All this time Luther had been preaching for Bugenhagen. On July 5, the day after Bugenhagen arrived, Luther preached on John 3:29 (cf. p. 435–441). For about two months after that, Luther continued to preach almost every week, apparently in order to complete the sermons on the third chapter of St. John.
The date of the last sermon on that chapter (pp. 516–522) is not known, but the one preceding it was delivered on September 13, 1539. During the course of 1540 Luther preached the four sermons on chapter four of St. John. Thus the sermons on the first four chapters of St. John cover a period of more than three years, from July 7, 1537, to September 11, 1540. Theological conflict and repeated illness continued to harass Luther, and sometimes he was absent from the pulpit for prolonged periods. But despite the interruptions and the troubles of these years Luther managed to complete the commentary.
The result of that work is the commentary printed in this volume. Once more it was George Rörer who transcribed the sermons, together with Gregory Solinus and a third anonymous scribe. These three sets of notes were collated by Luther's famulus, John Aurifaber (d. 1575), who was also the first to edit Luther's letters and table talk. The commentary on chapters one and two (Weimar, XLVI, 538–789; St. Louis, VII,
1538–1849) appeared in the second volume of the Eisleben edition of Luther. There Aurifaber also announced his intention to publish the commentary on chapters three and four (Weimar, XLVII, 1–231;
St. Louis, VII, 1848–2147) in a later volume. But these chapters remained in manuscript form for about three centuries. In 1847 Wilhelm Hoeck of the library in Wolfenbüttel finally published them for the first time. There are marks of the redactor's work in this commentary (cf. p. 329, note 41, for one instance); but, as in the case of the Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the extreme skepticism of certain scholars regarding the general reliability of the material appears to be unwarranted (cf. Luther's Works,
21, Introduction, pp. xx-xxi). In a favorite expression of Luther's, taken from Genesis 27 (cf. p. 528, note 24), the hands may sometimes be the hands of Aurifaber; but the voice is the voice of Luther.
SEVERAL CHAPTERS OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST namely, the first, second, third, and fourth, explained in sermons by the man of God, Dr. Martin
Luther, during the absence in Denmark of Dr. Johannes Bugenhagen Pomeranus, pastor in Wittenberg, collected with all diligence by me, Johann Aurifaber, from Magister Georgius Rorarius and Magister
Gregorius Solinus, and also from a written copy found in the library of Michaelis Cölius, pastor in These sermons have never before appeared in print
INEITHER know nor can I ascertain from anyone where our pastor, Dr. Pomeranus, broke off in his sermons on the evangelist St. John, which he preached to us on Saturdays.1 Therefore I make bold to go back to the beginning with my commentary on the evangelist. For the world—and particularly we in the church, who possess, preach, and confess God's Word—must remain conversant with this evangelist; to this end we must familiarize ourselves with his way of speaking. Therefore we propose to consider his
Gospel in the name of the Lord, discuss it, and preach it as long as we are able, to the glory of our Lord Christ and to our own welfare, comfort, and salvation, without worrying whether the world shows much interest in it. Nonetheless, there will always be a few who will hear God's precious Word with delight; and for their sakes, too, we must preach it. For since God provides people whom He orders to preach, He will surely also supply and send listeners who will take this instruction to heart. The text reads as follows:
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
2. He was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
From the very beginning the evangelist teaches and documents most convincingly the sublime article of our holy Christian faith according to which we believe and confess the one true, almighty, and eternal
- 3 God. But he states expressly that three distinct Persons dwell in that same single divine essence, namely, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father begets the Son from eternity, the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, etc. Therefore there are three distinct Persons, equal in glory and majesty; yet there is only one divine essence.
The Second Person, the Son, and neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, assumed human nature. He was born of the Virgin Mary when the day of redemption was to dawn. This Son of God, born of the Father in eternity, John first calls "the Word." He says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." Later he speaks of His incarnation when he says (1:14): "And the Word became flesh." St. Paul speaks similarly in Galatians (4:4): "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman."
I am wont to submit a rather plain and crude illustration in an effort to make this birth of the Son of God somewhat intelligible: As a human son derives his flesh, blood, and being from his father, so the Son of God, born of the Father, received His divine essence and nature from the Father from eternity. But this illustration, as well as any other, is far from adequate; it fails to portray fully the impartation of the divine majesty. The Father bestows His entire divine nature on the Son. But the human father cannot impart his entire nature to his son; he can give only a part of it. This is where the analogy breaks down.
Thus a painting of wine may possess the semblance and likeness of wine, but wine it is not. It does not quench the thirst and gladden the heart of man (Ps. 104:15). Likewise, a painting of water may have the appearance of water, but it is not real water which can be drunk or used for washing and cleansing, similarly, a human father imparts his nature to his son, but not his complete nature, only a fragment of it.
In the Godhead, however, the entire divine nature and essence passes into the Son; yet the Son, who remains in the same Godhead with the Father, is one God together with Him. Likewise, the Holy Spirit partakes of the same divine majesty and nature with the Father and the Son.
This must be accepted by faith. No matter how clever, acute, and keen reason may be, it will never grasp and comprehend it. If it were susceptible to our wisdom, then God would not need to reveal it from heaven or proclaim it through Holy Scripture. So be governed by this fact and say: "I believe and confess that there is one eternal God and, at the same time, three distinct Persons, even though I cannot fathom and comprehend this. For Holy Scripture, which is God's Word, says so; and I abide by what it states."
The first man to attack the doctrine of the divinity of Christ was the heretic Cerinthus, a contemporary of the apostles.2 He presumed to fathom and comprehend this article with his reason. Therefore he declared that the Word was not God. And in order to support this view he cited the verse from Deuteronomy (6:4):3 "The Lord our God is one God"; and also (Deut. 5:7): "You shall have no other gods before Me." With this sham he worked great harm. He gained a powerful following. Many Jews attached themselves to him, even some of those who had believed in Christ.
It must be viewed as a manifestation of divine grace that Cerinthus assailed this article during the lifetime of the apostles; for this is what prompted John, the foremost of the apostles still living at the time, to write his Gospel. In it he proves this article conclusively: that Christ, our Lord and Savior, is true, natural, and eternal God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. John had a very good reason for basing his proof on Moses, since it was he of Whom Cerinthus and his followers had boasted. Wresting Moses from their hands, mouth, and heart, John now quotes Moses in an attack against their blasphemous heresies and refutes them completely. This was a veritable masterstroke.
But now let us look at the text, for it is wonderful.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.
These introductory words to St. John's sermon about the eternal divinity of Christ, so wonderful and unprecedented, were also very strange and unusual to all wise and rational people. He affirmed clearly and distinctly that God is a Word and that this Word is with God, yes, is God Himself, as we shall hear later.
John's expression on this subject is far more succinct and vivid than that of Moses, whose book begins with these words (Gen. 1:1–3): "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. And God spoke a word, and there was light." St. John got the idea from Moses; but he is far more explicit in his statement that in the very beginning—antedating the creation of the universe, of the heavens, of the earth, or of any other creature—the Word existed, that this Word was with God, that God was this Word, and that this Word had existed from all eternity. This, I repeat, is a peculiar doctrine; it is foreign and strange to reason, and particularly to the worldly-wise. No man can accept it unless his heart has been touched and - 4 opened by the Holy Spirit. It is as impossible of comprehension by reason as it is inaccessible to the touch of the hand.
