{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4251","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":13,"verse_to":13},"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>Ambrosiaster</b>: He reminds us that we were brought close to God by the blood of Christ in order to show how great is God's affection toward us, since he allowed his own Son to die. We too, enduring in faith, should not yield to despair in any of the agonies inflicted on us for his sake, knowing that what he deserves from us exceeds all that our enemies can bring upon us.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 2.13</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: And everywhere, when [referring to] the passion of our Lord, and to His human nature, and His subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ, as in that passage: \"Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.\" And again: \"But now, in Christ, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.\" And again: \"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree.\" And again: \"And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died; \" indicating that the impassible Christ did not descend upon Jesus, but that He Himself, because He was Jesus Christ, suffered for us; He, who lay in the tomb, and rose again, who descended and ascended,-the Son of God having been made the Son of man, as the very name itself doth declare. For in the name of Christ is implied, He that anoints, He that is anointed, and the unction itself with which He is anointed. And it is the Father who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word declares by Isaiah, \"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me,\" -pointing out both the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the Spirit.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: If, then, any one allege that in this respect the flesh of the Lord was different from ours, because it indeed did not commit sin, neither was deceit found in His soul, while we, on the other hand, are sinners, he says what is the fact. But if he pretends that the Lord possessed another substance of flesh, the sayings respecting reconciliation will not agree with that man. For that thing is reconciled which had formerly been in enmity. Now, if the Lord had taken flesh from another substance, He would not, by so doing, have reconciled that one to God which had become inimical through transgression. But now, by means of communion with Himself, the Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by the body of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood, as the apostle says to the Ephesians, \"In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins; \" and again to the same he says, \"Ye who formerly were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ; \" and again, \"Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances.\" And in every Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: God in his entirety is everywhere. Who can be separated from him when all things are in him?… He is, however, said to be far away from the unrighteous, according to Proverbs [15:29].… Just as far as the unrighteous are away from him, so close is he to the saints. Just when God seemed to be furthest from the Ephesians, he was coming close to them by the blood of Jesus.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 2:13-14</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Is this then the great privilege, it may be said, that we are admitted into the commonwealth of the Jews? What art thou saying? \"He hath summed up all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth,\" and now dost thou tell us about Israelites? Yes, he would say. Those higher privileges we must apprehend by faith; these, by the things themselves. \"But now,\" saith he, \"in Christ Jesus, ye that once were far off, are made nigh,\" in reference to the commonwealth. For the \"far off,\" and the \"nigh,\" are matters of will and choice only.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 5</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Paul is responding to those who think that believers in Christ may enter into the commonwealth of Israel but that it is some entirely different one that has nothing in common with the history of Israel.… It is those who know the spiritual law and live in accordance with it who are made dwellers in the commonwealth of Israel, more so than those who are Israelites in the body only.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: They were once far off from the Christ of the Creator, from the way of the Israelites, from the covenants, from the hope of the promise, from God himself. Once far off, the Gentiles now come close in Christ to the things that were once far off.<br/><i>— AGAINST MARCION 5.17.12-13</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now, without what God and without what Christ were these Gentiles? Surely, without Him to whom the commonwealth of Israel belonged, and the covenants and the promise. \"But now in Christ,\" says he, \"ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by His blood.\" From whom were they far off before? From the privileges) whereof he speaks above, even tom the Christ of the Creator, from the commonwealth of Israel, from the covenants, from the hope of the promise, from God Himself.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"452f214ccd754204b2f357ec31e4cb08261e42d6c8e7fcec3eb141f7f0adff3b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4251,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b4a0a4eec8fd3ce8eab267d3ca20356caaa5026307881fd390c75989727a717c","translator":null,"work":null}