Grace And Creation

Ipsius enim sumus factura, creati in Christo Jesu in operibus bonis, quae praeparavit Deus, ut in illis ambulemus. Reddidit causas, quare gratia salvati sumus per fidem, et hoc ipsum non ex nobis, sed ex munere Dei, dicens: Ipsius enim factura sumus, hoc est, quod vivimus, quod spiramus, quod intelligimus, et credere possumus, ipsius est, quia ipse conditor noster est. Et diligenter observa, quia non dixerit, ipsius figuratio sumus atque plasmatio: sed, ipsius factura sumus. Plasmatio quippe originem de terrae limo trahit: factura vero juxta similitudinem et imaginem Dei sumpsit exordium. Quod in centesimo quoque octavo decimo psalmo simul positum diversa significat: Manus tuae fecerunt me, et plasmaverunt me. Factura primum locum tenet: deinde plasmatio. Et quia creationis, et conditionis nomen ad magna semper solet opera copulari, verbi causa: illa urbs condita est, et ab initio creatus est mundus, et unusquisque sanctorum per varia dogmata atque virtutes, in semetipso mundus est totus: propterea nunc creati in Christo dicimur, et creati in operibus bonis sive quae ipsi fecimus, vel facturi sumus, sive in aliis creaturis, ad quae nostra conversatio transferenda est, ut quae praeparavit Deus, in illis ambulemus, spe magna jam nobis data, dum in his ambulaturi sumus, quae Deus magnopere praeparavit. Et quia semel ad nomen creaturae venimus, et Sapientia in Proverbiis Salomonis dicit se creatam initium viarum Dei, multique timore, ne Christum creaturam dicere compellantur, totum Christi mysterium negant, ut dicant, non Christum in hac sapientia, sed mundi sapientiam significari: nos libere proclamamus, non esse periculum eum dicere creaturam, quem vermem, et hominem, et crucifixum, et maledictionem, tota spei nostrae fiducia profitemur: maxime cum ex duobus versiculis quae praecedunt, ipsa sapientia promittat se esse dicturam quae post saecula sunt. Cum autem saecula Christus fecerit, et quae deinceps loquitur, ea sint quae post saecula dicturum se esse promiserit, ad incarnationis mysterium, non ad naturam Dei referenda sunt quae sequuntur: licet in Hebraeis codicibus non habeatur: Dominus creavit me initium viarum suarum: sed, Dominus possedit me. Inter possessionem autem, et creationem multa distantia est: quia qui possidetur, is utique est atque subsistit, et est proprius, qui possidetur. Creator vero ille qui non erat antequam fieret: aut certe de eo quod erat, transfertur in aliud, sicut et nos nunc creati dicimur in Christo Jesu. Creati utique, non quia ante non fuimus, sed creati in operibus bonis. Quod David quoque in psalmo quinquagesimo deprecatur, dicens: Cor mundum crea in me, Deus. Et certe mundum cor ante peccatum habuerat, quando de eo Dominus loquebatur: Inveni David filium Jesse secundum cor meum: sed ut ibi creatio instaurationem sonat: ita et in nobis et in Christo per singula opera et profectus, creatura atque conditio accipi potest: ut quotidie in credentibus, quia varie secundum merita diversa montes dicuntur, et valles, et colles, atque campestria, Christus creatus, natus et conditus sit. Sanctus Hieronymus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.470b-471c

For we are his work; God has created us in Christ Jesus, that we walk in the good works He has prepared beforehand. 1 He has given the reasons how we have been saved by grace through faith and that this is not from us but from the gift of God, saying: 'we are His work,' that is, that we live, that we breathe, that we understand, and that we are able to have faith is His doing, because He is our Creator. And carefully observe that he has not said we are a figure of Him and a thing shaped, but, 'we are His work.' Something shaped has its origin drawn from the mud of earth, but a work begins according to the likeness and image of God. Which difference is signified in the one hundredth and eighteenth Psalm: 'Your hands made me, and they shaped me.' 2 The work is placed first, then comes the shaping. And because it is a matter of creation, on account of that greatness, the name of Creator is always accustomed to be associated with it. For example: a city is founded but from the beginning the world is created. And so whoever among the holy by various teaching and virtues in himself is completely pure, on account of that we are spoken of as created in Christ and created in good works, by what we did, or what we shall do, or in other creatures, according to the influence of our conduct, as God has prepared it, that in which we should walk, with that great hope now given to us while we walk in these things which God has munificently prepared. And because we have touched on the name of creature and Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon speaks of itself as a thing created at the beginning of the ways of God, 3 there is great fear, lest there be need to call Christ a creature, denying the whole mystery of Christ, and so they say that Christ is not in this wisdom but it signifies the wisdom of this world, but we freely proclaim that it should not be perilous to speak of Him as a creature, which a worm and a man and the crucified, and curse, with all the confidence of our hope we profess, especially when in the preceding verses the same wisdom is promised to be spoken beyond the ages. 4 When indeed Christ made the ages, that which then is spoken, that which is promised to be spoken beyond the ages, concerns the mystery of the Incarnation and does not refer to the nature of God. And then it is not written in the Hebrew: 'The Lord created me in the beginning of the ways,' but 'the Lord possessed me.' There is a great difference between possession and creation, because he who possesses, that which is possessed depends on him, and is his own who possesses it. However the Creator is He who before whom there was nothing, and from Him came what was, passing into something, as even now we are said to be created in Jesus Christ. Thus we are created, not because we did not exist before, but because we have been created in good works. So that which David prays for in the fiftieth Psalm: 'A pure heart create in me, O God' 5 And certainly a heart is pure before it has sin, and concerning this the Lord said, 'I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my heart.' 6 And here creation means a restoration, so even in us and in Christ, with each work and advance, it is possible to receive creation and founding, and that every day among the faithful, who because they vary according to their merits, are called mountains, and valleys and hills, and fields, so Christ is created, born and established. Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Ephes 2.10 2 Ps 118.73 3 Prov 8. 4 Prov 22. 5 Ps 50.11 6 Acts 13.22