Christian Art | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Office Of Readings | Week 13, Friday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Book Of Saint Augustine, The Predestination Of The Saints | Jesus Christ, Son Of David According To The Flesh
‘Jesus Christ, descendant of David according to human nature.’
Biblical Foundations | Jesus Christ The Predestined Son
Saint Augustine draws primarily on Romans 1:3–4, where Saint Paul writes that Jesus was ‘descended from David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness’. For Augustine, these verses encapsulate the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ, in his humanity, did not become the Son of God by merit, but was predestined to be so from the very moment of his conception by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.
This notion is reinforced by Philippians 2:6–11, which details the kenosis (self-emptying) of Christ: though he was ‘in the form of God’, he ‘emptied himself’ and was ‘found in human form’. The divine condescension is not a response to human merit but an act of sovereign grace. Augustine’s focus is this: if even Jesus Christ, the sinless one, did not earn his divine dignity, how much more is grace utterly unmerited for sinners?
Moreover, John 1:14 – ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ – underpins Augustine’s insistence that the union of divine and human natures in Christ is a pure gift of God, not the fruit of human striving. The Incarnation is thus the definitive example of God’s grace, freely bestowed.
Patristic And Historical Context | A Polemic Against Pelagianism
Saint Augustine was writing in the heat of controversy. The Pelagians, led by the British monk Pelagius, denied the doctrine of original sin and taught that human beings could achieve salvation through their own moral effort. Augustine’s theology of predestination – and especially his insistence that even Christ’s humanity was predestined – forms part of his rebuttal.
In portraying Christ as the supreme instance of divine election, Augustine nullifies any argument that grace is a reward for good behaviour. Christ, the God-Man, did not earn his divine sonship. Rather, his humanity was chosen and assumed by the Word in advance of any merit, thereby demonstrating that divine grace is entirely gratuitous.
Augustine’s position also reflects broader Christological debates in the early Church. While the Council of Nicaea (325) had defined the Son’s eternal divinity, the relationship between his divinity and humanity continued to be clarified. Augustine’s teaching anticipates the Chalcedonian Definition (451), which affirms that Christ is one person in two natures – fully God and fully man – without confusion, change, division, or separation. In Augustine’s language, ‘A man was taken up into God the Word so that he could be at once a son of man and the Son of God.’
By affirming this unique hypostatic union, Augustine rules out any suggestion that Jesus was merely a human hero later divinised by reward. His human nature was never autonomous; it was always united with the eternal Word.
Theological And Philosophical Implications | Grace And Predestination
Augustine’s treatment of predestination in Jesus Christ raises profound theological questions about freedom, merit, and divine foreknowledge. One key image is drawn from the human body: just as grace flows from the head to the members, so the same Spirit that made Jesus Christ holy in his humanity is the Spirit that sanctifies Christians. The grace that made Christ to be holy from the first moment of his conception is the same grace that draws us into life in him.
This image both glorifies Christ and humbles the believer. It affirms that the Christian life is not about earning divine favour, but about receiving and cooperating with grace that always comes first. As Augustine puts it, ‘Let any merits that men may have be silent here – they died through Adam.’
At the same time, this teaching safeguards divine initiative without obliterating human dignity. The mystery of predestination does not deny that we are moral agents. Rather, it affirms that even our freedom is a gift, and our capacity to respond to God is itself the work of grace. Augustine is careful not to promote fatalism; instead, he evokes awe at the scale of divine mercy.
Augustine’s closing contrast – between the divine humiliation and human exaltation – is striking. Christ, he says, descended as low as it is possible for God to go, by taking on death and weakness. Human nature, in turn, is lifted as high as it can be raised, by being united to God in the Person of Christ. This ‘double movement’ reflects the patristic axiom that ‘God became man so that man might become God’ (Athanasius). In Christ, the ladder between heaven and earth is restored.
A Reading From The Book Of Saint Augustine, The Predestination Of The Saints | Jesus Christ, Son Of David According To The Flesh
The shining example of predestination and grace is the Saviour himself, the mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus. What merits, of good deeds or faith, did his human nature have beforehand, to make this happen? Please, let me have an answer: how did that man earn the privilege of being taken up into unity of person by the Word co-eternal with the Father and of being the only-begotten Son of God? What good quality of his can have made him deserve this? What had he done, what had he believed, what had he prayed for, to come to this indescribable excellence? Surely it was no action of his, but the action of the Word lifting him up, that caused this man, at the moment that he was coming into being, to come into being as the only Son of God!
