From the law to the Savior: the rich man's request for life
Clement is explaining what must be learned first for salvation, and now turns to the rich man's recognition that the law cannot give eternal life.
So he urges the one who is to live the true life to know first of all him whom "no one knows except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Matthew 11:27). Then, after him, he must learn the greatness of the Savior and the newness of the grace, because, as the apostle says, "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). And the things given through a faithful servant are not equal to the things bestowed by the true-born Son.
If the law of Moses had been sufficient to provide eternal life, then the Savior would have come in vain and suffered in vain, running through our humanity from birth to the sign. And in vain would the man who had kept all the commandments of the law "from his youth" (Mark 10:20) kneel before another and ask for immortality. For he has not only fulfilled the law, but he did so beginning right from his earliest age. After all, what is so great or brilliant about an old age barren of the wrongs that youthful desires give birth to, or that boiling anger or love of money produce? But if someone in the leaping of youth and the burning heat of that age shows a mind ripe and older than his years, that man is a marvelous and distinguished athlete, gray in judgment.
And yet this man, for all that, is thoroughly convinced that he lacks nothing when it comes to righteousness, but that he is entirely lacking in life. That is why he asks for it from the only one who can give it. He approaches the law with confidence, but he begs the Son of God. He is moving "from faith to faith" (Romans 1:17); as one who rocks dangerously in the law and lies at anchor in peril, he changes his mooring to the Savior.
Greek
Τοῦτον οὖν πρῶτον ἐπιγνῶναι τῷ ζησομένῳ τὴν ὄντως ζωὴν παρακελεύεται, ὃν »οὐδεὶς ἐπιγινώσκει εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ ᾧ ἂν ὁ υἱὸς ἀποκαλύψῃ«. ἔπειτα τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ σωτῆρος μετ᾿ ἐκεῖνον καὶ τὴν καινότητα τῆς χάριτος μαθεῖν, ὅτι δὴ κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον »ὁ νόμος διὰ Μωσέως ἐδόθη, ἡ χάρις καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ«· καὶ οὐκ ἴσα τὰ διὰ δούλου πιστοῦ διδόμενα τοῖς ὑπὸ [τοῦ] υἱοῦ γνησίου δωρουμένοις. εἰ γοῦν ἱκανὸς ἦν ὁ Μωσέως νόμος ζωὴν αἰώνιον παρασχεῖν, μάτην μὲν ὁ σωτὴρ αὐτὸς παραγίνεται καὶ πάσχει δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ γενέσεως μέχρι τοῦ σημείου τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα διατρέχων, μάτην δὲ ὁ πάσας πεποιηκὼς »ἐκ νεότητος« τὰς νομίμους ἐντολὰς παρὰ ἄλλου αἰτεῖ γονυπετῶν ἀθανασίαν. οὐδὲ γὰρ πεπλήρωκε μόνον τὸν νόμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐθὺς ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡλικίας ἀρξάμενος· ἐπεὶ καὶ τί μέγα ἢ ὑπέρλαμπρον γῆρας ἄγονον ἀδικημάτων ὧν ἐπιθυμίαι τίκτουσι νεανικαὶ ἢ ὀργὴ ζέουσα ἢ ἔρως χρημάτων; ἀλλ᾿ εἴ τις ἐν σκιρτήματι νεοτησίῳ καὶ τῷ καύσωνι τῆς ἡλικίας παρέσχηται φρόνημα πεπανὸν καὶ πρεσβύτερον τοῦ χρόνου, θαυμαστὸς οὗτος ἀγωνιστὴς καὶ διαπρεπὴς καὶ τὴν γνώμην πολιός. ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως οὗτος ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀκριβῶς πέπεισται, διότι αὐτῷ πρὸς μὲν δικαιοσύνην οὐδὲν ἐνδεῖ, ζωῆς δὲ ὅλως προσδεῖ· διὸ αὐτὴν αἰτεῖ παρὰ τοῦ δοῦναι μόνου δυναμένου· καὶ πρὸς μὲν τὸν νόμον ἄγει παρρησίαν, τοῦ θεοῦ δὲ τὸν υἱὸν ἱκετεύει. »ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν« μετατάσσεται· ὡς σφαλερῶς ἐν νόμῳ σαλεύων καὶ ἐπικινδύνως ναυλοχῶν εἰς τὸν σωτῆρα μεθορμίζεται.