Any attempt to fathom and comprehend such statements with human reason and understanding will avail nothing, for none of this has its source in the reason: that there was a Word in God before the world's creation, and that this Word was God; that, as John says further on, this same Word, the Onlybegotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, rested in the Father's bosom or heart and became flesh; and that no one else had ever seen or known God, because the Word, who is God's only-begotten Son, rested in the bosom of the Father and revealed Him to us. Nothing but faith can comprehend this. Whoever refuses to accept it in faith, to believe it before he understands it, but insists on exploring it with his reason and his five senses, let him persist in this if he will. But our mind will never master this doctrine; it is far too lofty for our reason. Holy Writ assures us that faith alone can appropriate it. Let anyone who refuses to believe it let it alone. In the end only the Holy Spirit from heaven above can create listeners and pupils who accept this doctrine and believe that the Word is God, that God's Son is the Word, and that the Word became flesh, that He is also the Light who can illumine all men who come into the world, and that without this Light all is darkness.
Furthermore, we must realize that this Word in God is entirely different from my word or yours. For we, too, have a word, especially a "word of the heart," as the holy fathers call it.4 When, for example, we think about something and diligently investigate it, we have words; we carry on a conversation with ourselves. Its content is unknown to all but ourselves until such Words of the heart are translated into oral words and speech, which we now utter after we have revolved them in our heart and have reflected on them for a long time. Not until then is our word heard and understood by others. St. Paul touches on this in First Corinthians (2:11): "No person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him."
When a man has a thought, a word, or a conversation within himself, he speaks to himself incessantly and is full of words that suggest counsel as to what to do or not to do. He continually converses and deliberates on this within himself. And particularly when something is close to his heart and makes him angry or happy, his heart is so full of anger and so full of happiness that his emotions involuntarily spill over into his mouth. For a word is not merely the utterance of the mouth; rather it is the thought of the heart. Without this thought the external word is not spoken; or if it is spoken, it has substance only when the word of the mouth is in accord with the word of the heart. Only then is the external word meaningful; otherwise it is worthless. Thus God, too, from all eternity has a Word, a speech, a thought, or a conversation with Himself in His divine heart, unknown to angels and men. This is called His Word. From eternity He was within God's paternal heart, and through Him God resolved to create heaven and earth.
But no man was aware of such a resolve until the Word became flesh and proclaimed this to us. This we shall see later in the words (John 1:18): "The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed it to us."
But just as God, the Lord and Creator of all creatures, is immeasurably superior to poor, miserable man, who is earth and dust, so there is no analogy between the word of mortal man and the Word of the eternal and almighty God. There is a wide gulf between the thoughts, discussions, and words of the human heart and those of God. For God is not created or made as we human beings are; He is from all eternity.
No one has given Him His speech, His Word, or His conversation. What He is, He is of Himself from eternity.5 But whatever we are, we received from Him and not from ourselves. He alone has everything from Himself.
Therefore this analogy of our word is very inadequate and vague. But although our word cannot be compared to His Word, it affords us a faint idea. Indeed, it impels us to ponder the matter and to obtain a better insight into its meaning, comparing the thoughts and speculations of the human heart with those of God and thus perceiving how God's Son is a Word. For as I hold secret and inaudible converse with myself, decide on future actions, debate about this or that within myself as I walk about, these secret and silent words of my heart, if freely and frankly released, would, I suppose, contain power sufficient for the ears of several thousand people. Yes, such words might fill every ear and every house. Nor can all the thoughts and the plans of heart and mind be fully uttered, especially if the heart bums with love or anger, with joy or sorrow.
If love is genuine, then the heart of that person is so full of thoughts of love that he sees, hears, and feels nothing else. In fact, he often scarcely knows where he is. Nor can you reason with such a person; for - 5 he is so fervently in love, and his heart is so filled and prepossessed by nothing but love, that not even a hairbreadth or a needle point could be squeezed into it. His thoughts of love are as large and as wide as his heart. Likewise, if anger is genuine, it occupies the heart so fully as to make a man insensible of himself.
He argues and talks with himself, so that anyone who sees him and is ignorant of his emotions must assume that such a person is beside himself. He may say to him seriously: "Why do you carry on so? What is the matter with you?"
This same picture may be applied to God. God, too, in His majesty and nature, is pregnant with a Word or a conversation in which He engages with Himself in His divine essence and which reflects the thoughts of His heart. This is as complete and excellent and perfect as God Himself. No one but God alone sees, hears, or comprehends this conversation. It is an invisible and incomprehensible conversation. His
Word existed before all angels and all creatures existed, for subsequently He brought all creatures into being by means of this Word and conversation. God is so absorbed in this Word, thought, or conversation that He pays no attention to anything else.
These words of the Holy Spirit, taken from Moses in the first chapter of Genesis (1:3), "Let there be light," are incomprehensible to any human reason or wisdom, no matter how profound. Therefore we dare not consult reason here, but we must honor the Holy Spirit by believing His words and accepting them as the divine truth. To this end, the eyes of reason must be blinded, yes, gouged out, as it were. But he who refuses to believe, let him go; let him continue on this path and see how he fares.6
Many and various heretics have stormed against this article and have attempted to fathom, comprehend, and master it with their reason; but they have perished in the attempt. The Holy Spirit has defended this article against them all, as God's Word continues to stand its ground against the very gates of hell (Matt. 16:18). Therefore let no man mistakenly assume that John the Evangelist terms the Son of God a Word in any simple or trivial sense. As already said, he does not have a word in mind such as emerges from my mouth, flits into the air, and soon fades out—an ordinary, simple word. Nor is he thinking of a word such as my heart addresses to me, which, to be sure, is greater and superior to the external word; the word of the heart is larger than the external word of the mouth. The former is often so big and strong that it occupies the entire heart and is, at the same time, incapable of expression. For it is impossible for a man to voice fully the thoughts either of an overjoyed or of a very wrathful heart.
Suppose it were possible to peer into each other's heart, I into yours and you into mine. If it were, we would either impart the whole content of our heart to each other out of love, or, to use a current expression, we would devour and choke each other out of anger.7 Now if it is true that I cannot fully express the thoughts of my heart, how many thousand times less will it be possible for me to understand or to express the Word or conversation in which God engages within His divine being, which He harbors in the shrine of His heart!
If we reflect on the matter at all, we must concede that a man's word, especially that of a great and mighty prince or king, really carries weight. To be sure, he is a mortal being like any other person; nevertheless, the plain word of his mouth is carried to the ears of his subjects and proves so powerful that they do its bidding and are governed by what he says. One may say (Ps. 33:9): "He spoke and it came to be." And although the mouth from which the word or command emerged is only a few inches wide,8 still it has enough power to bring about the obedience of all. And when a lord speaks in anger, let them against whom his displeasure is directed beware. Their goods, honor, life, and limb are forfeit to him. In view of this, it is evident that heaven and earth, all creatures, both the visible and the invisible, come into being when the eternal, almighty, and divine Majesty speaks to Himself or carries on a conversation with Himself, as it is written in Ps. 33:6: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the Spirit of His mouth." But since God has no mouth and does not utter any physical speech, the Word to which the evangelist refers must have existed before all creatures.
