Grace: Assignment #3

O Father of eternal mercies,

How restless is my soul without you!

When you spoke in my heart,

I was moved from my stupor.

How long I have tried to find joy in vain,

Lost in a world of endless pains.

But you called out to me,

And gave me a sign,

And I was born again.

Praise the Lord!

Type of Prayer:

Reflective Psalm

Terms and/or Concepts:

“How restless is my soul without you,” from the opening of Confessions, describing the prevenient or primordial grace by which we feel the need for God.

“When you spoke in my heart,” relates the inner grace Augustine felt through the Word and Spirit urging him towards God (Confessions, Book VIII, i(1)).

“How long I have tried to find joy in vain,” relates the wasted years during which Augustine chose to pursue his own lusts prior to his conversion (Confessions, Book VIII, i(12)).

“You... gave me a sign,” refers to the external grace Augustine received when he heard a child's voice urging him to “take up and read,” and his eye fell on the passage to flee lustful things (Confessions, Book VIII, i(29)).

“I was born again,” describes the actual moment of conversion, a sharply delineated event taking place in the deepest core of being, from which followed a gradual process of maturation in the outer parts of the personality (Confessions, Book VIII, i(29)).

Grace: Assignment 10

Togetherness, to gather us

Forever Thou and I

Sensual-willed, though caritas

Still beckons to my sky

A millionaire?

A million stars

Burst upon my eye

And Father dare

Call Being ours

Where Thou dost meet the I.

Type of Prayer:

Reflective/Petitionary Psalm

Terms and/or Concepts:

“Togetherness” -O'Donnell, pp. 6-7, pits Balthasar against a view of God as Being in reference to self, in preference for a view that espouses God to object of love.

“Caritas” - Ibid, p. 7... here the author shows the insight Balthasar gleans from Christianity over its Eastern counterparts, namely, that eros may be redeemed by caritas, and thus we are not to extinguish our passions entirely but temper them with reason, clearly a platonic theme.

1. “Still beckons to my sky” - Ibid, p. 4:  Pryzwara's thought of (human) being-as-analogy presents the view that humanity is ever chasing God as it proceeded from God and hence resembles God, but that God always transcends our highest experiences of God, and seems to beckon to us to continually higher beautitudes.

“A million stars / Burst upon my eye” - Ibid, p. 7:  “God is “Triune Being”, which is “an infinite community of love”... this reminds me of a vision I once had of God, in which I was shown a great sheet of electrically-charged, magnetically-attractive energy, comprised of a million tiny stars, to which my own tiny star was drawn, irresistably.

1. “Call Being ours” - Again, the idea of analogy in the question of being.   Here, the poet is petitioning for participation in God's Being, which is his true calling.

Grace: Assignment #5

O Lord You surround me with grace

From birth to death and beyond.

Though I fail to do what your law says,

Enable me to fulfill your command.

Your grace is the answer, your grace is the key.

Let your grace heal the cancer,

Of my thoughts towards me.

Let your love wash me gently,

Let your love make me pure.

In the grace you have mend me,

For grace is the cure.

Type of Prayer:

Petitionary Psalm

Terms and/or Concepts:

“You surround me with grace.”  In theSumma, Q. 109, Art. 2,Aquinas follows Augustine in saying that without the grace of God humans can do nothing good.  And so, it is necessary for the psalmist to declare his state of need as well as his faith in the goodness of God to make up the difference.

“I fail to do what your law says.”   Summa, Q. 109, Art. 4 –Aquinas states that man “cannot fulfill the commandments of the law without grace.”

“Let your grace heal the cancer.”   Summa, Q. 109, Art. 9 –Aquinas distinguishes between the habit and the act required to make one whole, both of which are acquired through grace.  In this case, a habitual gift is required to heal the corrupted human nature.

“Let your love make me pure.”  Summa, Q. 111, Art. 1 –Aquinas distinguishes between sanctifying grace and gratuitous grace.  In this case, the psalmist recognizes his need for the first kind..

