Atos 15
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Atos 15:9
Faith in God purifies the heart, the pure heart sees God. But faith is sometimes defined as followed by people who wish to deceive themselves; as if it were enough merely to believe—some people, you see, promise themselves the vision of God and the kingdom of heaven for believing while living bad lives. Against these the apostle James indignantly took umbrage out of spiritual charity, so he says in his letter, "You believe that God is one." You pat yourself on your back for your faith; you observe that many godless people assume there are many gods, and you congratulate yourself for believing that there is only one God. "You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder." Shall they too see God? Those who are pure of heart shall see him. Whoever would say that the unclean spirits are pure of heart? And yet, "they believe—and shudder."So our faith must be distinguished from the faith of demons. Our faith, you see, purifies the heart, their faith makes them guilty.… So let us distinguish our faith and see that believing is not enough. That is not the sort of faith that purifies the heart. "Purifying their hearts," it says, "by faith." But which faith, what sort of faith? The one, surely, which the apostle Paul defines when he says "faith that works through love." This faith is different from the faith of demons, different from the morals of dissolute and desperate people. "Faith," he says. "Which faith?" The one "that works through love," hopes for what God promises. You could not have a more perfect, a more carefully thought-out definition than that. — SERMON 53.10-11
Atos 15:10
Why did he say this, unless they were saved through the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, not through the law of Moses? Through the law there came not healing but the knowledge of sin, as the apostle teaches when he says, "For knowledge of sin came through the law. But now the righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, though the law and the prophets have borne witness to it." Therefore, if it has been revealed, it existed at that time but was hidden. The veil of the temple signified its being hidden, and that veil was torn at Christ's death to signify its revelation. At that time the grace of the one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus, existed in the people of God, but it was hidden as rain upon fleece—a rain that God bestows on his heritage, not as something due but as gratuitous. But now, with the fleece squeezed dry, that is, with the Jewish people rejected, it lies revealed in all the nations as upon the threshing floor. — ON ORIGINAL SIN 2.29
Atos 15:11
You, who are enemies of this grace, reject the idea that we should believe that the people of old were saved by the same grace of Jesus Christ. Rather, you distinguish the different times in the manner of Pelagius in whose books this is found. You say that prior to the law they were saved by nature, then through the law and finally through Christ, as if for the human beings of the two earlier periods, namely, prior to the law and under the law, the blood of Christ was not necessary. In that way, you destroy the statement, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus." — AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 1.39