Him; that they might have this also as a most forcible motive of submission and attachment,
lest turning away they should perish. For this cause He did not suffer them to be sufficient
unto themselves. For if even now many, for all their indigency, despise Him, were the case
not so, whither would they not have wandered in haughtiness? So that He stayed them from
boasting as they did, not from any grudge to them, but to draw them away from the destruc-
tion thence ensuing.
[4.] V. 30 “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
The expression “of Him,” I suppose he uses here, not of our introduction into being,
but with reference to the faith: that is, to our having become children of God, “not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh.” (St. John i. 13) “Think not then, that having taken away our
glorying, He left us so: for there is another, a greater glorying, His gift. For ye are the children
of Him in whose presence it is not meet to glory, having become so through Christ.” And
since he has said, “The foolish things of the world He chose, and the base,” he signifies that
they are nobler than all, having God for their Father. And of this nobility of ours, not this
person or that, but Christ is the cause, having made us wise, and righteous, and holy. For
so mean the words, “He was made unto us wisdom.”
Who then is wiser than we are who have not the wisdom of Plato, but Christ Himself,
God having so willed.
But what means, “of God?” Whenever he speaks great things concerning the Only-Be-
gotten, he adds mention of the Father, lest any one should think that the Son is unbegotten.
Since therefore he had affirmed His power to be so great, and had referred the whole unto
the Son, saying that He had “become wisdom unto us, and righteousness, and sanctification
and redemption;”—through the Son again referring the whole to the Father, he saith, “of
God.”
But why said he not, He hath made us wise, but “was made unto us wisdom?” To show
the copiousness of the gift. As if he had said, He gave unto us Himself. And observe how he
goes on in order. For first He made us wise by delivering from error, and then righteous
and holy, by giving us the Spirit; and He hath so delivered us from all our evils as to be “of
Him,” and this is not meant to express communication of being, (οὐσιώσεως) but is spoken
concerning the faith. Elsewhere we find him saying, “We were made righteousness in Him;”
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in these words, “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him;” (2 Cor. v. 21.) but now he saith, “He hath been made right-
eousness unto us; so that whosoever will may partake plentifully.” For it is not this man or
that who hath made us wise, but Christ. “He that glorieth,” therefore, “let him glory in Him,”
not in such or such an one. From Christ have proceeded all things. Wherefore, having said,
“Who was made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,”
he added, “that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
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Homily V