Romanos 11
John Damascene
Romanos 11:32
This is not to be taken in the sense of God acting but in the sense of God permitting, because of free will and because virtue is not forced. — ORTHODOX FAITH 4.19
Romanos 11:36
"In him are all things" not only because he has brought them from nothing into being but because it is by his operation that all things he made are kept in existence and held together. Living things, however, participate more abundantly, because they participate in the good both by their being and by their living. But rational beings, while they participate in the good in the aforementioned ways, do so still more by their very rationality. For in a way they are more akin to him, although of course he is immeasurably superior to them. — ORTHODOX FAITH 4.13