Giving thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
How can the apostle say: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who makes us suitable for a share of the lot of the saints in light, who has snatched us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son,” unless the will that liberates us is not ours but his? Letters.
See, then, how it can come to pass that a man may have the baptism of Christ and still not have the faith or the love of Christ; how it is that he may have the sacrament of holiness and still not be reckoned in the lot of the holy. With regard to the mere sacrament itself, it makes no difference whether someone receives the baptism of Christ where the unity of Christ is not.
The lament in the Psalms, indeed, is absolutely true: “Behold in iniquity was I conceived, and in sins did my mother nourish me in her womb.” Again, there is what is written, that there is none clean in God’s sight, not even an infant whose life has lasted but a day on the earth. So these are the exception, and it is to exceed our limited human measure to wish to inquire about the rank they may deserve in that “lot of the saints in light” which is promised for the future.
For he himself has bound the strong man and stolen his goods, that is, humanity itself, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity. God has created “vessels fit for the Master’s use,” that is, us who have been perfected for every work through the preparation of that part of us which is in our own control. Thus we gained our approach to the Father through him, being translated from “the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Moreover in writing to the Thessalonians he says: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.” Since we read that many things in the Old and New Testaments were divided by lots, none has dared to deny that the lot has been God’s way of manifesting what devoted hearts sought with prayerful petition.
By saying, “who has qualified us,” Paul emphasizes an important point. For example, if a person of low rank were to become a king, he would have the power to make any person he wishes governor; and this is the extent of his power, namely, that he can give such a dignity. He cannot, however, make the person he has chosen fit for the office, and often the honor thus conferred makes a person ridiculous. If, however, he has both conferred the honor, and made the person worthy of it, and capable of exercising it, then a very great honor has indeed been conferred. This is what Paul says here: that God not only has given the honor but also made us strong enough to receive it.
But why does he call it an inheritance (or lot)? To show that by his own achievements no one obtains the kingdom, but as a lot is rather the result of good luck, so in truth it is the same principle here. For no one leads a life so good as to be counted worthy of the kingdom, but the whole is his free gift.
