Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Therefore it rests not in human power but on God’s, that we have the “power to be made the sons of God.” They receive it from him who inspires in the human heart devout thoughts, through which it possesses “faith which works through love.” For acquiring and retaining this good, and for progressing perseveringly in it to the end, “We are not sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,” in whose power are our heart and our thoughts.
Since the Lord’s call comes before all merit, and he does not find a thing deserving but makes it so, for that reason it is called gratuitous; otherwise it would be called just. So this is the good will which summons and draws us. We can think or perform nothing which benefits us without our obtaining it from the Author of goodness. As Paul says, “For we cannot think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” So let the Pelagians’ madness fall silent, lest in seeking falsely to ascribe some goodness to itself the will is instead deprived of him who bestows it.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. To think anything that is good and is ordained to faith, grace, merit, and eternal salvation, so as to make a man an able minister of the New Testament. But if no one is able to think any such thing, he is still less able to do it. Cf. Council of Arausica (can7) and S. Augustine (de Prædest. Sanct. c. ii.).
1. From this passage S. Augustine lays down, in opposition to the semi-Pelagians, in which he is followed by the Schoolmen, that the will to believe and the beginning of faith and salvation, and every desire for it, come, not from free-will but from prevenient grace. Hence Beza wrongly charges the Schoolmen with teaching that the beginning of good is from ourselves, though weakly and insufficiently; for they all alike teach that the beginning of a good and holy life, of good thoughts and actions, and salvation in general is supernatural, and has its origin in the grace of God, not in nature or the goodness o...
Nor can any human being be fit either for thinking or for doing anything good unless he is first helped by the free gift of divine assistance. “For God is the one who, for his own good purpose, works ‘in them’ both to desire and to work,” as the vessel of election [Paul] affirms; also by his teaching, we know that “we of ourselves are not qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather our qualification comes from God.” Therefore, he supplies us with all the sufficiency of good, and his fullness is not lessened when he gives who kindly shares every good with us that we may have them… . Everything which is created, just as before it was created it did not exist, so before it receives was unable to possess; and just as it cannot subsist without the working of him who made it, so it is unable to will or to do good unless God continuously deigns to help. For from him is the beginning of a good will, from him the ability to do good works, from him perseverance in a good way ...
In this debt which you demand from us and you repay, do not doubt that I am assisted, so that God, who works in us both to will and to bring to completion the work of the good will, himself gives that I may worthily think and worthily speak. For in good thoughts, “Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take credit for anything as coming from us; rather our qualification comes from God.” And for this reason we do not fail for want because by a free gift our sufficiency is from him in whom there is no want. Just as he does not need our goods, so he always abounds in giving, nor does he become needy by giving who gives that by which he is always filled; nor is there any pleasing gift of thought, word or deed offered by us to him which he himself has not given with free kindness. Wherefore the holy giving of God is always free because no demand based on human merits has ever preceded, because even if a human being has any good merit, it comes from him from whom comes “every good and per...
To think any thing of ourselves, that may deserve a reward in heaven.
But Christ hath made us fit ministers of his New Testament by the Spirit: for the letter of the Old Testament killeth, but the Spirit of the New Testament giveth life. (Witham)
The letter. Not rightly understood, and taken without the spirit. (Challoner)
This verse, (6th) refers to that in the last chapter, where he says: And for these things who is so fit? Who is so capable of such a ministry? It is God alone who gives us strength, light and grace. I am far from giving a part only to God, and a part to myself. It all exclusively belongs to him. (St. Chrysostom)
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account any thing as from ourselves.
See again, yet another corrective. For he possesses this virtue, humility I mean, in singular perfection. Wherefore whenever he says any thing great of himself, he makes all diligence to soften down extremely and by every means, what he has said. And so he does in this place also, saying, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account any thing as from ourselves: that is, I said not, We have confidence, as though part were ours and part God's; but I refer and ascribe the whole to Him.
For our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant.
What means, made us sufficient? Made us able and fitting. And it is not a little thing to be the bearer to the world of such tables and letters, greater far than the former. Whence also he added,
Not of the letter, but of the spirit. See again another difference. What then? Was not that Law spiritual? How then says he, ...
