can be no talk of a contradiction between promise and fulfilment. The idiom of faith, in these matters, is so simple. John says, speaking about the future: “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). John points out, as it were, the riches of the present. This reality of sonship is in contrast with the righteousness of works. For the secret of this sonship lies in the acknowledgement of grace. All progress in sanctification moves within the