Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
All Commentaries on 2 Timothy 1:9 Go To 2 Timothy 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
More especially because it was a hard thing to say, Be partakers of afflictions, he again consoles him. Reckon that you sustain these things, not by your own power, but by the power of God. For it is your part to choose and to be zealous, but God's to alleviate sufferings and bid them cease. He then shows him the proofs of His power. Consider how you were saved, how you were called. As he elsewhere says, According to His power that works in us. Ephesians 3:20 So much was it a greater exercise of power to persuade the world to believe, than to make the Heavens. But how was he called with a holy calling? This means, He made them saints, who were sinners and enemies. And this not of ourselves, it was the gift of God. If then He is mighty in calling us, and good, in that He has done it of grace and not of debt, we ought not to fear. For He Who, when we should have perished, saved us, though enemies, by grace, will He not much more cooperate with us, when He sees us working? Not according to our own works, he says, but according to his own purpose and grace, that is, no one compelling, no one counseling Him, but of His own purpose, from the impulse of His own goodness, He saved us; for this is the meaning of according to His own purpose. Which was given us before the world began. That is, it was determined without beginning that these things should be done in Christ Jesus. This is no light consideration, that from the first He willed it. It was not an after-thought. How then is not the Son eternal? For He also willed it from the beginning.
