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Thursday, March 3, 2011

This is God's hand, not ours, that we depart not from Him

"What will separate us from the love
Christ has for us?" (Rom. 8:35, GW)
St. Augustine | This grace He placed “in Him in whom we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things” (Eph. 1:11). And thus as He worketh that we come to Him, so He worketh that we do not depart. Wherefore it was said to Him by the mouth of the prophet, “Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, and upon the Son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself, and we will not depart from Thee” (Psa. 80:17-18). 

This certainly is not the first Adam, in whom we departed from Him, but the second Adam, upon whom His hand is placed, so that we do not depart from Him. For Christ altogether with His members is—for the Church’s sake, which is His body—the fulness of Him. When, therefore, God’s hand is upon Him, that we depart not from God, assuredly God’s work reaches to us (for this is God’s hand); by which work of God we are caused to be abiding in Christ with God—not, as in Adam, departing from God. For “in Christ we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to His purpose who worketh all things.” 

This, therefore, is God’s hand, not ours, that we depart not from God. That, I say, is His hand who said, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they depart not from me” (Jer. 32:40).

~ St. Augustine of Hippo, On Perseverance of all Saints, Ch. 14

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