“He was handed over for our offenses,
and He rose again for our justification.” What does this mean, “for our
justification”? So that He might justify us; so that He might make us just. You
will be a work of God, not only because you are a man, but also because you are
just. For it is better that you be just than that you be a man. If God made you
a man, and you made yourself just, something you were doing would be better
than what God did. But God made you without any cooperation on your part. For
you did not lend your consent so that God could make you. How could you have
consented, when you did not exist? But he who made you without your consent
does not justify you without your consent. He made you without your knowledge,
but He does not justify you without your willing it. (Augustine, Sermons 169.13,
The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens;
Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:29)
