Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Cyril of Alexandria
The power to set free belongs to none other than the one who is the Son by nature—one who is truly free and unconstrained by any bondage. Because he is wisdom and light and power by nature, he makes those who are ignorant wise. He enlightens those in darkness, and he strengthens those who are weak. Therefore, because he is God of God and the genuine and free fruit of the essence that reigns over all, he bestows freedom on whomever he wants to. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
So then, those priests of yours, being slaves, had no authority to forgive sins. But I, the Son, abiding in the house, that is, having authority and independent sovereignty, the Master of the house, shall grant you freedom, because all things are Mine, and I am of equal power and equal authority with the Father. When I set you free, then you will be honored with true freedom. Now you claim for yourselves a false freedom, but through Me you shall be freed essentially and truly.
Irenaeus
But again, those who assert that He was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph, remaining in the bondage of the old disobedience, are in a state of death having been not as yet joined to the Word of God the Father, nor receiving liberty through the Son, as He does Himself declare: "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." But, being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; and not receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Our hope then is this, that we shall be freed by Him who is free. He hath paid the price for us, not in money, but in His own blood: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (de Verb. Dom. Ser. xlvii) Not from the barbarians, but from the devil; not from the captivity of the body, but from the wickedness of the soul. (super Joan. Tr. xl. 10. et seq.) The first stage of freedom is, the abstaining from sin. …
Thomas Aquinas
The Son has the power to free us; so he adds, If therefore the Son frees you, you will be truly free: "We are not the children of the slave woman, but of the free, by whose freedom Christ has freed us" (Gal 4:31). For as the Apostle says, he paid a price not in gold, but of his own blood, for he came in the likeness of sinful flesh although he had no sin; and so he became a true sacrifice for sin. Thus, through him, we are freed, not from barbarians, but from the devil. Note that there are several kinds of freedom. …
Bonaventure
"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed," that Son, I say, alone is free, because he alone is without sin: whence in the Psalm: "I have become as a man without help, free among the dead." And the reason is given below in the fourteenth chapter: "The prince of this world comes and has nothing in me." This free Son, in order to free us, was made as it were a slave for us: Philippians two: "He humbled himself, taking the form of a slave," etc. …
Translation