A. I am surprised at a prudent man submitting evidence which goes against himself. For the passage in question does not speak of a possibility, but one impossibility is compared with another. As a camel cannot go through a needle's eye, so neither will a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. Or, if you should be able to show that a rich man does enter the kingdom of heaven, it follows, also, that a camel goes through a needle's eye. You must not instance Abraham and other rich men, about whom we read in the Old Testament, who, although they were rich, entered the kingdom of heaven; for, by spending their riches on good works, they ceased to be rich; nay, rather, inasmuch as they were rich, not for themselves, but for others, they ought to be called God's stewards rather than rich men. But we must seek evangelical perfection, according to which there is the command, “If you will be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me.”
11. C. You are caught unawares in your own snare.
A. How so?
C. You quote our Lord's utterance to the effect that a man can be perfect. For when He says, “If you will be perfect, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me,” He shows that a man, if he chooses, and if he does what is commanded, can be perfect?
A. You have given me such a terrible blow that I am almost dazed. But yet the very words you quote, “If you will be perfect,” were spoken to one who could not, or rather would not, and, therefore, could not; show me now, as you promised, some one who would and could.
C. Why am I compelled to produce instances of perfection, when it is clear from what the Saviour said to one, and through one to all, “If you will be perfect” that it is possible for men to be perfect?
A. That is a mere shuffle. You still stick fast in the mire. For, either, if a thing is possible, it has occurred at some time or other; or, if it never has happened, grant that it is impossible.
12. C. Why do I any longer delay? You must be vanquished by the authority or Scripture. To pass over other passages, you must be silenced by the two in which we read the praises of Job, and of Zacharias and Elizabeth. For, unless I am deceived, it is thus written in the book of Job: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, a true worshipper of God, and one who kept himself from every evil thing.” And again: “Who is he that reproves one that is righteous and free from sin, and speaks words without knowledge?” Also, in the Gospel according to Luke, we read: “There was in the days of Herod, king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abijah: and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” If a true worshipper of God is also without spot and without offense, and if those who walked in all the ordinances of the Lord are righteous before God, I suppose they are free from sin, and lack nothing that pertains to righteousness.
A. You have cited passages which have been detached not only from the rest of Scripture, but from the books in which they occur. For even Job, after he was stricken with the plague, is convicted of having spoken many things against the ruling of God, and to have summoned Him to the bar: “Would that a man stood with God in the judgment as a son of man stands with his fellow.” And again: “Oh that I had one to hear me! That the Almighty might hear my desire, and that the judge would himself write a book!” And again: “Though I be righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me: though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse. If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, You have dyed me again and again with filth. My own clothes have abhorred me.” And of Zacharias it is written, that when the angel promised the birth of a son, he said: “Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.” For which answer he was at once condemned to silence: “You shall be silent, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall come to pass, because you believe not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.” From this it is clear that men are called righteous, and said to be without fault; but that, if negligence comes over them, they may fall; and that a man always occupies a middle place, so that he may slip from the height of virtue into vice, or may rise from vice to virtue; and that he is never safe, but must dread shipwreck even in fair weather; and, therefore, that a man cannot be without sin. Solomon says, “There is not a righteous man upon earth that does good and sins not”; and likewise in the book of Kings: “There is no man that sins not.” So, also, the blessed David says: “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from hidden faults, and keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins.” And again: “Enter not into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight shall no man living be justified.” Holy Scripture is full of passages to the same effect.
13. C. But what answer will you give to the famous declaration of John the Evangelist: “We know that whosoever is begotten of God sins not; but the begetting of God keeps him, and the evil one touches him not. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one?”
A. I will requite like with like, and will show that, according to you, the little epistle of the Evangelist contradicts itself. For, if whosoever is begotten of God sins not because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God, how is it that the writer says in the same place: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us?” You cannot explain. You hesitate and are confused. Listen to the same Evangelist telling us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We are then righteous when we confess that we are sinners, and our righteousness depends not upon our own merits, but on the mercy of God, as the Holy Scripture says, “The righteous man accuses himself when he begins to speak,” and elsewhere, “Tell your sins that you may be justified.” “God has shut up all under sin, that He may have mercy upon all.” And the highest righteousness of man is this— whatever virtue he may be able to acquire, not to think it his own, but the gift of God. He then who is born of God does not sin, so long as the seed of God remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. But seeing that, while the householder slept, an enemy sowed tares, and that when we know not, a sower by night scatters in the Lord's field darnel and wild oats among the good grain, this parable of the householder in the Gospel should excite our fears. He cleanses his floor, and gathers the wheat into his garner, but leaves the chaff to be scattered by the winds, or burned by the fire. And so we read in Jeremiah, “What is the chaff to the wheat? Says the Lord.” The chaff, moreover, is separated from the wheat at the end of the world, a proof that, while we are in the mortal body, chaff is mixed with the wheat. But if you object, and ask why did the Apostle say “and he cannot sin, because he is born of God,” I reply by asking you what becomes of the reward of his choice? For if a man does not sin because he cannot sin, free will is destroyed, and goodness cannot possibly be due to his efforts, but must be part of a nature unreceptive of evil.
Source: Against the Pelagians (New Advent)