ACC ~ John 17 v17

IMITATING THE TRUTH, WE BECOME SONS

ATHANASIUS: We are made sons through Christ by adoption and grace, partaking of his Spirit. For “as many as received him,” he says, “to them he gave power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.” [1] And therefore, he is also the Truth, saying, “I am the Truth,” [2] and in his address to his Father, he said, “Sanctify them through your Truth, your Word is Truth.” We, by imitation [3] [of this truth], become virtuous and sons. Therefore, he did not say “that they may be one as we are” so that we might become such as he is, but that as he, being the Word, is in his own Father, we too, seeing him as our example, might become one toward each other in concord and oneness of spirit, nor be at variance as the Corinthians, but be of one mind as those five thousand in the Acts of the Apostles who were as one. [4] DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 3.25.19. [5]

[1] Jn 1:12.

[2] See Jn 14:6.

[3] Gk kata mimēsin. On this point of imitating the truth, see also Clement of Alexandria The Instructor 1.3; Gregory of Nazianzus Letter 102; Irenaeus Against Heresies 5.1; Augustine Sermon 101.6; On the Trinity 4.17; 9.21; Eusebius Ecclesiastical Theology 3.

[4] ESUS IS INFORMED THAT LAZARUS IS SICK | JOHN 11:1-5

[5] NPNF 2 4:404-5**.

NOT ONLY THE SPIRIT SANCTIFIES

GREGORY OF NYSSA: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit alike give sanctification, life, light, comfort, and any other similar graces. And let no one attribute the power of sanctification in a special sense to the Spirit when he hears the Savior in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning his disciples, “Father, sanctify them in your name.” [1] So too all the other gifts are produced in those who are worthy alike by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, comfort, the change to immortality, the passage to liberty, and every other boon that exists, which descends to us. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. [2]

[1] Jn 17:11 and 17 are here conflated.

[2] NPNF 2 5:328**. See also Basil Letters 189.7; Ambrose On the Holy Spirit 3.4.25.

SET APART FOR THE WORD AND PREACHING

CHRYSOSTOM: “Make them holy by the gift of the Spirit and right doctrines.” As when he says, “You are clean through the word that I spoke to you,” [1] so now he says the same thing, “Instruct them, teach them the truth.” “And yet he says that the Spirit does this. Why then does he now ask it from the Father?” He asks so that you may again learn their equality of honor. For right doctrines concerning God sanctify the soul. And if he says that they are sanctified by the word, do not be amazed. And to show that he speaks of doctrines, he adds, “Your word is truth,” that is, “there is no falsehood in it, and all that is said in it must happen.” Again, it signifies nothing purely figurative or material. Paul says something similar concerning the church that he has sanctified by the Word. For the Word of God is also used to cleanse. [2] Moreover, “sanctify them” seems to me to signify something else, namely, “set them apart for the Word and for preaching.” And this is made plain from what follows. For, he says, “as you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.1. [3]

[1] See Jn 15:3.

[2] Eph 5:26.

[3] NPNF 1 14:303*.

THE LOGOS IS TRUTH

AUGUSTINE: “Your speech (sermo) is truth.” What else did he mean than “I am the truth?” [1] For the Greek Gospel has logos, which is also the word that is found in the passage where it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” [2] And that Word at least we know to be the only begotten Son of God, which “was made flesh and dwelt among us.” And so, there also might have been put here (as it actually has been put in certain copies) “Your Word is truth,” just as in some copies that other passage is written, “In the beginning was the speech.” But in the Greek without any variation it is logos in both cases. The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth—that is, in his own Word, in his Only Begotten—his own heirs and his [Son’s] co-heirs. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.3. [3]

[1] See Jn 14:6.

[2] Jn 1:1.

[3] NPNF 1 7:405*; CCL 36:617.

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