Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

In how many ways “Through whom” is used; and in what sense “with whom” is…
The apostle, it is true, says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.” 864 But in a phrase of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinate
ministry, 865 but rather of the succour rendered “in the power of his might.” 866
For He Himself has bound the strong man and spoiled his goods, 867 that is, us men, whom
our enemy had abused in every evil activity, and made “vessels meet for the Master’s use” 868
us who have been perfected for every work through the making ready of that part of us
which is in our own control. 869 Thus we have had our approach to the Father through Him,
being translated from “the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light.” 870 We must not, however, regard the œconomy 871 through the Son as a compulsory
and subordinate ministration resulting from the low estate of a slave, but rather the voluntary
solicitude working effectually for His own creation in goodness and in pity, according to
the will of God the Father. For we shall be consistent with true religion if in all that was and
is from time to time perfected by Him, we both bear witness to the perfection of His power,
and in no case put it asunder from the Father’s will. For instance, whenever the Lord is
on the Incarnation, sect. 54, “He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a
body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might
inherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impassible and incorruptible and the
very Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all this, He maintained and
preserved in His own impassibility.”
864 Rom. viii. 37.
865 ὑπηρεσία. Lit. “under-rowing.” The cognate ὑπηρέτης is the word used in Acts xxvi. 16, in the words of
the Saviour to St. Paul, “to make thee a minister,” and in 1 Cor. iv. 1, “Let a man so account of us as of the
ministers of Christ.”
866 Eph. vi. 10.
867 cf. Matt. xii. 29.
868 2 Tim. ii. 21.
869 This passage is difficult to render alike from the variety of readings and the obscurity of each. I have en-
deavoured to represent the force of the Greek ἐκ τῆς ἑτοιμασίας τοῦ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν, understanding by “τὸ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν,”
practically, “our free will.” cf. the enumeration of what is ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν, within our own control, in the Enchiridion
of Epicetus, Chap. I. “Within our own control are impulse, desire, inclination.” On Is. vi. 8, “Here am I; send
me,” St. Basil writes, “He did not add ‘I will go;’ for the acceptance of the message is within our control (ἐφ᾽
ἡμῖν), but to be made capable of going is of Him that gives the grace, of the enabling God.” The Benedictine
translation of the text is “per liberi arbitrii nostri præparationem.” But other readings are (i) τῆς ἑτοιμασίας
αὐτοῦ, “the preparation which is in our own control;” (ii) τῆς ἑτοιμασίας αὐτοῦ, “His preparation;” and (iii)
the Syriac represented by “arbitrio suo.”
870 Col. i. 12, 13.
871 cf. note on page 7.
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