Gregory of Nyssa — Commentary on Scripture

Romans 3:25

Christ, being an “expiation by his blood,” teaches each one thinking of this to become himself a propitiation, sanctifying his soul by the mortification of his members.

ON PERFECTION

Romans 8:7

As long as the flesh lives … it is not possible for the pleasing and perfect will of God to be done expeditiously in the life of the believer.

ON PERFECTION

Romans 8:29

For when the Arians say that the “only begotten” God, the Creator of all, … is the work and creation and product of God and therefore interpret the phrase “firstborn of every creature” to mean that he is the brother of every creature, taking precedence because of the rights of primogeniture, as Reuben did over his brothers, and that he is placed first not because of his nature but because of the rights of the eldest, this must be said to them first of all—it is not possible for the same person to be the only begotten and the firstborn as well.

ON PERFECTION

Romans 11:33

Paul examined … the unclear and hidden aspects of the divine mysteries and through suggestive phrases revealed the illuminations which came to him from God concerning the understanding of what is incomprehensible and unsearchable.

ON PERFECTION

Romans 11:36

What person who believes that he lives “from him and through him and to him” will dare to make the One who encompasses in himself the life of each of us a witness of a life which does not reflect him?

ON PERFECTION

Romans 12:1

How can the person who is conformed to this age, who is not transformed in the newness of his mind and who does not walk in the newness of this life but instead follows the life of the old man, obey Paul, who commanded you to present your body as a sacrifice living, holy and pleasing to God? How can you be a priest for God, having been anointed for this very purpose of offering a gift to God, not a gift that is completely alien or fraudulent because it consists of what is external to you but a gift which is truly yours because it consists of what is internal to you, which is the man inside you helping you to be perfect and blameless according to the word of the Lamb, free from all stain and dishonor? How will you place these offerings before God if you do not listen to the law which forbids an unholy man to be a priest?

ON VIRGINITY 23

Romans 12:2

The perfect will of God is that the soul be changed by reverence, having been brought to the full flower of its beauty by the grace of the Spirit, which attends to the sufferings of the person who undergoes the change.

ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE

Romans 14:23

Every word or deed or thought which does not look to Christ looks completely to the adversary of Christ. For it is not possible for what is outside of light or life not to be completely in darkness or death.… The person outside of Christ rejects him by what he thinks, does or says.

ON PERFECTION