St. John thus declares that there was in God a Speech or Word who occupied all of God, that He was God Himself, that He had preceded the existence of all creatures, even of the angels. No one saw or heard
Him, not even the angels, since at that time they had not yet been created. Thus it must be a word or conversation, not of any angel or of any creature but of God Himself, the Creator of all creatures. This we here term "the Word," not any ordinary word but a Word that is as great as God Himself. Indeed, the It is not customary among us to call the thoughts of the heart "word" or "speech." And yet we are often wont to use expressions such as "He is talking to himself" when we mean that a man is in deep
- 6 thought either because of joy or sadness or because of love or anger. Or it is said: "My heart tells me that this good fortune or that misfortune will befall me." Such "telling" is the word of the heart. However, the thoughts of the heart, in their full meaning, significance, and extent are not accessible to the senses. One cannot fully and completely pour out one's heart. Yet a man often does express his thoughts, bare his heart, and reveal its content to others. Thus Christ the Lord declares in Matt. 12:34 that the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. Then you can know and understand the heart of a man. You often say:
"Didn't I have a presentiment of this? Didn't my heart tell me this? Didn't I sense this?" But when God speaks a Word to Himself or carries on a conversation with Himself, we find that people refuse to grasp this; much less will they believe it, for it runs counter to reason. In fact, since the days of Moses, St. John the Evangelist is the only one to refer and point to this. Admittedly, the prophets,9 and particularly David in Ps. 33:6, also alluded to it; but their words lacked the lucidity and distinctness of Moses and of St. John in this passage, where he calls the Son of God "the Word." Therefore we should leave our reason at home, and we should not fall into the snares of idle speculation. Rather we must believe the Holy Spirit, who has declared through Moses and John that God had a Word all by Himself, apart from any creature. I have been obliged to say this on account of this mode of speech, to enable you to understand the meaning of the vocable "Word," and also to give it a more profound meaning than it has in its ordinary usage when you learn that God, too, has a Word or conversation within Himself.
And now the evangelist begins to explain what this Word is in God. He says:
1. And God was the Word.
3. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Here you must take note of two words used by St. John: "existed" and "created." Whatever is created, did not exist before, as, e.g., heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, and all creatures, visible and invisible, did not exist before; they were created in the beginning. But whatever did not come into being, whatever was not begun, created, or made, and yet is and has its being—this must have existed previously. Thereby the evangelist powerfully attests to the fact that the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God (Col.
1:15), was not created or made; for before the world, before all creatures, including the angels, were created, and before the beginning of things, the Speech or the Word was with God. And then we read that everything was created through this Speech or Word of God and that without Him nothing was made. This
Word or Speech existed from the beginning of the creation of the world, approximately four thousand years before Christ birth and incarnation; yes, He was in the Father's heart from all eternity. If that is true, it follows that this Word was greater and more sublime than anything created and made; that is, He must be God Himself. With the exception of God the Creator alone, everything was created—all creatures, angels, heaven, earth, man, and everything animate.
But now John declares that the Word already existed and had His being when God created all things in the beginning. He does not say: "God created the Word" or "The Word came into being" but "The Word was already in existence."10 We must deduce from this that the Word is not created or made, that He is no creature, but that all things were made by the Word, as the text which follows states. Therefore He must be God, if we accept the premise that the Word preceded all creatures.
To say that He, in His divine essence, is the Word of the eternal Father is a sublime way of introducing the discussion of the divine nature and majesty of our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now every doubt has been removed, and it is easy for reason to draw the conclusion: If the Word existed from the beginning, before the inception of all things, then it must follow that this Word was God. Reason can readily make the distinction: anything that had its being before the creation of the world must be God, for there is nothing outside creation but the Creator. All that exists is either the Creator Himself or His creation, either God or creature. Now the Holy Spirit testifies through St. John: "In the beginning was the Word"; furthermore: "All things were made through Him." Therefore the Word cannot possibly be numbered among the creatures but has His eternal being in the Godhead. The incontrovertible and irrefutable deduction is that this Word is God. And this is also St. John's conclusion.
This is the text that establishes the divinity of Christ, given that we may know and believe that our Lord and Savior, born of the Virgin Mary, is also true and natural God, born of the Father in eternity. He is not to be counted among the angels; but He is the Lord and Creator of the angels and of all creatures, as Paul states in the first chapter of Colossians (1:16): "Through Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, both thrones and dominions."
- 7 If this conclusion is founded on Holy Scripture, which is the Word of God and abides forever (1 Peter 1:25)—and the Scripture does testify clearly that the Word existed in the beginning, before the creation of any creature, and that all things were made by Him—then we Christians can come to no other opinion or conclusion than that the Word was not created or made but existed from eternity. This conclusion does not rest on reason.
And the Word was with God.
When God was creating the angels, heaven, earth, and all that is therein, and all things were coming into existence, the Word already existed. What was His condition? Where was He? To this St. John makes reply as well as the subject will permit: "He was with God, and He was God." That is to say: He was with God and by God; He was God in Himself; He was God's Word. The evangelist clearly differentiates between the Word and the Person of the Father. He stresses the fact that the Word was a Person distinct from the Person of the Father, with whom He was. He was entirely separate from the Father. John wishes to say: "The Word, who was in the beginning, was not alone but was with God." Just as if I should say:
"He was with me; he sits at my table; he is my companion." This would imply that I am speaking of another, that there are two of us; I alone do not constitute a companion. Thus we read here: "The Word was with God." According to reason, this would mean that the Word is something different from God.
Therefore he continues and drives home his point: "And God was the Word." He does so, in order to forestall any attempt to separate the Word from God, that is, the Son from the Father, in view of the statement: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Now this gives the impression and sounds as if there were more than one. "You are right," he says, "inasmuch as you distinguish between the Person of God and the Person of the Word, since God is one Person and the Word is another.
Despite this, the Word, i.e., the Son, is and remains eternal and true God together with the Father."
Our reason makes an entirely different deduction and says: "If you insist that the Word is with God, then are there two Gods?" Therefore St. John wants the three Persons distinguished from one another within the one divine essence. And then he joins Them together again in order to avoid the impression that They are divided into three Gods, and in order to stress that there is only one God: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by whom all things were made. It is as if St. John were to say: "I wish to preach of a Word who became flesh but who was with God and beside God from the beginning. He could not be elsewhere than with God, since no creature existed as yet. It is true, I make mention of two, namely, God and the Word, i.e., the Father and the Son. But this Word was with God, yet not as a separate, distinct
God; no, He was the true, eternal God, of one essence with the Father, equal in might and glory. The distinction is that the Father is one Person, and the Son is another Person. Although the latter is a different
Person, He is nevertheless the same God as the Father. Although there are two of Them, yet the Son remains the one true God with the Father. The two Persons are distinguished thus: It is the Father who speaks; the other Person, the Son, is spoken."11
There are two distinct Persons; and still there is one single, eternal, natural God. The Holy Spirit is likewise a Person, apart from the Father and the Son; and at the same time the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one divine essence and remain one God, three Persons in the one divine essence. Therefore the Holy Trinity must be spoken of correctly and accurately: The Word, which is the Son, and God the Father are two Persons but nevertheless one God; and the Holy Spirit is another Person in the Godhead, as we shall see later.12
2. He was in the beginning with God.
Again the evangelist reminds the reader that the Father and the Son are two distinct Persons, equally eternal. But he does this in a manner which at the same time apprises him of the fact that the eternal Father sprang from no one, was not made, created, or born, while the Son, the image of the eternal Father, was born of the Father alone and was not made or created. Before Jesus Christ was Mary's Son and became flesh, He was with God and was true and eternal God of one divine essence with the Father, although a Person distinct from the Father.
For want of a better term, we have had to use the word "Person"; the fathers used it too. It conveys no other meaning than that of an ὑπόστασις, an essence or substance which is in a class by itself, which is
God.13 In this unique essence there are three Persons but only one God, one single Godhead; there is only one God. Hence Jesus Christ is the Creator and Preserver of all things, together with God the Father, and —after His birth from the Virgin Mary—true God and also true man.
- 8 No evangelist other than John was able to stress and describe this article of faith in such a masterly manner. This is also the supreme art of the Christians, who alone know it and believe it. The world cannot tolerate this article. Jews, Turks, Tartars, and heretics oppose it with all their might; they are annoyed and offended by it. They ridicule and taunt us, because, as they say, we Christians are so absurd and foolish as to believe in, and worship, more than one God. Let them laugh and jeer. Whoever regards God's Word— in which, after all, He has revealed His will and His divine nature, three distinct Persons in the Godhead and yet only one divine essence, equal in power and majesty—as a fable and a fairy tale will, to be sure, not give this article any credence. Whatever he may hope to achieve thereby, he will learn in due season.
