Sf. m. Iacint (sec. II); Sf. aep. Anatolie († 458).Ap Rom 4,13-25; Ev Mt 7,21-23.

4:13-17 THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW
OVERVIEW: The promises made to Abraham have been inherited by those who share Abraham’s faith, not only by those who have received the circumcision given to his physical descendants. Therefore what was promised to Israel has been inherited by the church, and the church will inherit the world.
The law brings not the fulfillment of promises but an awareness of transgression. Origen was aware that transgression existed before the law of Moses was given, and so he applies this verse to the universal law of nature, in spite of the context. The other Fathers concentrate more on the reality of transgression and the hopeless state of those who have nothing but the law of Moses to instruct them. Only faith can bring the fulfillment of God’s promises. Faith is not a human work but a free gift from God. Everyone who has received this gift is a descendant of Abraham, whether he has been circumcised or not.
4:18-25 ABRAHAM’S FAITH AND OURS
OVERVIEW: To faith Abraham added hope, even when that flew in the face of reality. In natural terms there was no chance that an old couple like Abraham and Sarah would have children, and yet they did. Hope in the power of God to achieve the impossible is therefore integral to the Christian faith. Abraham’s justification was not a private affair. Rather, it was intended to be a model for us. Our faith as Christians is rooted not in belief in the Creator but in the fact that the Creator raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ’s death and resurrection are the pattern of the Christian life, in which we die to sin in baptism and are born again to a new life of righteousness.
Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew 7,21-23
7:21 Doing the Will of the Heavenly Father
THE WILL OF THE FATHER. CHRYSOSTOM: He said “whoever does the will of my Father” shall enter, not whoever does my will. Why? Nothing is insufficient if they do the will of the Father. What he did say was itself a very difficult thing to accept in view of their weakness. He implied that to do his Father’s will is to do his will. There is no other willing of the Son than the will of the Father. This may apply in particular to those who commit themselves in detail to legal rules1 yet take little thought for the actual embodiment of their better intentions. Elsewhere Paul confronts them directly when he says, “Consider this. You bear the name Jew, rely on the law, boast in God and know the will of God,”2 but in all this you derive no benefit as long as the actual fruits of good living are not present. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 24.1.3
7:22-23 Depart from Me, Evildoers
I NEVER KNEW YOU. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: There may be some who, in the beginning, believed rightly and assiduously labored at virtue. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons. And yet later they are found turning aside to evil, to self-assertive deception and desire. Of these Jesus remarks that he “never knew them.” He ranks them as equivalent to those who were never known by him at all. Even if they at the outset had lived virtuously, they ended up condemned. God knows those whom he loves, and he loves those who single-mindedly believe in him and do the things that please him. FRAGMENT 88.4