Friday, March 31, 2006

There is none righteous, no, not one.

John Calvin has written:
“I say, that if we go back to the remotest period, we shall not find a single saint who, clothed with a mortal body, ever attained to such perfection as to love the Lord with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; and, on the other hand, not one who has not felt the power of concupiscence. Who can deny this? I am aware, indeed, of a kind of saints whom a foolish superstition imagines, and whose purity the angels of heaven scarcely equal. This, however, is repugnant both to Scripture and experience. But I say further, that no saint ever will attain to perfection, so long as he is in the body. Scripture bears clear testimony to this effect: “There is no man that sinneth not,” saith Solomon (1 Kings viii. 46.) David says, “In thy sight shall no man living be justified,” (Psalm cxliii. 2.) Job also, in numerous passages, affirms the same thing. But the clearest of all is Paul, who declares that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,” (Gal. v. 17.) And he proves, that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,” for the simple reason, that it is written, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” (Gal. iii. 10; Deut. xxvii.: 26;) intimating, or rather assuming it as confessed, that none can so continue.”
(Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 303-304.)

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