It is inevitable that Christ is the source of every offense and the target of every attack. So Simeon declared when he addressed Mary in the second chapter of St. Luke (2:34): "Behold, He is set for the fall of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against." They will test their strength on Him, but they will be dashed to the ground.
For it is He who seizes the devil and crushes his head; then the devil, in turn, takes hold of Him and bruises His heel. In this world the struggle will never cease between Christ and the devil, the struggle in which the Seed of the woman will crush the head of the snake and the snake will bruise His heel (Gen.
3:15). But Christ and His own have held the field thus far; they will continue to do so, upholding His This text, "And God was the Word," has been tortured by the Jews, the schismatic spirits, and the Turks, all of whom presume to measure and correct it on the basis of their reason. The Jews were the first to attack this article. They mock us and say: "You Christians are idolaters and blasphemers, since you honor and worship three gods, although there is in reality only one." The Turks likewise regard us as stupid geese devoid of reason and understanding, since we do not realize that one family can have no more than one father; and, they aver, it makes even less sense to believe in, and worship, three gods.14 The Turks do not believe in Christ. Mohammed, with his Turkish faith, raved and ranted against Christ. To be sure, he conceded that Christ was born of a virgin; but the Turks claim that such a thing is no rarity among them. Well, this may happen and be true among them; but with us those virgins who bear children become women. A virgin who gives birth to a child cannot remain a virgin. We do not believe their yarn, and we do not want them to spread it in our homes; otherwise our daughters would all become whores. I do not believe that a virgin who has a child remains a virgin. Among us this is incredible. Those who have the audacity to claim that it is true are stupid asses.
Furthermore, the Turks say that Christ was indeed an excellent prophet and a great man; they exalt Him above David, Isaiah, and all the other prophets. They must admit that Christ was the Word of the Father, and yet they claim that Christ was not so great as their Mohammed.
Similarly, the heretic Cerinthus, against whom St. John the Evangelist directed this Gospel, denied the divinity of Christ. He regarded Him as a mere man. He confessed that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and was a great prophet and a noble person; but he declared that He was no more than a human being.
If I should set Scripture aside and follow my own reason, I could lie and blaspheme as they do. But we did not invent this verse about the eternal divinity of Christ. It was transmitted to us by the special grace of God. And it will remain intact in spite of all heretics—many of whom will no doubt still vent their anger on it—and will endure until the very end of the world. Therefore while we may, we want to give ear to this text and meditate on it, for our comfort and the strengthening of our faith and for the vexation of the devil and his fanatics.
Arius, the heretic, was the most artful and subtle of all the enemies.15 In order to support his blasphemous lie that Christ was not true and natural God he invested it with a semblance of truth by alleging that in this text, "The Word was God," the term "God" did not refer to the true, natural God but to a titular deity. We might illustrate his viewpoint by saying that it is just as if a king were to call a distinguished and noble person a "prince" even though that person is not a real prince. Or I might say to someone before I depart on a journey: "Be the master of the house." In a similar manner, Arius declared,
Christ was only called a god, since God had given Him the name and the commission: "Be a god on earth!" He was not really God by nature but was termed "God" in Holy Scripture because He was an unusual person who excelled all others.
And in order to dupe the people and deceive them with cunning speech,16 to blind them to his blasphemous lie, he declared that Christ was the best and the most glorious of all creatures, not only nobler and more precious than all visible creatures, than heaven, earth, sun, and moon, but also much
- 9 more sublime and excellent than the angels, whom, together with all other creatures, God had created through Him. But he could not evade the words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God"; he acknowledged that Father and Son were two distinct Persons. But, as stated, he distinguished between them by making Christ a creature. However, the text, "In the beginning was the Word," staunchly refutes this position. For, if He existed, then it is impossible that He should have been made or created; but together with the Father He was true and eternal God from all eternity, equal in power and majesty. And the blasphemous error of Arius was also mightily disproved and refuted by the words that follow:
3. All things were made through Him.
Augustine turns these words to good account against the Arians, who are given to pervert, to attenuate, to gloss and interpret so speciously all passages dealing with Christ's deity. St. Augustine really presses them hard with this passage.17 And Arius found it impossible to surmount this obstacle, no matter how he perverted and glossed the words. They are indeed so clear that he could not circumvent them or twist them in any way.
Thus this text is a strong and valid attestation of the divinity of Christ. St. John includes every creature in his expression, for he says: "All things [for he who uses the word 'all' does not exclude anything] were made by the Word, who was in the beginning." Now Creator and creature are two distinct entities. He, the Word, already existed in the beginning when all things were made. From this fact the evangelist concludes that He not only antedated all creatures, but also that He was a co-worker and equal Creator of all things with the Father. In token and proof of this the work now shows and praises its Master. All that is made, is made through Him; He is the Creator of all creatures. Thus, so far as Their divine nature is concerned, there is no difference between Him and the Father. We shall speak of the Holy Spirit later, when this subject is suggested by the text. According to His divine nature, He is the true God, who was in the beginning and was with God. This He actively demonstrated in the work of creation; for all creatures, angels, heaven, and earth were made by Him. In the fifth chapter of John, Christ declares (5:17): "My
Father is working still, and I am working." And the text clearly asserts that He is coequal Creator: "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." In the third chapter of Ephesians Paul says (3:9): "God created all things through Jesus Christ." And in Colossians
(1:15–16): "He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creatures; for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth." And in Hebrews (1:2): "God has appointed the Son to be the heir of all things, and through Him He also created the world."
With these and kindred passages the article pertaining to the deity of Christ has been defended and maintained at all times in the church against all heretics. And it will assuredly also be preserved against the devil and his blasphemous followers until the end of the world. That we may not doubt but know and believe that our dear Lord and Savior, born of the Virgin Mary, is also the real, true, and natural God and Creator together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, we are assured here that the Father creates all things through the Son. We read on:
And without Him was not anything made that was made.
Previously St. John had said affirmatively: "All things were made through the Word." Now he draws the negative inference:18 "Without Him [i.e., the Word] nothing was made." The meaning is that nothing whatever, regardless of what it may be, was made without the Word. He is already meeting and coping with the error of Arius, who ranted that Christ was the most sublime, the most powerful, the wisest of all creatures, but that, after all, He had been created, even though all the other creatures were created through Him and He existed before all the others. These words were written by St. John to prevent others from falling into the same error.
This blasphemous lie cannot be maintained, no matter how it may be embellished. For St. John flatly contradicts it when he says that the Word, the Son of God, was not alone in the beginning when God created all, and when all creatures came into being, with God, the Creator of all, looking on; but that He was co-operator, as He says (John 5:17): "My Father is working still, and I am working." Therefore if He is coequal Creator, as the text clearly states—"All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made"—and if everything has been created through the Word and nothing without Him, then it is impossible for the Word to have been created.
We can never grasp and comprehend this article of our salvation and eternal welfare with our human reason. But we must believe it, steadfastly adhering to what Scripture says about it, namely, that Christ, our Lord, is true and natural God and man, coequal with the Father in His divine essence and nature. The - 10 heretics have called both natures of Christ, the divine and the human, into question. Cerinthus, as already stated, began his attacks as early as the apostolic days. He denied His divinity. The Manichaeans impugned His humanity. Some of our contemporaries do the same thing and insist that He was conceived solely by the Holy Spirit and for this reason cannot be a human being akin to us. He did not assume flesh like ours; but, they allege, since He was a heavenly Man, His flesh was also heavenly.19
Therefore I warn you sincerely to beware of such schismatic spirits. If Christ is not true and natural God, born of the Father in eternity and Creator of all creatures, we are doomed. For what would Christ's suffering and death avail me if Christ were merely a human being like you and me? As such He could not have overcome devil, death, and sin; He would have proved far too weak for them and could never have helped us. No, we must have a Savior Who is true God and Lord over sin, death, devil, and hell. If we permit the devil to topple this stronghold for us, so that we disbelieve His divinity, then His suffering, death, and resurrection profit us nothing. Then we are bereft of all hope of eternal life and salvation; in short, we are not able to comfort ourselves with any of the consoling promises of Scripture. But if we are to be saved from the devil's power and murderous assaults, also from sin and death, it is imperative that we have an eternal possession that is perfect and flawless.