“Grace is the cure.”  Summa, Q. 111, Art. 3 –Grace is supplied at every stage in Aquinas' view.  It makes one conscious of sin through law, it heals one from the sting of death, it leads on in charitable deeds to glory... it is therefore both prevenient and subsequent, it is the cure-all.

freedom from law

“A moral teaching must be presented, not so much as an instance of a timeless essence or as a law, but as a pattern of relationships, between persons, and between persons and God, as shaping and being shaped by the tradition.”1

To many, the term “law” carries a connotation of obligation and of punishment.  Surely the Mosaic Decalogue has often been interpreted in this light, as a kind of contract between a fearful people and a Creator poised to mete out justice and wrath at a moment's notice.  Pleasing God in such a context meant performing certain rituals, of carrying out a myriad of  duties, observance of which was seen as a means of securing salvation, both personal and communal.  Yet the burden of that type of relationship was too much to bear, even for those who saw the mighty power of YHWH.  A new kind of relationship was needed, one that was patterned after a model of kinship, rather than of slavery.

The story is told of a man who married a woman.  In order that she know what his likes and dislikes were, he made out a list for her to follow.  At first, she kept to the list closely, being careful to observe it to the letter so as to avoid censure.  She also saw it as her duty, and she took great pride in her attention to it.  With time, she began to know her husband's mind and so she consulted the list less often.  Familiarity began to replace fear.  Eventually, she grew to love her husband so that she could creatively anticipate his ways.2    Intuition rather than obligation, became her motivation to act.

The story speaks of external and internal factors as determinants of behaviour.  In the beginning, it is primarily external forces which influence the pattern of relationship.  Later on, with the birth and evolution of insight of the Other, internalization takes place, and grows in proportion with wisdom, to secure a more intimate bond.

In a similar way, Israel received the Torah from a God they did not know very well, though He made extraordinary efforts to command their attention.  And they received those laws much in the way the woman received her list of likes and dislikes, as external measures to standardize the life of the community in conformity with the will of YHWH.  It was very much a cult of the letter, rather than of the spirit.

Later on, with the Christ-event, the way was opened for interiorization, and the early Christian community began to seek expression for the difference between the old and new ways of relating to YHWH.  In order to distinguish themselves from the Pharisees (and other “non-believers”), the term “law” was interpreted to mean a way of life which hoped to attain righteousness through observance of the list of ritual works prescribed in the Pentateuch and the traditions.  In opposition to this, Paul defined faith in Jesus as the proper way to God.

Thus the concept of “freedom from law” was birthed to represent the removal of the yoke which Israel could not bear (Acts 15:10).  The new way was to be yoked with Jesus (Matt. 11:30).  Salvation could not be attained through “the law”, nor should one seek to find it there, since no one had ever been saved by observing the law – as a task complete observance had never been achieved (Gal. 3:10).

Rather, it was by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus that a new law was given life- the law of the spirit (Rom. 8:2).  This new law represented a divine communion with YHWH which enabled a person to act from within rather than from without.  It was a law predicated not on fear of punishment but on grace.

A metaphor used to describe this new relationship was that of sonship, or daughterhood (Gal. 4:1-7).  In contrast to the intimacy of the covenant of grace, Paul calls the covenant of law “slavery” (Rom. 6:16-17).  A slave does not act out of love for its master but out of compulsion, whereas a child obeys its parent for the sake of love.

This new position is a gift, and as such it engenders liberty, though responsibility is proportionate to the greatness of the grace given.  In various places, the Epistles explain the nature of this freedom, stating that one ought not to sin in order to increase the outpouring of grace (Rom. 6:1).  Although children of God are free, they shouldn't use their liberty as a “cloak for vice” (I Pet. 2:16, NKJV).  And although everything is permissible, not everything is profitable (I Cor. 10:23).

Following this train of thought, we recognize that there continues to be a struggle, even after being “born again” of the Spirit (John 3:3).  In some cases, the law of the old covenant still holds value:

“...the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine...” (I Tim. 1:9-10, NKJV)

In cases such as these, it is useful to have a juridical application of law not only for the protection of society, but it also must be recognized that in bringing about the               consciousness of sin, the law serves to point out the need for a saviour (Gal. 3:24).

