The Ancient Witnesses

Chapter 7: The Last Times • 243

Mentor: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…

Chrysostom: What we have done is not deserving of love but of wrath and punishment! Why did He love us? 28 Ambrosiaster: The true riches of mercy are that it was

freely preached to those who were not looking for it, as Isaiah says: I have made myself known to those who were not looking for me . To abound in mercy is to grant it to those who have not asked for it. The love of God for us is such that because he made us he does not want us to perish, since he loves what he made. Nobody hates his own work. 29 God by our sins, thus God redeemed us for Himself, dealing leniently with our trespasses, through His Son whom he did not spare, that He might liberate us. Great without doubt are God’s riches! Great also is His love! So much love that He emptied out His Son for our sake that He might redeem us by His passion! So, this is love. 30

Marius Victorinus: But we made ourselves alien to

28 Paraphrase of Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians , Homily IV (NPNF I.13, 66).

29 Isa. 65:1 and paraphrase of Gerald Bray, Ambrosiaster, Ancient Christian Texts, page 39.

30 Marius Victorinus, Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians , Book 1, 2:4. Published in Stephen Andrew Cooper, Metaphysics and Morals in Marius Victorinus’ Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), 66.