ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 5 v5

THE AGENT OF OUR ADOPTION. AMBROSIASTER: The Spirit is our guarantee because he is the agent of our adoption. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

A GUARANTEE. PELAGIUS: God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee so that we might know that he will not allow the temple of his Spirit to perish. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 5.

PREPARED FROM CREATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul shows that these things were prepared from the beginning. It is not now that they have been decreed but from the moment of creation, when he fashioned Adam. God did not create the first man in order that he should die but in order to make him immortal. To prove this, Paul adds that we have been given the Spirit as a guarantee. God is presented as having made a commitment to us to fulfill his promises. Paul does this in order to make what he says more credible to those less attentive. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 10.3.

A REMEDY FORESEEN. THEODORET OF CYR: Since God the Creator foresaw the sin of Adam, he prepared a remedy for it. For he himself has given us the first fruits of the Spirit, so that by the miracles which the Spirit does in our midst we may be reassured that the promises of future glory are true. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 314.

CLARITY FROM THE SPIRIT. AUGUSTINE: However, now we see obscurely but then face to face; now we see partially but then completely.But the present ability to see in the Scriptures obscurely and partially something which, nonetheless, is in accord with Catholic faith is the work of the pledge which was received by the virgin church at her bridegroom’s lowly coming. She will be wed at his final coming when he will come in glory and when she will then behold face to face, for he has given to us a pledge which is the Holy Spirit, as the apostle says. QUESTIONS 59.4.

THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT TIME. AUGUSTINE: For this period in God’s plan, in which the Lord has deigned to appear in time and visibly as a man and has given to us as a pledge the Holy Spirit, by whose sevenfold working we are given life (apostolic authority having been added like the seasoning of a few fish), what else therefore does this period in God’s plan effect but the possibility of attaining the prize of the heavenly calling without [our] powers failing us? “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” QUESTIONS 61.7.