Augustine in 5 Sayings

Which of Augustine’s teachings and ideas have had a lasting impact on the church? Today, Stephen Nichols explores Augustine’s theological thought through five key sayings from his most influential works.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are going back to our good friend Augustine. We spent time with Augustine on our very first episode of 5 Minutes in Church history, and we have visited with him often, but I’m returning this time to offer a summary of all of his thought in five sayings. So here we go, Augustine in five sayings. The first saying is from the very first paragraph of his famous classic text Confessions, and this saying goes, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Now, that restlessness of Augustine was philosophical. He was all over the philosophical map trying to find a worldview or a system that would answer his questions. It was moral and ethical. Again, Augustine was the quintessential seeker moving from this system to that. It was also literal. He traveled across the face of North Africa, cross the Mediterranean to Rome, off to Milan. He was a restless soul. He finally found that rest. He finally found the answer to all those questions in God, or perhaps Augustine would correct us and say that God found him, and in God he had peace and rest.

The second saying is also from confessions, and here Augustine tells us, “You use all, whether we know it or not, for purposes known only to you.” Now, this of course, is a reference to God’s sovereignty over our lives. It’s a reference to God’s providence guiding, directing our steps even when we see them circuitous as in the case of Augustine’s life. In one sense, as Augustine’s searching and questing, he’s the classic one step forward and two steps back, but none of it gets wasted. God uses it all and not only uses it all, but uses it for that end, which is our highest good.

The third saying comes from Augustine reflecting on the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of salvation. And here Augustine is hinting at what the reformers will crystallize as sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus. Augustine puts it this way, “Nothing sets us free save the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are in bondage to sin, and our only hope of redemption is the grace of God through the work of Christ.”

This fourth saying comes from Augustine’s second book after his conversion. Before he was converted, he wrote a lot of books. All of them are lost to us. But when he was converted in the summer of 386, he followed that up with traveling to Cassiciacum, a mountain village at the foot of the Alps. And he spent several months there and wrote four books. The second book was entitled On the Happy Life. And here he simply says, “Whoever is happy has God.”

He goes on to say, “Having God is not simply possessing God like having a thing, but,” he says, “it means enjoying God. When God saves us, he gives us the gift of himself and he brings us into relationship with him. Whoever is happy has God.”

The fifth and last saying, well, this comes from the final pages of Augustine’s other classic text. This is that monumental book, “The City of God.” I’ll save you reading it all and get right to the final page. Augustine says, speaking of heaven, “There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.” Well, there’s that rest again. He doesn’t mean rest as opposed to work so much as he means again, rest as opposed to restlessness. For Augustine, rest means to be completely unburdened, to be completely unburdened by sin and all that interferes with our relationship with God. And so we can see him, see him in his full glory, and when we see him for who he is, well our only response is love, and that is followed by praise. And Augustine is looking forward to this and he says, “This is the end for all of us who are in Christ, this kingdom of God, this eternal rest where we see and love and praise God.” Well, that’s Augustine in five Sayings. And I’m Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.