{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1878","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Rightly therefore does Paul say that the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life. For the letter circumcises a small portion of the body; the understanding spirit keeps the circumcision of the whole soul and body; that the superfluous parts being cut off, (for nothing is so superfluous as the vices of avarice, the sins of lust, which nature had not, but sin caused,) chastity might be observed, and frugality loved. The sign therefore is bodily circumcision, but the truth is spiritual circumcision, the one cuts off the member, the other cuts off sin. Nature has created nothing imperfect in man, nor has she commanded it to be taken away as if it were superfluous, but that they who cut off a part of their body might perceive that sins were much more to be cut off, and those members which led to offences were to be retrenched, even though they were joined together by a certain unity of body, as it is written, \"If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.\"<br/><i>— Letter 74, To Irenaeus</i></p><p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: And what wonder is it the Spirit works Life, Who quickens as does the Father and as does the Son? And who can deny that quickening is the work of the Eternal Majesty? For it is written: \"Quicken Thy servant.\" He, then, is quickened who is a servant, that is, man, who before had not life, but received the privilege of having it. Let us then see whether the Spirit is quickened, or Himself quickens. Now it is written: \"The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.\" So, then, the Spirit quickens. But that you may understand that the quickening of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is no separate work, read how there is a oneness of quickening also, since God Himself quickens through the Spirit, for Paul said: \"He Who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit Who dwelleth in you.\"<br/><i>— On the Holy Spirit, Book 2, Chapter 4.29-31</i></p><p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: The Spirit, who is the law of faith which is not written but which is contained in the rational soul, is life-giving, drawing to himself those who are guilty of mortal sin, so that they may be made righteous and cease altogether from sinning.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: How does the Spirit give life? By causing the letter to be fulfilled, so that it may not kill.<br/><i>— EASTER SERMON 251.7</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Therefore, you that fear the Lord, praise him, and that you may worship him, not as slaves but as free men, learn to love him whom you fear, and you will be able to praise what you love. The men of the Old Testament, fearing God, because of the letter which terrifies and kills and not yet possessing \"the spirit which quickens,\" ran to the temple with sacrifices and offered up bloody victims. They were ignorant of what was foreshadowed by them, although they were a figure of the Blood to come, by which we have been redeemed.<br/><i>— LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 19</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Therefore, God commands continence, and he gives continence; he commands by the law, he gives by the Spirit; for the law without grace makes sin abound, and the letter without the spirit kills. He commands so as to make us learn how to ask the help of grace when we try to obey his commandments and in our weakness fall wearied under the law, and also to make us grateful to him who helps us if we have been able to perform any good work.<br/><i>— LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Could it be possible that the law is not of God? None but an irreligious man would think that. But, because the law commands by the letter and does not help by the Spirit, whoever listens to the letter of the law in such wise as to think that it is enough for him to know what it commands or forbids, whoever trusts in the strength of his own free will to accomplish it and does not take refuge in faith in order to be assisted in his approach to the Spirit that quickens lest the letter find him guilty and kill him, that man has a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.<br/><i>— LETTER 186, TO PAULINUS</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: For, if you take away the Spirit, how does the law avail? It makes a prevaricator. On that account the Scripture says: \"The letter kills.\" The law orders and you do not obey.… Something is commanded, and you do not do it; something is forbidden, and you do it. Behold, \"the letter kills.\"<br/><i>— EASTER SERMON 250.3</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Let the Spirit be joined to the law, because, if you have received the law and if you lack the help of the Spirit, you do not fulfill what is of the law. You do not carry out what is commanded you.… Let the Spirit be added, let him help: that which is commanded is accomplished. If the Spirit is absent, the letter kills you.… You cannot excuse yourself on the plea of ignorance since you have received the law. Now, because you have learned what you should do, ignorance does not excuse you.… But why does the apostle say: \"The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life\"? How does the Spirit give life? Because he causes the letter to be fulfilled so that it may not kill. The sanctified are those who fulfill the law of God according to the gift of God. The law can command; it cannot help. The Spirit is added as a helper, and the commandment of God is fulfilled with joy and delight. Certainly many observe the law from fear, but those who keep the law from fear of punishment would prefer that what they fear did not exist. On the contrary, those who observe the law through love of justice rejoice even in that respect because they do not consider it hostile to them.<br/><i>— EASTER SERMON 251.7</i></p><p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: The difference between the spirit and the letter the apostle explains succinctly in another place by comparing the law and the gospel, saying: \"For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.\" By the \"letter\" he means the law, as is evident also from what precedes and follows. By the \"spirit\" he means the Lord's doctrine, for the Lord himself said: \"My words are spirit and life.\"33.<br/><i>— CONCERNING BAPTISM 1.2</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: He made them, as Paul writes, sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life; as if he said: We have been made sufficient by God by means of signs and of the Holy Spirit, while teaching such things, to persuade those who hear us; for God hath appointed us ministers of the new and life-giving covenant, not of the old letter, that is, of the written law which threatens death, but of the life-giving power, that is, of the Holy Spirit.