Although Christians do have the Spirit of Christ, it is often the case that we do not follow its promptings.  Indeed, there are many examples of baptized believers who go astray into gross immorality and worldlyambition.  To place a bulwark against the works of the flesh, Crotty suggests that “external commandments are not restrictions on the Christian's liberty but a true safeguard to its exercise.”3

Nevertheless, it is through the inner convictions of the Spirit that we hope to grow into thefullnessof promise rather than through the moral prohibitions of the old covenant.  The difference, says Crotty, is that the law of Moses was imperative while the law of Christ is indicative.4   The norms to be adhered to have shifted from the outside to the inside, with liberty for individuals and communities to express those parts of God's character which they desire.5  

The object of focus in the old commandment was the self, and one acted with an eye on reward or censorship from that limited point of view.  In the new commandment, the commandment to love, the object is not the self but the Other.  Charity is the summation of the old law, and to love God is to obey His command (John 14:15), which command is that we love one another (John 13:34).

That the life of the Spirit is progressively evolving both in the individual believer and in the body of Christ universal is unquestionable.  For we were children under the tutelage of the law at one time in order that we be led to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24).  Previously law was given so that for humanity as a whole, the lesson of justice could be learned- the knowledge that for evil deeds, a proportionate punishment was required.  When that lesson was understood, the quality of mercy was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

But the lessons did not stop there, as even Paul states in Ephesians 4:12-16, we are being “knit together” in order to “reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fully mature... no longer children...” but growing “until the body has built itself up in love.” (New Jerusalem Bible).  The end result of our corporate groaning will be that ultimately, we will be set free from the body (Rom. 8:22-23).

This final freedom, not only from the demands of the old law but from the material world itself, is a work accomplished through the power of the Spirit of Christ.  The Spirit is continually mouldingthe character of the believer into the very image of Jesus, with all the privileges and responsibilities that a child of God might have.  It is an ongoing process, of submission through trust.  It involves discernment and hence, of necessity, wisdom.6

Thus the law of the Spirit has as its object perfection of virtue in order to ascend to fellowship with the Father.  It is teleological7 in the classical sense, as it names happiness as its goal.  Unlike the old law, which asked neither of ascension nor of  blessedness, but only for obedience,8 the new law gives hope for the believer to climb Jacob's ladder, as it were, to the heights of heaven itself.

In the old covenant, it was thought that adherence to the command would impart sanctity and ensure salvation.  In the new covenant, it is God in the person of the Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ who sanctifies and saves.  In Christ, we are elevated to a position of value that looks beyond performance.  The guarantee of our security is now based on our being children of God.  Such a gift invites us to fellowship rather than demanding our efficiency.  And coming to the presence of the Holy One, we are motivated to be holy ourselves, for His mind is made known to us. 

The life of the Spirit, therefore, although delivering liberty from the old law, pours fresh desires into the bosom.9   We respond to these new “appetites” in freedom, not out of compulsion.  As such, discernment is a rational exercise in experimentation, sometimes the product of trial-and-error.  The closer we come to union with the divine, the greater the sense we have of peace, joy and love.  Via the grace of the Spirit we maintain the freedom of spontaneity and approach the truth more clearly.

What the old law could not do was enable one to do the good that it prescribed.  That law could only condemn through the knowledge that one had failed to keep it.  The inner reality of an individual without Christ was that of a sinful nature.  The law helped to bring that fact to light, but could not deliver one from its judgment (Rom. 7:7-11).

The church, following the lead of Paul, took the stance that the Mosaic law was good, but that it could not save, only faith in Jesus could do that.  The entire life of the early church, therefore, centered around proclamation of the salvific work of the cross in the celebration of the Eucharist.

It was liturgy which informed tradition, tradition which helped shape scripture, and scripture which declared, “for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba,Father!'” (Rom. 8:15, New Jerusalem Bible).  Not only at the point of departure from pharisaical Judaism, but all through the ages since, the living tradition of the church has existed to safeguard the freedom of the children of God from the exigencies of legalism.

Since the life of the catholic church is largely sacramental, understanding the liberty of the Christian life means understanding the sacraments.  Far from being empty performances in the confining sense of rituals known to the Israel of old, the sacraments are a declaration of Christ in every facet of life.  From baptism, which signifies the promise of a clean conscience through identity with Christ's death and resurrection (I Pet. 3:21) to marriage, which takes as its model the love Christ has for his church (Eph. 5:25), the traditions we have inherited serve as reminders of our freedom.

When one goes to confession, it is not because one is constrained but because one is called to be restored and renewed by the Holy Spirit's life-giving power.  Through sacraments for the sick and dying, healing of the soul takes place which affords interior, if not exterior liberty.  The whole effort of the community is one of testifying to the freedom of Christ within.