When the Arians parade Christ as the noblest and most laudable of all creatures, that is not enough. By this device they were attempting to hide their shameful error from the people. In our day the pernicious sects of the Anabaptists and the Sacramentarians follow the same course to cover up their numerous vices and wickeddeeds. For example, they make immense boasts and claims about their Christian charity, patience, and concord, just as they exaggerate the persecution they are undergoing.20 But what good is achieved in the end if you praise and stress Christian love and other virtues and meanwhile destroy the faith?
If the faith is impaired or injured, even in the least, we are lost. And if Christ is divested of His divinity, there remains no help against God's wrath and no rescue from His judgment. Our sin, misery, and distress are so enormous that they require a ransom too great for angels, patriarchs, or prophets to pay.
For this God's Son had to become man, suffer, and shed His blood. On the other hand, if He is deprived of His humanity, we are lost again. This is what the heretical Manichaeans did. In high-sounding phrases they declared: "God is so holy, pure, and immaculate that it is impossible for Him to assume the nature of a creature, even that of an angel. The creature is far too filthy for Him to adopt its nature." They would not believe that Christ was a natural man, that He had assumed human nature, that He had developed into human form from the blood of a woman and had become true man from Mary.
In their opinion this would have been an insult to the divine majesty, the greatest blasphemy and mockery. Therefore they held that Christ had been born of the Virgin Mary without taking her flesh and blood upon Himself: as the sun's rays penetrate stained glass and reflect blue and red colors on the opposite wall, so Christ had passed through the Virgin Mary as a phantom or shadow, without acquiring her flesh and blood. Hence, they concluded, He had not become a natural man.21 Others asserted that Christ had fashioned a body in heaven for Himself and had caused it to be born of the Virgin Mary.22 But if He were not true man, He could not have suffered and died to achieve our salvation.
The devil is doing his worst against this article of the divinity and the humanity of Christ, which he finds intolerable. Christ must be true God, in accord with the powerful testimony of Scripture and particularly of St. Paul, who declares that in Him the whole fullness of the Deity dwells bodily (Col. 2:9); otherwise we are damned forever. But in His humanity He must also be a true and natural son of the Virgin Mary, from whom He inherited flesh and blood as any other child does from its mother. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, who came upon her and overshadowed her with the power of the Most High, according to Luke 1:35. However, Mary, the pure virgin, had to contribute of her seed and of the natural blood that coursed from her heart. From her He derived everything, except sin, that a child naturally and normally receives from its mother. This we must believe if we are not to be lost. If, as the Manichaeans allege, He is not a real and natural man, born of Mary, then He is not of our flesh and blood. Then He has nothing in common with us; then we can derive no comfort from Him.
However, we do not let ourselves be troubled by the blasphemies which the devil, through the mouths of his lying servants, speaks against Christ the Lord—now against His divinity, now against His humanity
—and by the attacks which he then makes against Christ's office and work. But we cling to the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). Their testimony about Christ is clear. He is our Brother; we are members of His body, flesh and bone of His
- 11 flesh and bone. According to His humanity, He, Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb (of which Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to her in Luke 1:42: "Blessed is the fruit of your womb!"). This was without the co-operation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.23
Everything else that a mother imparts to a child was imparted by Mary, the mother of God's eternal Son.
Even the milk He sucked had no other source than the breasts of this holy and pure mother.
To sum up, we must, first of all, have a Savior who can save us from the power of this world's god (2 Cor. 4:4) and prince (John 16:11), the devil, that is, from sin and death. This means that He must be the true, eternal God, through whom all believers in Him become righteous and are saved. For if He is not greater and more exalted than Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, or John the Baptist, He cannot be our Redeemer. But if, as God's Son, He sheds His blood to redeem us and cleanse us from sin, and if we believe this, rubbing it under the devil's nose whenever he tries to plague and terrify us with our sins, the devil will soon be beaten; he will be forced to withdraw and to stop molesting us. For the hook, which is the divinity of Christ, was concealed under the earthworm. The devil swallowed it with his jaws when Christ died and was buried. But it ripped his belly so that he could not retain it but had to disgorge it.24 He ate death for himself. This affords us the greatest solace; for just as the devil could not hold Christ in death, so he cannot hold us who believe in Christ.
But, secondly, we must have a Savior who is also our Brother, who is of our flesh and blood, who became like us in all respects but sin. And in the children's Creed25 we say, sing, and confess: "I believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father Almighty, conceived by the Holy Ghost, not by Joseph, born of Mary, a true, natural man who suffered, was crucified, died, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God, coequal with the Father in power and glory." With a cheerful heart I may declare: "I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, who sits on His right hand as my Advocate. He is of my flesh and blood; yes, He is my Brother. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, became incarnate, and died for our sins."26 And John, too, introduced his Gospel with the theme of the eternal deity of Christ when he said: "In the beginning was the Word"; "this Word," he added later, "became flesh." At the proper time we shall hear more about this.27
I am enlarging on this subject for a very good reason, because everything depends on this doctrine. It serves to maintain and support all other doctrines of our Christian faith. Therefore the devil assailed it very early in the history of Christendom, and he continues to do so in our own day by means of the sects and the schismatics. Abominations and lies, however coarse, offensive, and blasphemous—these he can easily tolerate. He permitted Venus and Priapus to be honored and worshiped, along with other gross obscenity and immorality, which I refrain from mentioning out of regard for our dear youth.28 But he cannot let God's words stand without having his mobs cavil at it, pervert and blaspheme it. We should thank God heartily that He speaks to us through His Word, that He reveals His gracious and fatherly will and way to us, that He brings us to correct understanding of this and other articles of Christian doctrine, that He instructs us about the cornerstone of our salvation.
Thus this article that Christ is both very God and very man is the rock on which our eternal welfare and salvation are built. On this we are baptized; on this we live and die. St. John was pre-eminent among the apostles in his powerful portrayal of the deity of Christ the Lord, proclaiming as he did that the world, heaven, earth, and all creatures, visible and invisible, were created through the Word, that nothing was made except through this Word of the Father, and that for this reason He existed from eternity, preceding the creation of all creatures; for whatever existed before time, which is marked by a beginning and an end, must necessarily be eternal. And therefore the Nicene Creed describes Christ the Lord as "begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God," and in time also very man, born of Mary. This creed professes clearly and distinctly that Christ, our Redeemer, is in His very nature true and eternal God, that He is verily God's Son, and does not merely bear that name, as Arius blasphemed.
