Patristic Quote of the Day

The Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and, in the form of a servant, became obedient even to the death of the cross, Philippians 2:8 for no other reason than, by this dispensation of His most merciful grace, to give life to all those to whom, as engrafted members of His body, He becomes Head for laying hold upon the kingdom of heaven: to save, free, redeem, and enlighten them,— who had aforetime been involved in the death, infirmities, servitude, captivity, and darkness of sin, under the dominion of the devil, the author of sin: and thus to become the Mediator between God and man, by whom (after the enmity of our ungodly condition had been terminated by His gracious help) we might be reconciled to God unto eternal life, having been rescued from the eternal death which threatened such as us. - St. Augustine, *On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins* I:39