God created us without us, but He will not save us without us” Why?
This is a famous quote by St. Augustine. This can be understood using a little analogy. Think about your own birth. You were given life through your parents not because you asked for it. Similarly when God created us, He did so not because we asked Him to. So this means that God created us without us.
Now that you are born, grown big, and become an adult, you have your own likes, dislikes, preferences and most especially you have the freedom to choose. The freedom to choose is a gift God gives us – it is called the gift of ‘Free Will’. If today the very parents through whom you freely received your life, demands something from you that you don’t like, no matter however good the demand is, you will resist it tooth and nail. But your parents will not torture you into submission because they respect your freedom of choice or the free will.
Similarly however good ‘salvation’ is for us, God does not force it upon us but only propose to us by revealing how good and necessary it is for our own good. It is upto us to freely accept the offer. That would mean God cannot save us or have us accept the salvation if we do not cooperate. That’s why St Augustine said ‘God who created us without us cannot save us without us’. Hope it helps.
Jacob Jose
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Saul who initially persecuted the Church, became Paul a strong disciple of Jesus Christ, even though he didn’t desire for any of it at all. Then how can it be justified in his case- ‘God created us without us, but he will not save us without us’.
Thank you Mekhana for that question. Soul was a zealous Jew who had already given his life to server God. He persecuted Christians in order to prevent his own people from converting to Christianity which he thought is a sect driven by false teaching. He did that with clear conscious assuming he was serving God. The encounter Soul has with Jesus, unmasked his misunderstanding and revealed the truth that Jesus was indeed the promised messiah. Once he understood his mistake as we know, he passionately lived his entire life preaching about Jesus even to accepted martyrdom for the cause. So in Paul’s (Soul) case God did not change his destination but only showed him the correct route. And God could help him because he was already on the journey. Remember Jesus said, ‘seek and you shall find’. Let us know if you have further questions. God bless.
Where does this important quote come from? Can you point me to the source? Thank you.
Carver
Carver, This quote is from the CCC.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a8.htm
And CCC mentions the source as: St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923. Also, I’m aware that there is an uncertainty about the accuracy and source of the quote.
From which works of St. Augustin are the deep words extracted from?
Hi Harry, CCC 1847 shows that it is taken from St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923. Hope it helps. God bless you.
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