With these introductory words of St. John's Gospel, as also with the Nicene Creed, the devil and all heretics of the past as well as of the future can be vanquished decisively. For though the heretics impudently presumed to carp at this belief, to pervert it and surround it with a lovely semblance of rationality, still their foolishness was finally revealed and condemned by Christendom as a lie of the devil; and they came to a disgraceful end.29
3. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
- 12 Here St. John points out that Jesus is God and has been God from eternity, antedating the world and the beginning of all things, also that God created the world and all creatures through the Word, His onlybegotten Son and divine wisdom. But he also says that through Him God still governs and preserves His creation and will govern and preserve it until the end of time. In other words, the Son of God is Cocreator of heaven and earth with the Father. He is, however, not like a carpenter or architect who, after completing a house, a ship, or the like, turns over the house to its owner for his residence or the ship to the boatmen or mariners for sailing, and then goes his way. Craftsmen are wont to do this; after doing a job or finishing a task, they leave without any concern for their work and enterprise and without any regard for its maintenance. God proceeds differently. God the Father initiated and executed the creation of all things through the Word; and now He continues to preserve His creation through the Word, and that forever and ever. He remains with His handiwork until He sees fit to terminate it. Therefore Christ says (John 5:17):
"My Father is working still, and I am working." For just as we were created by Him without our own aid and agency, so we cannot maintain ourselves with our own might. Hence, as heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, man, and all living things were created in the beginning through the Word, so they are wonderfully governed and preserved through that Word.
How long, do you suppose, would the sun, the moon, the entire firmament keep to the course maintained for so many thousands of years? Or how would the sun rise or set year after year at the same time in the same place if God, its Creator, did not continue to sustain it daily? If it were not for the divine power, it would be impossible for mankind to be fruitful and beget children; the beasts could not bring forth their young, each after its own kind, as they do every day; the earth would not be rejuvenated each year, producing a variety of fruit; the ocean would not supply fish—in short, none of the creatures, animals, or plants, could propagate and perpetuate themselves, each after its own kind, as they do every year. If God were to withdraw His hand, this building and everything in it would collapse. The power and wisdom of all angels and men would not be able to preserve them for a single moment. The sun would not long retain its position and shine in the heavens; no child would be born; no kernel, no blade of grass, nothing at all would grow on the earth or reproduce itself if God did not work forever and ever.
Hence God does not merely create; but whatever He created He also preserves as it is—indeed, until the time He Himself has appointed for its termination. The day will come when the sun, the moon, and the stars will cease to be. But in the meantime He lets them shine. Year after year He produces grain anew, as we so clearly perceive. If it were not for His creative work, this grain would never grow. Thus when
Christ the Lord declares (John 5:17): "My Father is working still, and I am working," He says in effect:
"The Father is the sort of Creator, who, after He has created all things, continues to occupy Himself for ever and ever with the guidance and preservation of His creatures. So do I." Daily we can see the birth into this world of new human beings, young children who were nonexistent before; we behold new trees, new animals on the earth, new fish in the water, new birds in the air. And such creation and preservation will continue until the Last Day. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit do not rest from Their work, as craftsmen, shoemakers, and tailors do after they have completed their shoes and garments.
No, They do not leave off working on Their creation until the end of time. Before one creature dies, They supplant it with another, to insure the perpetuity of Their creation.
By way of illustration: We who are assembled in this place today were not here a century ago; but in due time each of us was born, and now we all have our being. However, a hundred years hence none of us will be here any longer; in our stead others will be born who are not yet alive today. No one yet unborn even knows who his parents will be or where his abode will be to shelter and sustain him. Moses points this out pertinently when he says in Ps. 90:3: "Thou lettest men die, and sayest, 'Turn back, O children of men!' "
Just as no creature was able to contribute toward its creation at the beginning, so it has not been able to work toward its preservation and the perpetuation of its Find. Thus, as we human beings did not create ourselves, so we can do nothing at all to keep ourselves alive for a single moment by our own power. The fact that I grow and develop is God's work alone; without Him I would have died many years ago. If the Creator, who continues to work forever and ever, and His Co-worker were to interrupt Their work, all would go to wrack and ruin in a twinkling. This truth prompts us to confess in the articles of our Christian
Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." If He had not preserved us whom He created, we would have died and perished long ago, yes, even in the cradle or at birth.
- 13 This is also what the apostle means to say in Heb. 11:3: "By faith we understand that the world was created by the Word of God, so that everything that is seen was made out of nothing." That is to say: "We understand that through Christ, who is the Word and Wisdom of the Father, the world was created.
Through Him the Father continually brings forth the invisible and the nonexistent to be visible and existent. Thus the invisible things become visible." A hundred years ago all of us were an invisible thing.
Those who are to be born ten or twenty years hence are an invisible thing now, children who are not yet present and of whom we see nothing but mere nonexistence, if I may call it that. Yet they are to become visible and a reality in their own time when they are born.
Christ is the man who brings forth something visible from that which is still invisible. Thus through Him heaven and earth were produced from that which was invisible and nothing and were rendered visible. And it is Christ the Lord, who was present at the time of the creation of all things not as a mere spectator but as a coequal Creator and Worker, who still governs and preserves all and will continue to govern and preserve all until the end of the world. For He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all creatures.
We must adhere to this view of creation. It is not true, as several heretics30 and other vulgar persons allege, that God created everything in the beginning, and then let nature take its own independent course, so that all things now spring into being of their own power; thereby they put God on a level with a shoemaker or a tailor. This not only contradicts Scripture, but it also runs counter to experience. In the doctrine of creation it is of primary importance that we know and believe that God has not withdrawn His sustaining hand from His handiwork. Therefore when St. John declares that everything made was made through the Word, one must also realize that all things created are also preserved by this Word. Otherwise they would not continue to exist very long. And now the words follow:
Before this the evangelist had said: "All things were made through the Word." These words embrace all creatures, excluding none. And now, pursuing this subject further, he directs our attention specifically to human beings. For their sakes all other creatures were made; but they were seduced by the devil and made to fall, so that they transgressed God's commandments, sinned against Him, and thus became subject to the devil's power. He dismisses all the brute beasts, which did not fall and sin, and concentrates all his attention on human nature, for the sake of which everything was made and created. He declares: "In Him was life." He means to say: The Son of God is not a creator or worker who, like a builder, leaves his work after its completion and dies when his hour has come. Far from it! No, He continually governs and preserves what He created in the beginning. And although whatever is temporal and transitory will pass, die, and perish in time, He Himself abides eternally. For He is God, and in Him resides that life which cannot and will not die. Therefore the evangelist differentiates between this Creator and others who may fashion something. He is an entirely different Worker from any earthly, mortal laborer; for He has life of Himself and will never die. Whatever lives and survives owes its life and being to Him. The product of other workers' labor, as, e. g., that of the smiths, the carpenters, the shoemakers, or the tailors, may or may not survive them after they die. This Master Workman, however, will not die. He has been at all times, and He will always be both before and after all creatures; He preserves His work uninterruptedly as long as it is His pleasure to do so; He bestows life on, and withdraws life from, whomever He wills; for in Him there is sheer life.
Therefore Moses declares in Ps. 90:3: "Thou lettest men die and sayest, 'Turn back, O children of men!' " It is as if he were saying: "Thou dost consign all men to death by decreeing that they shall die.
And then Thou dost create others to replace these." Therefore He does not die according to His divine nature and come back to life; He is life, not only in Himself, but everything that lives has life in Him and through Him, especially man. To be sure, all animals, e. g., cows and pigs, also have their life through Him. But their life is different from that of man. He was created in the image of God and for life eternal; he forfeited this life through the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden and became subject to death; but he will be made alive again through Christ (1 Cor. 15:22).
John now sharpens his verbal wedge, as it were, and makes it so incisive that it will cut through to the subject of the human race. To this he now turns and says:
And the life was the light of men.
He wants to say that the life in Him was not only for itself; for He imparts life to all creatures, particularly to man, that man may live eternally. He was also the Light, i. e., the Light of man, giving man
- 14 a very special kind of light. It is amazing that the evangelist St. John is able to discuss such sublime and weighty matters in such plain and simple language. He wants to say that the Son of God draws so close to men that He is their Light. And this Light is far different from that which all the irrational animals perceive. The cows and the pigs, to be sure, also enjoy the universal light of the sun by day and the light of the moon by night. But man alone is endowed with the glorious light of reason and intellect. Man's ability to devise so many noble arts and skills, his wisdom, dexterity, and ingenuity, all are derived from this
Light, or from the Word, who was the Light of men.
