Aurelius AugustineGlorious Grace, Unwavering Truth

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Augustine is greatest man, “between Paul the Apostle and Luther the Reformer, the Christian Church has possessed.” Adolf Harnack

I. Background-Roman North Africa-Mother Eunice

II. Early Years (354-386)A. Restless -Birth: November 13th, 354-Education -Rebellion-Teacher -Manacheism

B. Rest (Testimony)-Conversion (386): Tolle Lege (Take and Read)

Application-What is particularly striking to you about God’s grace in Augustine’s life?-How often do your reflect on the grace of God in your own testimony?-Where do you resist seeing your sin as horrific? Where do you refuse to be open and honest? Where is your conscience plaguing you?-Where have you raised intellectual knowledge, prestige and performance above the simply call to humbly know the living God.

III. Later Years (391-430)A. The Orthodox Preacher/Presbyter-Countering Manachism: False Notions of Evil -Countering Donatism: False Notions of the Church-Countering Pelagianism: False Notions of Grace

B. The Bishop of Hippo

-Justification of Violence

IV. His Greatest Works

Confessions (397): Spiritual auto-biography“Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”

On the Trinity (395-420): The Christian doctrine of the Trinity“For surely if the Son of God by nature became son of man by mercy for the sake of the sons of men...how much easier it is to believe that the sons of men by nature can become the sons of God by grace and dwell in God; for it is in him alone and thanks to him alone that they can be happy, by sharing in his immortality; it was to persuade us of this that the Son of God came to share in our mortality.”

The City of God (413-426): The foundations of a rational philosophy of history

“What grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.”

V. His Impact -Everybody’s Theologian-Trinitarian Theology-Reformation of Grace

Application:What lessons do you gain from his life?Which side of the coin do you lean more towards: Grace or Truth?How could grace and truth be reflected more in your life and our church?

Favorite Quote

"This Lord, our God, the Word of God, the Word made flesh, the Son of the Father, the Son of God, the Son of man, exalted that He might create us, humbled that He might recreate us, walking among men, suffering what is human, concealing what is divine…Let every sigh be a panting after Christ,

let that most beautiful One, who loved even the ugly that He might make them beautiful, let Him be longed for. Hurry to Him alone, sigh for Him."  Augustine (Commentary on John)