The social conscience granted through the Spirit has promoted a multitude of good works throughout the earth, which no religion of legalism has matched.  When one's focus is relieved from the self and from fear of punishment, one is able to turn to the Other, to see needs beyond oneself, even to incorporate the Other into one's perspective.  Politicians would be well-advised to revisit catholic faith as a source for the interior freedom that they would impose from without on foreign cultures.  Or, put simply, Bibles, not bombs!

So too reason, the force behind Natural Law, demonstrates adequately the fact that different motivations produce different effects.  Mosaic law, with its emphasis on punishment and reward, can be likened to Pavlovian behaviourism.  It is a system suitable only to the application of primitive external controls, one which can never grant the insight which is necessary to the creativity which higher life demands.

The shaping of the intellect and the emotions is no doubt under the influence of the Spirit, and it is probable that with the passage of time, the church's understanding in particular moral matters has grown.  One example is that of slavery, which was seen in New Testament days as something to be tolerated.  Indeed it was not until recently (historically speaking) that the collective conscience of society, through meditation on the dignity of all human persons made in the image of the Creator, came upon the insight that slavery was indeed a fundamental abuse.  Thus an evolution in the awareness of the Other in a cultural sense was wrought, which is continually moving towards a greater interiorization.  Yet we must be respectful of the fact that while the change took place for some through conviction, it was imposed on others from without, through the exercise of law.  This brings to light the necessity of freedom, for those who believed in freedom for slaves were themselves free through the law of love for one's neighbour, whereas those who wished to keep others in physical chains were themselves in the spiritual chains of bigotry and hatred.

Whether the church has been implicated in such abuses is not in doubt; it has.  That is merely a reflection of the ongoing evolution of her conscience and of her responsiveness to the progressive, unfolding revelation of the Spirit.  Nonetheless, we might do well to heed the warning of one of her servants:  “Power is profane and adapted to profane purposes; but why should the Church have profane purposes?”10

“Freedom from law”, we have seen, means the liberty of the Christian to act without fear of punishment.  It is a reality underwritten by the gift of grace God has poured out in the person of the Holy Spirit, whose indwelling presence serves to guide the individual and collective personalities of the universal body of Christ.  Rather than being subject to the old law, whose purpose it was to bring about the knowledge that one was sinful, believers are subject to a new law, the law of charity, whose aim it is to propel us towards that union with God and His character which will produce the greatest happiness.  Not the imposition from without of a multiplicity of demands, but the flowering from within11 of the very life of Christ, drawing us to act through relationship as children of the living God rather than commanding us as His slaves.

Bibliography

Crotty, N.  “Biblical Perspectives in Moral Theology” inTheological Studies26 (1965), pp. 574-595.

Johnstone, B.  “The Argument from Tradition in Catholic (Moral) Theology”,Irish Theological Quarterly,Vol. 69, No. 2, 2004, pp. 154-5.

Gallagher, J.  “The New Testament as Guide to Action”,The Basis for Christian Ethics,pp. 98-115.

MacKenzie, J.  “Law in the New Testament”,The Jurist, 26 (1967), pp. 167-180.

McQueen, M. Lecture Notes for Ethics. (Toronto:  St. Michael's College, 2004).

New Jerusalem Bible.  (New York:  Doubleday, 1990).

New King James Bible.  Online version:  http://bible.gospelcom.net.

Spicq, C.  “Liberty According to the New Testament” , Spiritual Life,6 (1960), pp. 323-336.

1 Johnstone, B.  “The Argument from Tradition in Catholic (Moral) Theology”, Irish Theological Quarterly,Vol. 69, No. 2, 2004, p. 155.

2 “Even before God commands, what He orders is already experienced by the Christian as an exigency of the very love which impels him.”  In Spicq, C.  “Liberty According to the New Testament” , Spiritual Life,6 (1960), p. 330.

3 Crotty, N.  “Biblical Perspectives in Moral Theology” in Theological Studies26 (1965), p. 584.

4 Ibid.

5 Spicq, Op. Cit., p. 335-6:  “...there is no formula of Christian life.  No two children of God are alike.  If there are general laws which are valid for all the members of the same nature and of the same society, still, each case is unique.  Each Christian... acts according to the sovereign spontaneity of his divine instinct.”