Thus this Light, Christ, is not merely a light for itself; but with this light He illumines men, so that all reason, wisdom, and dexterity that are not false or devilish emanate from this Light, who is the Wisdom of the eternal Father. But in addition to this light, which all men, both the good and the bad, enjoy in common, there is a particular light which God grants only to His own. To this applies everything that John later writes about the Word, namely, that He reveals Himself to His elect through the Holy Spirit and the oral Word, and that He wants to be the Light of His people. Now John sharpens his verbal wedge even more, drives it still closer to his subject, and relates this light to the descendants of Abraham and generations that followed, i. e., to the Jews, from whom Christ was to come according to the flesh. And thus John arrives at the lineage of Christ.
In the Garden of Eden He revealed himself to Adam and Eve shortly after their fall; He cast a bright ray of this light into their hearts; He illumined and comforted them. After the sorrow inflicted by the serpent, He again gladdened their hearts when He said (Gen. 3:15): "The woman's Seed [that was He] will bruise the head of the serpent on your behalf." Regarding this Light Adam and Eve preached to their children and children's children, saying that He would come into the world in due time.
Thus Noah, too, saw the Light and revealed it to the people. After the Deluge He repeated the promise, but formulated it more specifically and precisely when He said to Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 22:18): "In you and your Seed shall all the nations or generations of the earth be blessed." He spoke similarly to Isaac
(Gen. 26:4), to Jacob (Gen. 28:14), and finally also to David in Ps. 132:11: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne." There are similar promises in 2 Sam. 7:12; Ps. 89:4; Is. 9:7.
All these were bright rays and manifestations of the same light that had appeared to Adam and Eve and other patriarchs before the Flood, as we have already heard, and then continued to shine after the Flood. Thus it shone during the days of Abraham after he received the promise. Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the patriarchs that followed them, residing first in Egypt and later in Canaan, down to David and all the other prophets—all were illumined by this Light. They heard the consoling promise and believed that this
Light would come and enlighten all people. Then they themselves preached to others about this Light.
It is primarily this Light to which John refers here. For the light or the illumination of all sorts of virtues—of wisdom, the arts, or aptitudes—was not restricted to the faithful but was shed also on the children of the world, who, as the Light Himself testifies (Luke 16:8), are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light. But this is the Light which enlightened our first parents, comforting them with the faith that the woman's Seed would extricate them from the wretched state into which the serpent had led them. This information they also communicated to their children, so that this Light also shone for them and illuminated their hearts for life eternal. And the patriarchs, too, who lived after the Flood—Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, David, to whom the promise was repeated with ever-increasing clarity by the prophets— zealously fostered it until the advent of Christ, who is the Savior and the Light of all the world. We continue:
The light shines in the darkness.
Here John speaks as plainly and simply as a child, and his words sound really naive to the ears of the worldly-wise. But there is a latent majesty in them such as no man, no matter how enlightened he may be, can fathom or express. With the words "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men," he hurls thunderbolts against the light of reason, against free will and human power. He wants to say that all people apart from Christ lack life before God and are dead and damned. For how could they have life, since they not only walk in darkness but are darkness themselves? John now disregards all other creatures, lets them go unheeded, and confines himself to human beings, all of whom are in darkness. He says that the Light had come to men to illumine them. In agreement with this, Isaiah terms Christ a Light of the Gentiles (Is.
42:6; 49:6; 60:3). And Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, rejoices in his canticle that He had appeared to those "who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1:79). In John 8:12 and 12:35
Christ calls Himself "Light of the world."
- 15 Now someone may raise the question: "How do you explain the fact that this light shone for so long a time in the hearts of the believers both before and after the Flood that it was reflected in the teachings of the patriarchs and prophets and finally radiated with such luster through the oral word of the Lord Christ
Himself and of the apostles, and yet found acceptance by only very few? Worse than this, the multitudes even persecuted those who testified of the Light, as we see in the examples of John the Baptist, of Christ, of the apostles, and before that, of the prophets. The Light makes no progress in the world, even though the world stands in such sore need of Him. For the world is enveloped in darkness, knows nothing of God, is not acquainted with God, and does not fear Him. Although the Light shines for the world, the world does not accept Him!" John gives this answer to the question:
5. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not comprehended it.
That is to say, the light shone from the beginning of the world. God's Word was preached everywhere.
Before the Deluge it began to shine through Adam and the other patriarchs. For soon after receiving the promise Adam began to proclaim that God would send forth His Son, through whom He had created the world, to crush the serpent's head, to illumine mankind, and to give it eternal life and salvation. This was his sermon. He preached it every day. But the great multitudes of his time were in darkness. The Word shone and spread its light in their midst by means of his sermons, but they scorned it and remained in darkness. It is terrible to contemplate that Cain, his own son, soon became apostate, murdered his brother
Abel, and established a new church.31 In the time of Adam there were 900 years of abundant preaching, and still the sermons of these years harvested very little fruit and were crowned with only slight success.
Adam, that excellent preacher, preached in vain to his son Cain and all his descendants.
At Noah's time the light again shone brightly in the darkness. For the dear patriarchs proclaimed the promise of the woman's Seed to the people. They did so with the greatest earnestness and diligence. Noah, who preached a full 120 years before the Flood, was a true torch that shone in the world and radiated to the people the earnest and zealous admonition to repent and escape the terrible and dreadful doom. For this reason St. Peter calls him "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). And yet he accomplished so little with the sermon and the light which God had ignited in him that God was constrained to send the Flood and drown the world. His experience verified the words of John: "The darkness has not comprehended it." After the Deluge he continued to preach for about 350 years, perhaps longer; but the longer it lasted, the worse the people became. They ignored what the patriarchs Noah, Shem, and Japheth said. On top of this, they even resorted to mockery. Thus those preachers achieved nothing with their light.
Worse than this, they were ridiculed on account of it. And since the world persistently refused to believe these warnings but regarded them all as fables, it brought upon itself the Deluge, which drowned everyone.
After these days, when idolatry had forcibly gained the upper hand in the world, God called Abraham and promised him that through his Seed (Christ, who was to descend from him according to the flesh) all the nations on earth would be blessed. At his time, too, the light did not remain hidden or mute; but it shone forth through him. Undoubtedly he preached diligently about the Seed promised him: that He would appear for the enlightenment of men and for their salvation from sin and death. But the great multitude remained steeped in darkness. In fact, Ishmael, his own son, let the blessed light shine in vain into the darkness; he was not concerned about it, even despised it.
This same promise was ardently promulgated by Isaac. But Esau, his first-born, was indifferent to the light; he remained in darkness and held his birthright in such low esteem that he bartered it for a dish of food (Gen. 25:33; Heb. 12:16).
Later all prophets, called by God and illumined by the Light, testified about Him: that death was to be swallowed up eternally by Him (Is. 25:8); also that He was wounded and bruised for our iniquities, which God had placed on Him, and that we were healed with His stripes (Is. 53:5); and that sin can no longer harm us, because it was atoned for by Him who has brought us eternal righteousness.32 Their writings also show how few accepted their testimony and what kind of thanks they got for it.
And finally Christ the Lord Himself appeared. He was the Life and the real Light of mankind; He lit the brightest torch, which shone with unprecedented brilliance. He preached with great power and excelled the scribes by far, so that His audience "wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth" (Luke 4:22). In addition, He confirmed His message with miracles, and He raised the dead.
Then the Light sent out its most powerful rays into the darkness, and this not without success. For some were illumined by it and believed in Him for eternal life. The great multitude, however, remained in - 16 darkness and nailed Him to the cross. He was not only rejected by them; but He was crucified and murdered, together with His shining light.
