Tractates on the Gospel of John
84 ST. AUGUSTINE unowed grace. He says, "For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice."^^ Now he demands what is owed, now he exacts what is owed. For look at the following words: "Which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day."^- Before, that he might receive grace, he needed a merciful father; that [he might receive] the reward of grace, a just judge. Will he who did not condemn the ungodly condemn the faithful? And yet if you think about it correctly, he himself first gave faith by which you have won him; for you did not on your own resources win that something might be owed you. Thererfore, inasmuch as he afterwards bestows the reward of immortality, he crowns his own gifts, not your merits.
(2) Therefore, my brothers, "of his fullness we have all received." Of the fullness of his mercy, of the abundance of his goodness we have received. What? The remission of our sins that we might be justified by faith. And, in addition, what?
"And grace for grace," that is, for this grace in which we live by faith we are going to receive another. And yet what else except grace? For if I say that this, too, is owed, I consign something to myself as if to one to whom it were owed. But God crowns the gifts of his mercy in us, but only if we should walk with perseverance in that grace which we first received.
11. "For the Law was given through Moses," which held them guilty. For what does the Apostle say? "The Law entered in, that sin might abound. "^^ This benefitted the proud, that sin abounded; for they gave much to themselves, and, as it were, consigned much to their own strength. And they were unable to fulfill justice unless he who had ordered it were to help them. God, wishing to tame their pride, gave the Law, as if saying, Look, fulfill.
(2) Don't suppose there is no one to order. He who is to order is not missing; rather, he who should fulfill is missing.
41. 2 Tm 4.6-8. 43. Cf. Rom 5.20. 42. Cf. 2 Tm 4.8.