40.
Accordingly, He so now cleanses His Church by the washing of water in the word, that He may hereafter show it to Himself as not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,--altogether beautiful, that is to say, and in absolute perfection, when death shall be "swallowed up in victory." 1 Now, therefore, in so far as the life is flourishing within us that proceeds from our being born of God, living by faith, so far we are righteous; but in so far as we drag along with us the traces of our mortal nature as derived from Adam, so far we cannot be free from sin. For there is truth both in the statement that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," 2 and also in the former statement, that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 3 The Lord Jesus, therefore, is both righteous and able to justify; but we are justified freely by no other grace than His. 4 For there is nothing that justifieth save His body, which is the Church; and therefore, if the body of Christ bears off the spoils of the unrighteous, and the riches of the unrighteous are laid up in store as treasures for the body of Christ, the unrighteous ought not therefore to remain outside, but rather to enter within, that so they may be justified.