Let us see, in our own bodies, how the head is the source of grace that flows through the members, filling each according to its capacity. The grace by which every man, from the moment when he comes to believe, becomes a Christian is the same grace by which that man, from the moment when he came to be, became Christ. The Spirit through whom we are reborn is the same Spirit through whom he was born. The Spirit that brings us remission of our sins is the same Spirit that gave him freedom from sin.
God certainly knew beforehand that he was going to make these things happen. This is exactly the predestination of the saints and it shines out most clearly in the predestination of the Saint of saints. How can anyone deny this who properly understands the utterances of the Truth? For we see that even the Lord of glory is the subject of God’s predestination, in so far as at his incarnation a man became the Son of God.
So Jesus was predestined, so that he who was to be, according to the flesh, a son of David should nevertheless be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness – because he was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. Thus in a unique and indescribable way a man was taken up into God the Word so that he could be at once a son of man and the Son of God – a son of man according to the nature that was taken up, the Son of God because of the only-begotten God who took him up. If it were not like this, we would have to believe not in a Trinity but in a Quaternity.
This predestined elevation of human nature is so great, so high, so exalted that there is no greater height left to which it could be raised. On the other side, the very godhead could not throw itself down lower than it did, to the taking on of human nature with all its weaknesses and a final death on a cross. As he, the one, was predestined to be our head, so we, the many, were predestined to be his members.
Let any merits that men may have be silent here – they died through Adam. Let God’s grace reign, as it does reign: the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the one Son of God, the one Lord. If anyone can find in that man, our Head, pre-existing merits that led to his unique birth, let him look in us, his members, for pre-existing merits that might lead to the rebirth of us all.
Prayer With Jesus Christ
God of all grace and glory,
You chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
not for any merit of ours,
but out of your boundless mercy and love.
You predestined your Son to be our Head,
and by his incarnation, passion, and resurrection,
you have drawn us into the mystery of divine life.
Teach us to trust not in our own strength,
but in your saving will, freely given.
As Christ humbled himself to lift us high,
may we, by grace, walk humbly with him:
bearing his image,
sharing his cross,
and rejoicing in his glory.
Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Predestination
The doctrine that God has, from eternity, foreordained all that will come to pass, particularly the salvation of the elect. Augustine teaches that this is a gracious act of God, not based on human merit.
Incarnation
The Christian belief that the second Person of the Trinity, the Word, became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Augustine emphasises that this was an act of grace, not a reward.
Hypostatic Union
A Christological term describing the union of divine and human natures in the one Person of Jesus Christ. It affirms that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Grace
The free and undeserved favour of God, which enables humanity to share in divine life. Augustine sees grace as absolutely prior to any good works.
Pelagianism
A theological heresy that downplays original sin and insists that human beings can achieve salvation without divine grace. Augustine argued fiercely against it.
Trinity
The Christian doctrine that God exists as three persons in one essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Augustine warns against imagining a fourth being (a human Christ separated from the divine Son).
Merit
Spiritual benefit earned by good works. Augustine argues that neither Christ’s incarnation nor our salvation is due to merit, but to grace.
Mediator
Christ is called the mediator because he bridges the gap between God and humanity, making peace through his life, death, and resurrection.
Kenosis
A Greek word meaning ‘self-emptying’, used in Philippians 2 to describe how Christ humbled himself in the incarnation and death on a cross.
Elect
Those whom God has chosen in Christ for salvation. Augustine teaches that this election is purely by God’s gracious will.
