The Holy Spirit moved in a remarkable way in the life of Augustine and his son Adeodatus in Milan in late 386 and again in the succeeding months at a Roman villa called Cassiciacum. It was a season in which God stretched forth His hand bringing the miracle of salvation. As Augustine well understood, it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Ambrose and the Garden in Milan

The Lord used Ambrose the eloquent bishop of Milan as an instrument of saving grace. Augustine had begun to reconsider his wayward path of pride and unbelief when he met the renowned orator. Ambrose, he said, “received me like a father.” He had “a kindness most fitting in a bishop. . . . Ambrose taught the sound doctrine of salvation.” The towering stature of Ambrose had a profound effect upon Augustine. He began to be open to the Christian faith and the possibility that it may well be the truth: “What he said began to seem defensible.”

A garden in Milan was the turning point. Augustine came to Christ. New life unfolded within him: “My faith, Lord, calls upon you. It is your gift to me.” Worship became his delight: “I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart.” There was a new focus: “How was I moved, my God! . . . You began to be my delight. . . . Now the goods I sought were no longer in the external realm. . . . I had no desire for earthly goods to be multiplied.” There would in no sense be a futility to his life: “The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist.”

Augustine now had the same longing of heart reflected in David: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). He shared the ancient king’s confident expectation regarding the future: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps. 23:6).

A Son Touched by Grace

Salvation had come. Augustine was born from above, but the sovereign Spirit was not finished with His mysterious work. More grace would come. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). The Lord continued to gather the sheep of His pasture. His cherished son Adeodatus came to salvation before he departed from this world for the glory that awaits the sons of God in the world above (Heb. 2:10).

Adeodatus means “gift of God.” Augustine reflected on his remarkable gifts. Even at the age of fifteen, “his intelligence surpassed that of many serious and well-educated mson en.” “His intelligence,” said Augustine, “left me awestruck . . . . I contributed nothing to that boy other than sin.” He gave praise to the only one to whom it was due: “I praise you for your gifts, my Lord God, Creator of all.” He asked, “Who but you could be the Maker of such wonders?” Surely, the Lord would do great things in the world with Adeodatus who had come to faith in Christ! But no, God had a different plan. Adeodatus passed away before the age of eighteen: “Early on you took him away from life on earth.” Augustine knew that his beloved son was safe with God. “I recall him with no anxiety; there was nothing to fear in his boyhood or adolescence or indeed his manhood.” In a real sense, neither father nor son was older than the other since both of them were born again at the same time: “We associated him with us so as to be of the same age as ourselves in your grace.”

Words of Application

Augustine offers comfort to us by bringing to our memory the place to which our departed loved ones in Christ have gone. Before Jesus breathed His last breath upon the cross, He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” But the thing to remember is what he had first told the believing thief crucified with him: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43, 46). The spirit of the thief who looked to Jesus for salvation on that very day appeared with the departed spirit of Jesus in the place called Paradise.

The first martyr, Stephen, also committed his spirit to God as he was dying: “He was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’”(Acts 7:59). The Lord did precisely that, standing at the right hand of God to welcome him home (Acts 7:55–56). Stephen was not unique. Paul included every believer when he affirmed that “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). In his last epistle, the apostle announced, “The time of my departure is at hand. . . . The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:6, 18).

We may be assured, as Augustine was, that all is well with our departed loved ones, saved by grace alone. They are forever safe with God. Jesus keeps His word: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). We may live in comfort and peace knowing what is true for ourselves and our loved ones in Christ: “We shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). May we with Paul ever be “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light” (Col. 1:12).

Dr. Mark J. Larson is pastor emeritus and lives in Warrenville, SC.

1. Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 88.

2. Ibid., 3.

3. Ibid., 161–62.

4.  Ibid., 23.

5.  Ibid., 164.