6 McQueen, M.  Lecture Notes for Ethics. (Toronto:  St. Michael's College, 2004).

7 Johnstone, Op. Cit., p. 154.

8 Spicq, Op. Cit.,p. 326.

9 Gallagher, J.  “The New Testament as Guide to Action”, The Basis for Christian Ethics,p. 99.

10 MacKenzie, J.  “Law in the New Testament”, The Jurist, 26 (1967), p. 180.

11 Spicq, Op. Cit., p. 335.

“Law” in the Context of Grace in Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Introduction

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul makes use of the word “law” in several places, with  different  meanings, depending on the point he wished to illustrate.  One is struck by the repetition of the word and its varied application.  It gives the impression that Paul was trying to get the attention of his audience by focusing on that which they held in the highest regard.  In Jeremiah's day, the prophet exposed Israel'ssurficialconception of religion by calling on “the temple” as a kind of idol.  After the destruction of the temple (70 CE), many Jews adopted a Pharisaical zeal for the Mosaic law with its ritual works, to fill the void.  Paul exposes this “worship” of the Decalogue as being an exercise in futility in the light of God's free gift of grace through Jesus Christ.  He adopts the beloved word “law” and offers it back to the community with a new sense, one charged with the power and potential of the life of the Spirit of God. 

Natural Law

Paul begins the Epistle by showing the universality of law.  Law is something which has been in existence for all time, a testament to God's existence and nature (1:18-20).  That there is a right and a wrong in moral matters is something that is known through the human conscience (2:15), therefore placing all Paul's readership (i.e. Gentiles, at this point) under the judgment of God (2:11).  This is known as the general revelation.

Mosaic Law

Specific revelation, entrusted to Israel through Moses, consisted of the Decalogue and various and sundry ceremonial laws, rituals of purification and other commandments (613, in all) governing the daily lives of a nation set apart unto God.  Paul exposes the observance of these laws to the end of dismantling the surficial religiosity it produced (2:12-3:20).  He goes so far as to negate the apparent value of circumcision in light of actual righteousness, which consists in keeping allof the commandments (2:25-29).

The function of the Mosaic law, for Paul, is to make the existence of sin known (5:13,20;7:7-13).  He says, “But sin, that it might might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful” (7:13c).

The Law of Faith

Paul shows the contrast between the law of works, based on the Mosaic covenant, and the law of faith, based on the older,Abrahamiccovenant (3:27-4:25).  While the Mosaic covenant was conditional, with blessings being proportionate to one's performance, the Abrahamic covenant was unconditional, requiring only belief in the party offering the gift.  Paul describes this grace aptly by saying that, while rarely would someone die for a righteous person, and scarcely so for a good person, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8).  This dynamic ensures that the glory of the new covenant may rest solely upon God, who gives freely to all (3:26).  Thus, while the law of works produced striving (with the hope of pleasing God) , the law of faith offers rest in the finished work of Jesus at the cross.  Grace is, in this context, the power behind the righteousness which is bestowed on those who adhere to the law of faith.  Paul brings the difference into sharp contrast by calling the “law of the flesh” that which is in bondage to sin and “the law of the spirit” that which frees from sin through grace.  One represents an external religion which fails to live up to God's perfect standard, the other an internal power which gives us a share in the life of Christ.

Law of the Flesh

“I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (7:23).  Paul aptly describes the human condition, inherited from Adam (5:12-21), as a state of rebellion against God and His laws (natural law, Mosaic law).  In calling this frustrating experience a law, Paul helps to weaken the idealization of a religion of external works, which is termed “the Law”.  In an anthropological context, the Mosaic Decalogue, says Paul, cannot save, but serves, rather, as a schoolmaster, to lead one, through knowledge of one's sinful condition (i.e., by failure to achieve what the Decalogue commands), to the cross of Christ (Gal. 3:24).  We cannot, through our own efforts, achieve what is freely given by grace.

