{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5449","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Cyprian</b>: Also in the priest Melchizedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what divine Scripture testifies, and says, \"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine.\" Now he was a priest of the most high God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchizedek bore a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: \"Before the morning star I begat Thee; Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek; \" which order is assuredly this coming from that sacrifice and thence descending; that Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God; that he offered wine and bread; that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the most high God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered that very same thing which Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His body and blood? And with respect to Abraham, that blessing going before belonged to our people. For if Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, assuredly whosoever believes in God and lives in faith is found righteous, and already is blessed in faithful Abraham, and is set forth as justified; as the blessed Apostle Paul proves, when he says, \"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Ye know, then, that they which are of faith, these are the children of Abraham. But the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, pronounced before to Abraham that all nations should be blessed in him; therefore they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.\" Whence in the Gospel we find that \"children of Abraham are raised from stones, that is, are gathered from the Gentiles.\" And when the Lord praised Zacchaeus, He answered and said \"This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.\" In Genesis, therefore, that the benediction, in respect of Abraham by Melchizedek the priest, might be duly celebrated, the figure of Christ's sacrifice precedes, namely, as ordained in bread and wine; which thing the Lord, completing and fulfilling, offered bread and the cup mixed with wine, and so He who is the fulness of truth fulfilled the truth of the image prefigured.<br/><i>— Epistle LXII</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: If, then, God promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it during all the time of his sojourn there, it must be, that together with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in Him, he shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For his seed is the Church, which receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said: \"For God is able from the stones to raise up children to Abraham.\" Thus also the apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians: \"But ye, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.\" And again, in the same Epistle, he plainly declares that they who have believed in Christ do receive Christ, the promise to Abraham thus saying, \"The promises were spoken to Abraham, and to his seed. Now He does not say, And of seeds, as if [He spake] of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.\" And again, confirming his former words, he says, \"Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore, that they which are of faith are the children of Abraham. But the Scripture, fore-seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, declared to Abraham beforehand, That in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which are of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham.\" Thus, then, they who are of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham. Now God made promise of the earth to Abraham and his seed; yet neither Abraham nor his seed, that is, those who are justified by faith, do now receive any inheritance in it; but they shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For God is true and faithful; and on this account He said, \"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.\"<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 6.) Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. From this place until where it is written: Those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, Marcion erased from his Apostle. But what profit was there in embracing this, when the other things he left behind, his insanities, are opposed to it? Yet Abraham believed God, going out from his country into a land he did not know (Gen. 12 ff.): trusting that Sarah, who was ninety years old and barren, would give birth; and hearing the promise of God that his offspring would be called through Isaac, he offered Isaac as a sacrifice, and yet did not doubt the promise of the Lord. The faith is rightly considered to contribute to justice, the one who, having gone beyond the works of the Law, has deserved God not out of fear, but out of love.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Even the miracles done by themselves, he says, declare the power of Faith, but I shall attempt if you will suffer me to draw my proofs from ancient narratives also. Then, as they made great account of the Patriarch, he brings his example forward, and shows that he too was justified by Faith. And if he who was before grace, was justified by Faith, although plentiful in works, much more we. For what loss was it to him, not being under the Law? None, for his faith sufficed unto righteousness. The Law did not then exist, he says, neither does it now exist, any more than then. In disproving the need of the Law, he introduces one who was justified before the Law, lest an objection should also be made to him; for as then it was not yet given, so now, having been given, it was abrogated. And as they made much of their descent from Abraham, and feared lest, abandoning the Law, they should be considered strangers to his kin; Paul removes this fear by turning their argument against themselves, and proves that faith is especially concerned in connecting them with Abraham. He draws out this argument more at length in the Epistle to the Romans; however he urges it also here in, the words...<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 3</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Moreover, do not be unbelieving toward the forefather Abraham, for he too was justified by faith.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But how are we children of faith? and of whose faith, if not Abraham's? For since \"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; \" since, also, he deserved for that reason to be called \"the father of many nations,\" whilst we, who are even more like him in believing in God, are thereby justified as Abraham was, and thereby also obtain life-since the just lives by his faith,-it therefore happens that, as he in the previous passage called us \"sons of Abraham,\" since he is in faith our (common) father, so here also he named us \"children of faith,\" for it was owing to his faith that it was promised that Abraham should be the father of (many) nations.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Accordingly it is patience which is both subsequent and antecedent to faith. In short, Abraham believed God, and was accredited by Him with righteousness; but it was patience which proved his faith, when he was bidden to immolate his son, with a view to (I would not say the temptation, but) the typical attestation of his faith.<br/><i>— Of Patience</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"68a9e7cb8dd953345eb5c0cf0b78a98224a575ce57ea9c49540e4558829f7a39","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5449,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f5060fa4e6f594322afa5038d76983f58a50c8df537edb881ef9d7fe1a5f5be4","translator":null,"work":null}