Speaking of the grace of God, Augustine once said,

no greater gift has been bestowed by God.

We'll tuck in near the end of the city of God

that great book of his Augustine says this.

For the Lord knows them that are his.

And as many as are led by the spirit of God,

they are sons of God.

But they are sons by grace, not by nature.

For there is but one son of God by nature,

who, in his compassion, became son of man for our sakes.

That we, by nature, sons of men, might, by grace,

become through Christ, sons of God.

For Christ, abiding unchangeable,

took upon himself our nature,

that thereby he might take us to himself.

And holding fast his own divinity,

he became partaker of our infirmity.

That we, being changed into some better thing,

might be participating in his righteousness and immortality.

That we lose our properties of sin and mortality

and preserve whatever good quality

he had implanted in our nature,

...