The Law of the Spirit

By making allusion to a marriage covenant, in which one partner is at liberty to marry a new partner upon the death of the first, Paul offers the reader freedom from the law of carnality by virtue of its crucifixion (7:1-6).  The new law to which one may be wed is the law of the spirit (a.k.a., “the law of God” (7:22), “the law of my mind” (7:23)).  In contrast to the law of flesh, which gives command (i.e. the Mosaic Law) but provides no power to fulfill the command, the law of the spirit offers power to fulfill the command, which “is good” (7:16).  Thus, while the law of religious works was purely external, and thus doomed to failure, the law of the spirit is internal, as the prophet said, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33).  In the first case, we are given the command but are unable to fulfill it, in which case the law serves simply to reveal the existence of our sinful nature.  In the second case, once the knowledge of sin has matured in the conscience, and our need for redemptory aid exposed, we are given power in grace.

Law in the Context of Grace

Grace (Χάριτι)has been defined as “an act of sheer generosity which depends on no payment man can make”1 .  Aquinas calls the experience of grace in the New Testament “a New Law”:  “...the New Law is chiefly the grace itself of the Holy Ghost, which is given to those who believe in Christ.”2   Thus it is not the righteousness of humans but the righteousness of God which saves from death, hell, sin and disease.  All that we can do is to have faith in Christ, which gives access to the grace of God.  Grace is experienced through the Holy Spirit, who empowers and enlivens the believer.  In this context, “the law” (i.e. the moral statutes of God) does not “merely” serve to make the presence of sin known, as was the case before the Gospel was revealed, but now becomes the proper aim for the believer, who is now aided to achieve its good ends through the inner workings of the spirit of grace.  In no way does Paul state that the law is evil, as those who charge the apostle withantinomianismwould have it.  Rather, he emphasizes that it is good, for it is the law of God.  It is simply that the practical function of the law has changed.  Before grace came in Jesus Christ, the commands of God brought death through the knowledge of sin (5:20).  After grace was revealed at the cross, the good works demanded by the law were made accessible to the believer.  In the first case, frustration abounded while people tried to gain justification through works of the law.  In the second case, love abounded though the good works of the law because people were freely justified by the grace of God.  Thus righteousness, which could not be achieved through the law, was bestowed as a gift by faith in Christ in order to establish the law (9:30-10:4).  Paul has brought the reader from dead works and condemnation to spiritual life and power through the Gospel.

Conclusion

We have seen, in the Epistle to the Romans, various uses by the author, of the word “law”.  Among its meanings here are:  natural law, Mosaic law (including the Decalogue), the law of the flesh and the law of the spirit.  Broadly speaking, when Paul wrote of “the law”, he meant the set of commands, both generally and specifically revealed, which, prior to grace, served to bring about a conviction of sin (5:13, 20; 7:7-13).  He makes use of the readership's familiarity with the term “law” to introduce new concepts, as when he speaks of “the law in my members” (7:23) and “the law of sin” (7:23, 25), which brings death.  This serves to weaken the position of the religion of external piety, which called on the works of the law as a testament to supposed righteousness, much as people made allusion to “the Temple” in Jeremiah's age.  Paul contrasts the carnal “law” with the “law of my mind” (7:23), also known as “the law of God”(7:22, 25), by which he means again the Decalogue, which is good.  This law functioned mainly to convict of sin, prior to the revelation of grace in Jesus Christ.  It acted as a tutor to spiritual children (i.e. carnal souls) in order to expose their need for divine grace, but it could not save.  What it commanded, it did not enable, and seeing failure, it punished.  Another law, “the law of faith”, given by a different covenant, did what the Mosaic law could not, namely, it made sinners just in the eyes of God (4:3), as a free act on His part (3:24).  As evil is the power behind sin and leads to death, so grace is the power behind righteousness and leads to life.  The human condition, inherited from Adam, was made manifest by the law.  The gift of the divine life, given through Christ, is offered through grace in the Holy Spirit.  It gives power to fulfill the command by doing away with the penalty of sin, moving the motivation for works from fear to love, taking religion fromexternalityand carnality tointernalityand eternity.

Works Cited

Aquinas, Thomas. TheSumma Theologicaof St. Thomas Aquinas,Second and Revised Edition, 1920.  Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province.  Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by Kevin Knight.  Accessed October 22, 2005, at http://www.newadvent.org.

Dunn, James D.G.  Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 38:  Romans 1-8.  Nashville:  Word, Inc., 1988.

1 James D.G. Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 38:  Romans 1-8.  (Nashville:  Word, Inc., 1988).

2Thomas Aquinas,The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas,The First Part of the Second Part, Question 106, Article 3. Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province.  Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by Kevin Knight.