The Enchiridion 107
107 Eternal Life, Though the Reward of Good Works, is Itself the Gift of God PL 40, 282
Wherefore, even eternal life itself, which is surely the reward of good works, the apostle calls the gift of God. “For the wages of sin,” he says, “is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Wages (stipendium) is paid as a recompense for military service; it is not a gift: wherefore he says, “the wages of sin is death,” to show that death was not inflicted undeservedly, but as the due recompense of sin. But a gift, unless it is wholly unearned, is not a gift at all. We are to understand, then, that man’s good deserts are themselves the gift of God, so that when these obtain the recompense of eternal life, it is simply grace given for grace. Man, therefore, was thus made upright that, though unable to remain in his uprightness without divine help, he could of his own mere will depart from it. And whichever of these courses he had chosen, God’s will would have been done, either by him, or concerning him. Therefore, as he chose to do his own will rather than God’s, the will of God is fulfilled concerning him; for God, out of one and the same heap of perdition which constitutes the race of man, makes one vessel to honor, another to dishonor; to honor in mercy, to dishonor in judgment; that no one may glory in man, and consequently not in himself.
Vita aeterna merces et tamen gratia. Voluntas Dei de homine peccante impleta. Unde et ipsam vitam aeternam, quae certe merces est operum bonorum, gratiam Dei appellat Apostolus: Stipendium enim, inquit, peccati mors; gratia autem Dei vita aeterna in Christo Jesu Domino nostro . Stipendium pro opere militiae debitum redditur, non donatur: ideo dixit, Stipendium peccati mors; ut mortem peccato non immerito illatam, sed debitam demonstraret. Gratia vero nisi gratis est, gratia non est. Intelligendum est igitur etiam ipsa hominis bona merita esse Dei munera; quibus cum vita aeterna redditur, quid nisi gratia pro gratia redditur ? Sic ergo factus est homo rectus, ut et manere in ea rectitudine posset non sine adjutorio divino, et suo fieri perversus arbitrio. Utrumlibet horum elegisset, Dei voluntas fieret, aut etiam ab illo, aut certe de illo. Proinde quia suam maluit facere quam Dei, de illo facta est voluntas Dei, qui ex eadem massa perditionis, quae de illius stirpe profluxit, facit aliud vas in honorem, aliud in contumeliam : in honorem, per misericordiam; in contumeliam, per judicium: ut nemo glorietur in homine; ac per hoc, nec in se.