the pledge is such? It should not be called a pledge, but an earnest. For a pledge is taken away when the thing itself is returned. However, the earnest is given from the thing itself which is promised to be given; so that when the thing is returned, what was given is fulfilled, not changed. Therefore, let each one look at his heart, whether he says from the innermost marrow of his heart and with sincere love: Father. It is not now asked how great this love is, whether it is great or small or moderate; I ask whether it even exists. If it is born, it grows by hiding, it will be perfected by growing, and when perfected, it will remain. For that which is perfect does not incline toward old age, nor will it come from old age to death; it will be perfected so that it remains eternal. For see what follows. We cry out: Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. It is not our spirit that bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God; but the Spirit of God, the earnest, bears witness for that thing which has been promised to us. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The inheritance of the children of God.
If however children, also heirs. For we are not children in vain. This is the reward: And heirs. This is what I was saying a little earlier, because our physician both grants us health and further deigns to bestow a reward. What is that reward? An inheritance. But not like the inheritance of a human father. For he leaves it to his children, not possessing it along with his children; and yet he makes himself great, and desires to be thanked, because he wished to give what he could not take away. For would he take it with him when dying? I think because if he could, he would have left nothing here for his children. Heirs of God in such a way that God Himself is our inheritance, to whom the Psalm says: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Indeed heirs of God; if that is too little for you, listen, so that you may rejoice even more: Indeed heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Turned to the Lord, etc.