Chapter
107.—Eternal Life, Though the Reward of Good Works, is Itself the
Gift of God.
Wherefore, even eternal life
itself, which
is surely the reward of good
works, the apostle calls the gift of God. “For the wages of
sin,” he says, “is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1300
Wages (
stipendium
) is paid
as a recompense for military service; it is not a gift: wherefore
he says, “the
wages
of sin is death,” to show that death
was not inflicted undeservedly, but as the due recompense of sin.
But a gift, unless it is wholly unearned, is not a gift at all.
1301
We are to
understand, then, that man’s good deserts are themselves the gift
of God, so that when these obtain the recompense of eternal life,
it is simply grace given for grace. Man, therefore, was thus made
upright that, though unable to remain in his uprightness without
divine help, he could of his own mere will depart from it. And
whichever of these courses he had chosen, God’s will would have
been done, either by him, or concerning him. Therefore, as he chose
to do his own will rather than God’s, the will of God is
fulfilled concerning him; for God, out of one and the same heap of
perdition which constitutes the race of man, makes one vessel to
honor, another to dishonor; to honor in mercy, to dishonor in
judgment;
1302
that no
one may glory in man, and consequently not in himself.
1300
Rom. vi. 23
1301
Comp.
Rom.
xi. 6
1302
Rom. ix. 21