On the Spirit and the Letter

...if he has attributed it original: "est" — likely an OCR error for "si" (if), continuing the thought from the previous page regarding grace. to himself, and especially that righteousness, by whose works—as if they were his own and acquired for himself by himself—he is puffed up as if with wisdom. He does this not in a common way, as one might be proud of riches, or physical beauty, or eloquence, or other goods (whether external or internal, of the body or the soul) which even the wicked are accustomed to possess; rather, he is proud as if these were the specific "goods of the good." By this vice of pride, even certain great men were repelled from the stability of the divine substance and drifted down into the disgrace of idolatry. Augustine likely refers here to the Platonic philosophers who, though they recognized a singular God, still participated in pagan rituals. Hence the same Apostle—in that same epistle in which he is a vehement defender of grace—having said that he was a debtor to both Greeks and Barbarians, to the wise and the unwise, and that for his part he was ready to preach the Gospel to those who were in Rome, says: Romans 1 "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, as it is written: Habakkuk 2 'But the just man lives by faith.'" This is the righteousness of God, which was veiled in the Old Testament and is revealed in the New. It is called the "righteousness of God" because by imparting it, He makes people righteous—just as it is called "the salvation of the Lord" Psalm 3 because it is the salvation by which He makes us saved. iustitia dei: "righteousness of God." Augustine clarifies that this is not the righteousness God possesses in Himself, but the gift of righteousness He bestows upon believers. And this is the faith from which and into which it is revealed: namely, from the faith of those proclaiming it into the faith of those obeying it. By this faith of Jesus Christ—that is, the faith which Christ has conferred upon us—we believe that our righteous living comes to us from God; and because of this, we give thanks to Him with that piety by which He alone is to be worshiped.

THAT JUST AS FOR THE GENTILES,

who knew God through His creation
and yet did not glorify Him as God,
that knowledge profited them nothing;
so also for those who know through
the Law how a person ought to live,
that knowledge alone does not
justify them.
Chapter XII.

iustitia: righteousness; Apostolus: the Apostle (Paul); gratia: grace; fides: faith; cognitio: knowledge; Aurelius Augustinus: Aurelius Augustine; Euangelium: the Gospel