It is not nature, therefore, which, sold as it is under sin and wounded by the offence, longs for a Redeemer and Saviour; nor is it the knowledge of the law -- through which comes the discovery, not the expulsion, of sin -- which delivers us from the body of this death; but it is the Lord's good grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. [1665]

Chapter 21 [IX.] -- The Same Continued.

This grace is not dying nature, nor the slaying letter, but the vivifying spirit; for already did he possess nature with freedom of will, because he said: "To will is present with me." [1666] Nature, however, in a healthy condition and without a flaw, he did not possess, for he said: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth nothing good." [1667] Already had he the knowledge of God's holy law, for he said: "I had not known sin but through the law;" [1668] yet for all that, he did not possess strength and power to practise and fulfil righteousness, for he complained: "What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." [1669] And again, "How to accomplish that which is good I find not." [1670] Therefore it is not from the liberty of the human will, nor from the precepts of the law, that there comes deliverance from the body of this death; for both of these he had already, -- the one in his nature, the other in his learning; but all he wanted was the help of the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

---

Footnotes:

[1665] Romans 7:25.

[1666] Romans 7:18.

[1667] Romans 7:18.

[1668] Romans 7:7.

[1669] Romans 7:15.

[1670] Romans 7:18.