Remedy Against The Second Temptation: "Have We Faith Or Not?"
His righteousness, you are nevertheless corrupt in your nature; in it there dwells still the root of all sin (Rom. 7:17, 18). How, then, will you dare to appear before the majesty of God who is the Enemy of all pollution (Ps. 5:5), and who sees the depths of the heart (Ps. 44:21; Jer. 17:10)?
Now, in this sphere, we find anew a prompt remedy in Jesus Christ alone. We must rely on Him. Truly we are yet enclosed in this mortal body (Rom. 7:24), so that we do not practise the good that we wish, we still feel the sin which dwells in us (Rom. 7:21-23), and the flesh which battles against the Spirit
(Gal. 5:17). This is why, with regard to ourselves, we are still polluted in the body and in the soul (1 Cor. 4:4; Phil. 3:9). But inasmuch as we have faith, we are united (1 Cor. 6:17), embodied (Eph. 4:16; Col 2:19), rooted (Col.
2:7), ingrafted in Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:5). In Him, from the first moment of His conception in the womb of the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35), our nature was more fully restored and sanctified (Heb. 2:10, 11), than it ever was when created pure in Adam; seeing that Adam was made only in the image of God (Gen 1:27; 1 Cor. 15:47), whereas Christ is true God, who has taken to Himself our flesh, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This sanctification of human nature in Jesus Christ is reckoned as ours, through faith. Thus, the remainder of natural corruption which, even after regeneration, still dwells in us, cannot enter into our account (Rom. 8:1-3).
Our unworthiness is covered and swallowed up by the holiness of Jesus Christ, which is far more powerful to sanctify us before God than natural corruption is to pollute us.
Remedy against the second temptation: "Have we faith or not?"
In a second temptation Satan will then answer that Jesus Christ did not die for all sinners, seeing that all will not be saved. Let us then have recourse to our faith, and reply to him that in truth, only believers will receive the fruit of this suffering and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. But, instead of disturbing us, this gives us assurance; for we know that we have faith (Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 2:1216; 1 John 4:13). As we have said before, it is not enough to have a general and confused belief that Jesus Christ came to take away the sins of the world.
But it is necessary that each apply to himself and appropriate to himself Jesus Christ through faith, so that each concludes in himself: I am in Jesus Christ through faith, that is why I cannot perish, and am sure of my salvation (Rom.
8:1, 38, 39; 1 Cor. 2:16; 1 John 5:19, 20).
Thus, to confirm that we have repulsed Satan in the three preceding assaults of the first temptation, and in order to resist this second, it is necessary to know if we have this faith or not. The means is to return from the effects to the cause which produces them. Now, the effects which Jesus Christ produces in us, when we have taken hold of Him by faith, are two. In the first place, there is the testimony which the Holy Spirit gives to our spirit that we are children of God, and enables us to cry with assurance, "Abba, Father". (Rom.
8:16; Gal. 4:6). In the second place, we must understand that when we apply to ourselves Jesus Christ by faith, this is not by some silly and vain fancy and imagining, but really and in fact, though spiritually (Rom. 6:14; 1 John 1:6;
2:5; 3:7). In the same way as the soul produces its effects when it is naturally united to the body, so, when, by faith, Jesus Christ dwells in us in a spiritual manner, His power produces there and reveals there His graces. These are described in Scripture by the words 'regeneration' and 'sanctification', and they make us new creatures with regard to the qualities that we can have
(John 3:3; Eph. 4:21-24).
This regeneration, that is to say, a new beginning and new creation, is divided into three parts. In the same way as the natural corruption, which holds our person captive, both soul and body, produces in us sins and death (Rom.
7:13), so the power of Jesus Christ, flowing and entering into us with efficacy, as coming to take possession of us, produces in us three effects: the putting to death of sin, that is -to say, of this natural corruption which Scripture cans the 'old man', his burial, and, finally, the resurrection of the new man. St. Paul, in particular, describes these things at length (Rom. 6, and almost everywhere else; cf. 1 Pet. 4:1-2).
The putting to death of the corruption, or of sin, is an effect of Jesus Christ in us. Little by little, He destroys this cursed corruption of our nature, so that it becomes less powerful to produce in us its effects: the motions, the consents and the other actions contrary to the will of God.
The burying of the old man is an effect of the same Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12; 3:3-4). By His power, the old man, who has received his deathblow, does not cease to be annihilated little by little. In short, in the same way as the burying of our body is a progression from death, so the burying of our old man is a progression and consequence of his being put to death. To this end the afflictions, with which the Lord visits us daily, greatly
serve (2 Cor. 4:16); He comes likewise with spiritual and physical trials which we must diligently make use of, to put to death more and more the rebellion of the flesh, which fights against the Spirit (1 Cor. 9:27; Gal. 5:17).
Finally, for believers, the first death is the completion of this putting to death and burying of sin, for it puts an end to the war of the flesh against the Spirit
(Phil. 3:20, 21).
The resurrection of the new man, this man whose qualities and faculties are truly renewed, is the third effect of the same Jesus Christ living in us. Having put to death in our nature that which it had of corruption, He then gives to us a new power and remakes us. Thus, our understanding and our judgement, illuminated by the pure grace of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1: 18), and governed by the new power which we draw from Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:14), begin to understand and to approve that which, previously, was folly to them (1 Cor.
2:14) and, abomination (Rom. 8:7). And then, in the second place, the will is rectified to hate sin and embrace righteousness (Rom. 6:6). Finally, all the faculties of the man begin to shun that which God has forbidden, and to follow all that he has commanded (Rom. 7:22; Phil. 2:13).
These are therefore the two effects that Jesus Christ produces in us. If we experience them, the conclusion is infallible: we have faith, and, consequently, as we have said, we have in us Jesus Christ living eternally.
It is therefore evident that each believer must watch above all to maintain, by continual supplication, this aforementioned testimony which the Spirit of God gives to His own; he must also develop, by a continual exercise of good works to which his vocation calls him, the gift of regeneration which he has received (Rom. 12:9-16). In this sense it is said that he who is born of God does not sin (1 John 5:18), that is to say, he does not addict himself to sin, but resists it more and more, so that he has correspondingly more assurance of his election and calling (2 Pet. 1:10). Since to know this regeneration, it is necessary to come to its fruits. Thus, as I have said, the man, being freed from the bondage of sin, that is to say, from his natural corruption, begins, thanks to the power of Jesus Christ who dwells in Him, to produce the good fruits, which we call 'good works'. This is why we say, and with good reason, that the faith of which we speak can no more exist without good works than the sun without light or the fire without heat (1 John 2:9, 10; James 2:14-17).
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FOOTNOTE:
[1] Macedonius, (4th Century), denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. His heresy was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.
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