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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"According to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." More especially because it was a hard thing to say, "Be partakers of afflictions," he again consoles him. Reckon that thou sustainest these things, not by thine own power, but by the power of God. For it is thy part to choose and to be zealous, but God's to alleviate sufferings and bid them cease. …
Athanasius of Alexandria
Here again allusion is made to the economy according to the flesh. For the grace which came to us from the Savior appeared, as the apostle says, just now, and has come when he sojourned among us. Yet this grace has been prepared even before we came into being.… The God of all then created us by his own Word, and knowing our destinies better than we, God foresaw that even though we were made "good," we should be transgressors of the commandment and be thrust out of paradise for disobedience. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
He presents proofs of the power of God. He saved us, he says, and called the estranged to Himself, in order to make us holy. So, He Who saved us when we were unwilling, will all the more help us now that we are willing. Without any compulsion, without any counsel, but by His own will, that is, from Himself, drawn by His own goodness. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Why, then, is it that, in what follows, where they mention what they themselves think, they say they confess "That grace also assists the good purpose of every one, but that yet it does not infuse the desire of virtue into a reluctant heart"? Because they so say this as if man of himself, without God's assistance, has a good purpose and a desire of virtue; and this precedent merit is worthy of being assisted by the subsequent grace of God. …
Thomas Aquinas
This strength is manifested by two things: first, in its effect, because we are freed from evils; hence he says, who has delivered us: the hand of God delivered us from the hand of the enemies, and of such as lay in wait by the way (1 Ezra 8:31); if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36). …
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