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 7</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Not of the letter, but of the spirit.\" See again another difference. What then? was not that Law spiritual? How then saith he, \"We know that the Law is spiritual?\" Spiritual indeed, but it bestowed not a spirit. For Moses bare not a spirit, but letters; but we have been entrusted with the giving of a spirit. Whence also in further completion of this [contrast,] he saith,</p><p>\"For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.\"</p><p>Yet these things he saith not absolutely; but in allusion to those who prided themselves upon the things of Judaism. And by \"letter\" here he meaneth the Law which punisheth them that transgress; but by \"spirit\" the grace which through Baptism giveth life to them who by sins were made dead. For having mentioned the difference arising from the nature of the tables, he doth not dwell upon it, but rapidly passing it by, bestows more labor upon this, which most enabled him to lay hold on his hearer from considerations of what was advantageous and easy; for, saith he, it is not laborious, and the gift it offers is greater. For if when discoursing of Christ, he puts especially forward those things which are of His lovingkindness, more than of our merit, and which are mutually connected, much greater necessity is there for his doing so when treating of the covenant. What then is the meaning of \"the letter killeth?\" He had said tables of stone and hearts of flesh: so far he seemed to mention no great difference. He added that the former [covenant] was written with letters or ink, but this with the Spirit. Neither did this rouse them thoroughly, He says at last what is indeed enough to give them wings; the one \"killeth,\" the other \"giveth life.\" And what doth this mean? In the Law, he that hath sin is punished; here, he that hath sins cometh and is baptized and is made righteous, and being made righteous, he liveth, being delivered from the death of sin. The Law, if it lay hold on a murderer, putteth him to death; the Gospel, if it lay hold on a murderer, enlighteneth, and giveth him life. And why do I instance a murderer? The Law laid hold on one that gathered sticks on a sabbath day, and stoned him. This is the meaning of, \"the letter killeth.\" The Gospel takes hold on thousands of homicides and robbers, and baptizing delivereth them from their former vices. This is the meaning of, \"the Spirit giveth life.\" The former maketh its captive dead from being alive, the latter rendereth the man it hath convicted alive from being dead. For, \"come unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden,\" and, He said not, 'I will punish you,' but, \"I will give you rest.\" For in Baptism the sins are buried, the former things are blotted out, the man is made alive, the entire grace written upon his heart as it were a table. Consider then how high is the dignity of the Spirit, seeing that His tables are better than those former ones; seeing that even a greater thing is shown forth than the resurrection itself. For indeed, that state of death from which He delivers, is more irremediable than the former one: as much more so, as soul is of more value than the body: and this life is conferred by that, by that which the Spirit giveth. But if It be able to bestow this, much more then that which is less. For, that prophets wrought, but this they could not: for none can remit sins but God only; nor did the prophets bestow that life without the Spirit. But this is not the marvel only, that it giveth life, but that it enabled others also to do this. For He saith, \"Receive ye the Holy Ghost.\" Wherefore? Because without the Spirit it might not be? [Yes,] but God, as showing that It is of supreme authority, and of that Kingly Essence, and hath the same power [with Himself,] saith this too. Whence also He adds, \"Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.\"<br/><i>— Homily 6 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: Set me free from the yoke of condemnation, and place me under the yoke of justification. Deliver me from the yoke of the curse, and of the letter that killeth;<br/><i>— Methodius Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: The letter means what is material and the spirit what is intellectual, which we also call spiritual.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: For even in the Gospels, it is \"the letter\" that \"kills.\" Not only in the Old Testament is \"the letter that kills\" found; there is also in the New Testament \"the letter that kills\"—that one who does not spiritually perceive what is said. For, if you follow according to the letter that which is said, \"Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood,\" this \"letter kills.\" Do you want me to bring out of the gospel for you another \"letter\" that \"kills\"? He says, \"Let the one who does not have a sword sell his tunic and buy a sword.\" Behold, this is the letter of the gospel, but \"it kills.\" But, if you take it spiritually, it does not kill, but there is in it \"a spirit that gives life.\" For this reason, receive spiritually what is said either in the law or in the Gospels because \"the spiritual one judges all things but that one is not judged by anyone.\"<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Leviticus 7.5.5</i></p><p><b>Pelagius</b>: The law kills the sinner, but grace revives him if he repents. There are some people who say that the literal sense of Scripture is the thing which kills, but this is to forget that not all Scripture is meant to be taken literally, nor can allegory be pressed into service in every passage. For just as some things are said in an allegorical way, so other things, like the commandments, will lose all their meaning if they are taken allegorically and become destructive. The spiritual meaning of Scripture is not found in allegory but in letting the meaning of the text explain the essence of truth.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 3</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Therefore \"the New Testament\" will appertain to none other than Him who promised it-if not \"its letter, yet its spirit; \" and herein will lie its newness.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Even if \"the letter killeth, yet the Spirit giveth life; \" and both belong to Him who says: \"I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: For even if he has affirmed that \"good dwelleth not in his flesh,\" yet (he means) according to \"the law of the letter,\" in which he \"was: \"but according to \"the law of the Spirit,\" to which he annexes us, he frees us from the \"infirmity of the flesh.<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"b0e9e347e2fab66b8fd80d1b960a7f8530a8459ef1f514688607e7b53597abf5","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1878,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"c3c466892687afad3de6f5db2a33b205f75fee69154792bd60f5e555152d1a0a","translator":null,"work":null}