95. But lest any one be perplexed because it
is written: “I have delivered such an one unto Satan for
the destruction of the flesh,” 1 Cor. v. 5. and
should say: How can he attain forgiveness whose whole flesh has
perished, seeing that it is evident that man was redeemed both in body
and soul, and is saved in both and that neither the soul without the
body, nor yet the body without the soul, since both are united by their
fellowship in the deeds that have been done, can be without fellowship
either in punishment or in reward? Let this suffice for an answer
to him: That “destruction” does not mean the complete
annihilation of the flesh, but its chastening. For as he who is
dead to sin lives to God, so the allurements of the flesh perish, and
the flesh dies to its lusts, in order that it may live again to purity
and to other good works.