The Source of Grace and Calling

He did not set this forth merely, but to demonstrate that it is God's will that all be called from Christ and that the apostles be so. He presents himself as known to the Corinthians, and he restrains the storm of those puffed up by words. He connects the badly occurred division to a single church, calling these from God; and he proposes unity in Jesus Christ, not in fear and dread. It must be observed how, in a few words, he often remembers Jesus Christ, teaching from the prefaces that it is fitting to be named from no other, but from our Lord Jesus Christ, and healing the wound caused by the divisions of different names through the continuous memory of Jesus Christ.

He says, 'Sanctified in Jesus Christ.' It is not man who has sanctified you, but God in Christ. For if he says one calls upon a man, he is named from this; but if Jesus Christ, he is named from Him whom he calls upon. And it is well with all those who call upon Him; for it is not you alone, but all who believe everywhere call upon Christ, and are named from Him, not from men. Therefore, do not alone welcome an impious novelty by introducing it. And he did not say 'with all those calling the name,' but 'to those calling upon Him,' showing God who shows the Son of God; for someone calls upon God in every place, both theirs and ours. If every place is one calling upon Jesus Christ, imitate the many, but do not alone do something strange apart from the others. Theirs and ours is joined to the Lord; instead of saying 'we the writers and you the enjoyers of the letters,' we have one Christ.

Concerning the restoration of the things set forth: for if grace is from our Lord Jesus Christ and not from men, he says, it is fitting to be named from Him. He persists in this same point. For if wealth is from Him, and if knowledge is from Him, why do you assign the name of teacher to one, the name of baptizer to another, the name of leader to another, and as if another were the provider? Therefore he says, 'leading before you'; for what do you have that you did not receive? And if indeed you received, why do you boast as if you had not received?

He says, 'in every word.' Since it is a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge, and many words of gifts, therefore he says: in every word and in all knowledge. Since there are also many distinctions of knowledge, he says in all knowledge. It was written to the Greeks, those who had not received the old and the new, and those possessing knowledge on both sides; just as the testimony of Christ was established in you. Regarding those begging for establishment, they are already incomplete. Thus he showed that they need correction, giving thanks for what they received, but being corrected for what they did not fulfill.

Faithful is God, through whom you were called. Since he said, 'God will establish,' he proceeded: Faithful is God—for God is true, being able to provide these things—through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, not into a fellowship of man, but into the fellowship of His Son. Why, abandoning being named from the Son into whose fellowship you were called, are you being named from men? And again, that which lies through Him is upon the Father, not only upon the Son. And it is not a degradation to the Father, since through Him we are called into the fellowship of His Son; for it has not been written concerning the Romans that through Him and from Him and into Him are all things. Already God, because of that which is from Him which is greater than Himself, and because of that which is through Him which is lesser than himself—just as regarding the person lying upon the same, he does not make Himself both lesser and greater, so also he does not degrade the Son by that which is said through Him upon Him. When he met the contest toward Him so as to persuade that it is not from...