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| The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again.
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Chapter 75.—The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not
Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born
Again.
Assuredly, then, those who live in
gross wickedness, and take no care to reform their lives and
manners, and yet amid all their crimes and vices do not cease to
give frequent alms, in vain take comfort to themselves from the
saying of our Lord: “Give alms of such things as ye have; and,
behold, all things are clean unto you.”1237
For they do not understand how far
this saying reaches. But that they may understand this, let them
hear what He says. For we read in the Gospel as follows: “And as
He spake, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with him; and He
went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he
marvelled that He had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord
said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the
cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and
wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without,
make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things
as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.”1238
Are we to
understand this as meaning that to the Pharisees who have not the
faith of Christ all things are clean, if only they give alms in the
way these men count almsgiving, even though they have never
believed in Christ, nor been born again of water and of the Spirit?
But the fact is, that all are unclean who are not made clean by the
faith of Christ, according to the expression, “purifying their
hearts by faith;”1239
and that the apostle says, “Unto
them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even
their mind and conscience is defiled.”1240
How, then, could all things be
clean to the Pharisees, even though they gave alms, if
they were not believers? And how could they be believers if they
were not willing to have faith in Christ, and to be born again of
His grace? And yet what they heard is true: “Give alms of such
things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto
you.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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