ACC ~ John 15 v8

OUR LIVES BY GOD’S GRACE BRING GLORY TO GOD

AUGUSTINE: The Savior, in thus speaking to the disciples, commends still more and more the grace whereby we are saved when he says, “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and be made my disciples.” Whether we say glorified or made bright, [1] both are the translation of one Greek verb, namely, doxazein. For what is doxa in Greek is “gloria” in Latin. I have thought it worthwhile to mention this because the apostle says, “If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God.” [2] For this is the glory before God, whereby God, and not man [humankind], is glorified, when man is justified, not by works, but by faith, so that even his doing well is imparted to him by God. Just as the branch, as I have stated above, [3] cannot bear fruit of itself. For if God the Father is glorified in this, that we bear much fruit and are made the disciples of Christ, let us not credit this to our own glory, as though we had it from ourselves. For such grace is from him, and the glory in this is therefore not ours but his. And so, in another passage, after saying, “Let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works”—to keep them from the thought that such good works were of themselves—he immediately added, “and may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” [4] For here is where the Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit and are made the disciples of Christ. And by whom are we so made, but by him whose mercy has preceded us? For “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” [5] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.1. [6]

[1] Glorified = glorificatus; made bright = clarificatus.

[2] Rom 4:2.

[3] See his Tractates on the Gospel of John 81.2.

[4] Mt 5:16.

[5] See Eph 2:10.

[6] NPNF 1 7:346-47**; CCL 36:532.