Saint Basil the Great’s homily, selected for Monday of the Third Week of Lent, meditates on the nature of true greatness and the proper orientation of human boasting. Saint Basil draws upon scriptural sources, particularly the writings of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:23-24) and Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 1:30-31; Philippians 3:8-11), to underscore that human wisdom, strength, and wealth are fleeting and should not be the source of pride. Instead, true boasting lies in knowing and understanding the Lord [ … ]
Sometimes, when I read my Bible, I pause in the reading and say to myself: ‘This bit’s real.’ It would be fair to say, I have issues with Mary, because, contrary to what we are taught to say, Mary isn’t my mother. Rather: Mum is. One bit of the Bible-text says this: And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is beside himself.” … And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark 3: 21; 31-35.) Here she comes. She is in considerable distress. I can imagine that. I can relate to that. To save her boy from whatever he’s got himself into this time. And you’re not telling me there isn’t something inside that. Her boy is beside himself. Radical. Radicalized. Radicalizing. A misunderstood word. /ˈradɪk(ə)l/ adjective & noun. 1 Forming the root, basis, or foundation; original, primary. 2a Inherent in the nature of a thing or person; fundamental. b Of action, change, an idea: going to the root or origin; far-reaching, thorough. c Advocating thorough or far-reaching change. d Characterized by departure from tradition; progressive; unorthodox. ‘He has a demon! And he is mad!’ – thus ‘the Jews’. (e.g. John 10: 20.) Come home! It’s all she wants. His family want him back now. But it is an exclusive cult: there is an inside and there is an outside; and on the outside, they are not meant to understand, lest they be converted. He has defined himself as different from anything she was. Only at the end does Jesus say to his Mum – and with savage, bitter irony: ‘Woman, behold your son.’ And then he dies. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. We ask that we might find Mary in our hearts as a Yes! place for Jesus. It is also recommended that we pray to Jesus that we may be further in oneness with Mary. It is self-emptying, such that we only exist insofar as we are responsive to God’s Word. * Last term, and put-out to pasture, the old Archbishop Emeritus came over to stay for a few days and did the odd class with us. He spoke of Yes! as the meaning of Mary’s virginity. And we were not very nice about him. One or two took umbrage. One or two got the hump. In a sense, his Grace, the Arch, basically wanted to move anyone he’d ever known from a high-place – a mountain – received theological ‘truth’ – to an imminent, human plane. Earthing the spiritual. Recalibrating metrics of life’s believability toward a spiritual sense of things. He might have asked the impermissible question: what happened? His Grace described it. God’s love as a cloud. This descended upon Mary – and subsumed her. Within the cloud, Mary capitulated utterly. She became only and purely a response to God’s love. As he spoke, the Arch cradled her. He carried her in his lap – in his hands. His Grace was a consecrated bishop. He was faith. He sat squat, a rounded man, hands cupped and ankles crossed, fingers interlocked, with parted thighs. Rumpled, washed, speckled. A lifetime’s skin… There could be no doubt His Grace spoke through long-term personal relationship with Mary. It was Julian went for him: ‘So are you saying Mary was a Virgin? Or are you not saying Mary was a Virgin?’ Nasty. No, it wasn’t pretty. Julian twisting his silver ring. For a moment, what Julian had said to the Arch simply failed to communicate. No, for a moment, that dumped on the air meant nothing. Then His Grace said: ‘There is a range of possible meanings we may understand in the question of Mary’s virginity. For example, there are understandings of the word virginity entailed in the action of giving birth.’ Julian said: ‘Duh! So had she had sex or hadn’t she?’ Trigger words. No, it wasn’t pretty. On that went for a little while. At length, Julian’s point seemed reluctantly conceded. Then the Arch told us a new story, an additionally human event, the more to baffle us. Controversially, he told us that Mary could not have been Joseph’s first wife, for this would not have been the way of things in the society of that time. His belief was that Joseph must have taken Mary into his household through pity. That would be normal, he said, for Joseph to bring a young, vulnerable girl, who is about to have a baby, within his protection, not meaning to enjoy with her marital relations, but through kindness. ‘And this story of the inn and stable,’ the Archbishop said, ‘it can’t have been like that really. Joseph has travelled with Mary to stay with his family, at home in Bethlehem, and they don’t want Mary in their house, for reasons which I am sure we can understand. It must have been there was considerable resistance to Mary. But Mary gives birth, and who can resist a baby? That’s what happened. It must have been. ‘I’m convinced that must have been how it happened really.’ Later that term, toward the beginning of Advent, we met boys who had been here before, in Valladolid, and now were in regular seminary. They had heard and recited verbatim all the Archbishop had said to them. Their spot-on impressions of each of the fathers were scathing. […]
In his homily on Romans 12:1 – ‘I appeal to you… to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God’ – Saint Peter Chrysologus delivers a striking call to every Christian: not only to follow Christ but to become a priest and a sacrifice. Drawing deeply from early Christian theology, scriptural tradition, and the liturgical life of the Church, Chrysologus offers a spiritual vision of the Christian life that is both challenging and empowering [ … ]
