Sunday, June 08, 2014

Clement's Comments on God's Will

"Anyone who sincerely considers these matters one by one will understand the magnificence of the gifts that are given by God. For from Jacob came all the priests and Levites that minster at the altar of God: from him comes the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh; from him come the kings and rulers and governors in the line of Judah; and his other tribes are held in no small honor, seeing that God promised that "your seed seed shall be as the stars of heaven." All therefore, were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their own works or the righteous actions that they did, but through his will. And so we, having been called through his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety; or works that we have done in holiness of heart, but through faith, by which the Almighty God has justified all who existed from the beginning; to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

(1 Clement, paragraph 32)

"The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts And English Translations" (3rd edition); Michael W. Holmes; (Baker Academic, 2007)

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