and the night of sin,
and this truth included the certainty of the gift of eternal life, and
all conceivable spiritual blessings.[202] Of these the community, so far
as it is a community of saints, that is, so far as it is ruled by the
Spirit of God, already possesses forgiveness of sins and righteousness.
But, as a rule, neither blessing was understood in a strictly religious
sense, that is to say, the effect of their religious sense was narrowed.
The moralistic view, in which eternal life is the wages and reward of a
perfect moral life wrought out essentially by one's own power, took the
place of first importance at a very early period. On this view,
according to which the righteousness of God is revealed in punishment
and reward alike, the forgiveness of sin only meant a single remission
of sin in connection with entrance into the Church by baptism,[203] and
righteousness became identical with virtue. The idea is indeed still
operative, especially in the oldest Gentile-Christian writings known to
us, that sinlessness rests upon a new creation (regeneration) which is
effected in baptism;[204] but, so far as dissimilar eschatological hopes
do not operate, it is everywhere in danger of being supplanted by the
other idea, which maintains that there is no other blessing in the
Gospel than the perfect truth and eternal life. All else is but a sum of
obligations in which the Gospel is presented as a new law. The
christianising of the Old Testament supported this conception. There was
indeed an opinion that the Gospel, even so far as it is a law,
comprehends a gift of salvation which is to be grasped by faith [Greek:
nomos aneu zugou anankes,[205] nomos t. eleutherias],[206] Christ
himself the law;[207] but this notion, as it is obscure in itself, was
also an uncertain one and was gradually lost. Further, by the "law" was
frequently meant in the first place, not the law of love, but the
commandments of ascetic holiness, or an explanation and a turn were
given to the law of love, according to which it is to verify itself
above all in asceticism.[208]

The expression of the contents of the Gospel in the concepts [Greek:
epangelia (zoe aionios) gnosis (aletheia) nomos (enkrateia)], seemed
quite as plain as it was exhaustive, and the importance of faith which
was regarded as the basis of hope and knowledge and obedience in a holy
life, was at the same time in every respect perceived.[209]

_Supplement_ 1.--The moralistic view