Fathers

Loading…

What the Fathers say

Ephesians 1:7

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Again he descends from high to low: first speaking of adoption, and sanctification, and blamelessness, and then of the Passion, and in this not lowering his discourse and bringing it down from greater things to lesser, no rather, he was heightening it, and raising it from the lesser to the greater. For nothing is so great as that the blood of this Son should be shed for us. Greater this than both the adoption, and all the other gifts of grace, that He spared not even the Son. …

Homily 1 on Ephesians ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Through the Beloved, he says, we have redemption. What kind? "The forgiveness of sins." How does it occur? "Through His blood." For what is especially astonishing is that, by delivering His beloved Son to death, He freed us, the hateful ones, giving as ransom and redemption the Blood of the Beloved. And note — this is more than adoption: He did not even spare His Son for our sake. For after speaking of adoption, he speaks of this, ascending from the lesser to the greater.

Commentary on Ephesians ↗

Theodoret of Cyrus

The death of the Lord has made us worthy of love. In shedding through him the toils of sin and being freed from slavery to the tyrant, we have been drawn toward the characteristics of God's image.

Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians 1.7 ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

The one who is yet to be redeemed is a captive. He has ceased to be free by coming under the power of the enemy. So we are captives in this world and bound by the yoke of slavery to the principalities and powers, unable to release our hands from our chains. So we raise our eyes upward until the Redeemer arrives.

Commentary on Ephesians 1:7 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Next (1:7), he sets down the way itself [that grace is given]. Concerning this he does two things: First, the part of Christ in the way it is given. Secondly, the part of God in it, at according to the riches of his grace (1:7b). On the part of Christ he writes of two ways through which Christ has made us pleasing [to God]. For within us there exists two antagonisms to the divine good pleasure, the stains of sin and the punishing injuries [sin inflicts]. …

Commentary on Ephesians ↗