[T]he God of all, foreseeing as God that he would hereafter gather together one people of Gentiles and Jews and extend to them salvation through faith, represented both in the patriarch Abraham. And thus then he calls him the father of the Gentiles, having shown that he had acquired, before his circumcision, the righteousness which is of faith, and after his circumcision, had not walked under the Mosaic Law but continued under the guidance of the same faith; in order that both Jews and Greeks, looking to him, might equally aim at his faith, neither the one anxious for his circumcision, neither the other his uncircumcision, for it is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but faith which the holy Scripture speaks of as righteousness.
Having thus shown faith was both older and more excellent than the Law, he now also shows that the Law was subsequent to the promise given to Abraham, in order thereby to make it manifest that grace was itself also prior to the Law: of this it was that the promises were given to Abraham. For the promise was that "in his seed all the nations should be blessed," which promise received its accomplishment in Christ.
Having thus shown faith was both older and more excellent than the Law, he now also shows that the Law was subsequent to the promise given to Abraham, in order thereby to make it manifest that grace was itself also prior to the Law: of this it was that the promises were given to Abraham. For the promise was that "in his seed all the nations should be blessed," which promise received its accomplishment in Christ.
Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans"
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