Subsequently the same thing befell the disciples and apostles. They bore the light of this Torch into all the world. Many were illumined by it and were saved; but the emperor and the great lords in Rome, the high priests, the scribes, the members of the high council in Jerusalem, as well as mighty kings and lords elsewhere, scholars, sages, and the great multitude—all despised this light, considered it fables, fairy tales, folly, and lies of the devil, and persecuted and murdered those who bore witness to the Light.
In like manner we today focus this light brightly and clearly on the papacy, so that even our enemies are convinced and must concede that our doctrine is the divine truth.33 For this light shines so powerfully before the eyes of the pope, bishops, cardinals, and other knaves that it reveals to them their own darkness.
But what good does it do? It is apparent how little we who preach it accomplish thereby. The whole papist mob with its motley hangers-on does not reform but only grows worse, more blinded, perverse, and stubborn. Unceasingly they are bent on subduing the light, yes, on quenching and extinguishing it, and on exterminating us, who send it out, teach it, and confess it. Thus they are and remain in darkness. However, its shining is not entirely without effect, for it illumines many to their salvation.
From this we learn how the light has fared in the world from the beginning and how it still fares. This life and light, which is ever in the world, quickens us, illumines us; it shines brilliantly forever and ever and points the way to our regeneration. From time to time it shines with varying intensity. It draws the pattern for man's faith, as also for his godly life. It directs man on the path of salvation and eternal life.
But how is it received and accepted? None, or at least very few, esteem it and long for it. In fact, the world does not want to see, hear, or know anything about it but blasphemes and abuses those through whom it shines. For this reason Christ the Lord Himself laments in John 3:19 that though the light had come into the world, men had loved the darkness rather than the light. Paul pronounces a terrifying judgment 2
Thess. 2:10–11: "Because they refused to love the truth and so be saved, therefore God will send upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false." As if he were to say: "The world wants to be deluded, insists on having a lie, wants to be and remain in darkness. At the same time it claims to be light when in reality it is nothing but blindness." One need not go far afield to find examples of this fact. We see before our very eyes that the world cannot endure this light. Or if the world does actually tolerate it for a while and gives ear to the Word, this lasts about as long as it takes to stroll to High Mass.34 Then the world casts the Word aside again and quickly becomes sated. When it constantly hears this one theme, faith in Christ, dinned into its ears, it thinks to itself: "After all, what is faith?" But let some schismatic spirit come along with a novel doctrine, which is not light but sheer human fabrication and darkness, the world is ready to rally around it. Birds of a feather flock together. The world likes to be wheedled and cajoled; it acts gentle and grunts with pleasure, like a sow when you scratch her ears. And then it turns its ears from the truth and toward fables (2 Tim. 4:4). But the light dazzles their eyes. This they do not want to permit.
I am saying this that we may know what the Light, Christ Himself, who is the Creator, has experienced from the beginning of the world. He illumined, quickened, gave His promise, and conferred much good on the world with creation and with His light; yet the world refuses to accept it. But although the evil and blind world does not desire the precious light, yes, cannot endure it, persecutes and blasphemes it, it shines nonetheless, by the special grace of the true, eternal Light, for the sake of the little flock which is to be illumined by it. Despite the ingratitude and the contempt in which it is held by the great godless multitude, this light does not go out. So it was at the time of the Flood. Before the Flood Noah had held it aloft even though it was shamefully despised. But when they refused to be reproved any longer by the Spirit of God, conveyed through Noah, God sent the Flood over the world, and every living thing on earth perished.
Afterwards, however, the light shone as before through Noah, Shem, and Japheth.
Similarly, the light shone forth through Lot before and after God's destruction of the five cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, etc., by brimstone and fire. And from that time on the light endured uninterruptedly until the days of John the Baptist.35
To summarize what we have learned to date from the opening verses of the Gospel of St. John, the evangelist defined our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Word of the eternal Father and, together with Him, as true God from eternity; He told us that He existed from the beginning, before the creation of all things. What a beautiful and glorious testimony to the deity of Christ! The evangelist also differentiated between the Person of the Son and that of the Father when he declared: "The Word was with God." He left
- 17 no doubt that Father and Son are one God; but at the same time he called attention to the distinction between the two Persons, pointing out that the Father was not born of the Son, but the Son was born of the Father and not created.
Furthermore, this Word is also the Light and Life of man. Thus all animate beings, particularly man, derive their life from Him; and all men who ever were, are now, and ever will be illumined receive their light from Him, who is the true, eternal Light. Those who possess life and light must acquire it all from Him. And since the beginning this Word has always spoken through the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets down to the time of John the Baptist. This Word has neither beginning nor end, as we men and all other creatures have.
St. John described the divine nature of Christ thus to convince us that He is not a mere human being, as Cerinthus blasphemed. His human origin, to be sure, dates back to His birth from Mary, His physical mother. But He is at the same time the Creator through whom all things are made, preserved, and governed, and who still preserves and governs all things. Since He was born of the Father, and the Father was not born of Him, He is called the Son of God.
And now John turns to the humanity of Christ. He says that the Word, the Creator of all, the Life and Light of mankind, became flesh. That is: Christ assumed human nature, and consequently two natures, the divine and the human, are now united in one Person.
And then the evangelist introduces the New Testament, the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ our Savior, whose herald John the Baptist was to be. It was his mission to be a witness to the Light and to point Him out with his finger. Therefore we read:
6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
As you see, the evangelist describes John very tersely. Luke and Matthew give us a far more detailed account of his miraculous conception and birth. Elizabeth, his mother, was barren, and both she and Zacharias, her husband, were advanced in years. His advent was announced by the angel Gabriel. And when he was still in his mother's womb, he was already filled with the Holy Spirit. When Mary came to Elizabeth and greeted her, the babe leaped with joy in her womb. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy
Spirit, exclaimed aloud: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb!" In response Mary, also filled with the Spirit, joyfully intoned the Magnificat. And later, after the birth of John, Zacharias sang the Benedictus. All this is recorded in the first chapter of Luke.
The evangelist passes over all this in silence. Not with so much as a word does he touch on his conception, his birth, and his youth. He also ignores the command God gave him in the desert and his wanderings in all the region about the Jordan, where he begins something extraordinary: preaching in the desert, not in the temple, and baptizing in the Jordan all who come to him. Nor does John speak about his fare of locusts and wild honey, his garment of camels hair, and the leather girdle around his waist. All this is described at length in the third chapter of Luke. John bypasses all this. He immediately introduces him as John the Baptist, sent by God. Without further ado he acquaints us with his office. Instead of referring to his birth, he presents his mission, saying:
There was a man sent from God.
The beginning of the eternal kingdom of Christ and the New Testament are coincident with the time of John the Baptist. And simultaneously the regime of Moses, of the prophets, the priests, and the Levites terminated. Christ Himself tells us this in Matt. 11:13: "All the prophets and the Law prophesied until
John." And since Christ the Lord was now present, the mission of Moses, the priests, and the prophets, who had instructed the people of Israel and had governed in accordance with the Law, was ended; for their time was not to extend beyond the advent of Christ. With His appearance Moses' rule was to come to a close, with its prescriptions regarding lawsuits, marriage, divorce, inheritance, penalties for various transgressions, church regulations for the temple, the priesthood, divine worship, church services, circumcision, feasts, sacrifices, and the like.
The Ten Commandments, which deal with holy life and conduct toward God and man, cease too, in the sense that they cannot damn us believers in Christ. He became subject to the Law in order to redeem us who were under the Law (Gal. 4:5); yes, He became a curse for us to save us from the curse of the Law
(Gal. 3:13). However, the Ten Commandments are still in force and do concern us Christians so far as obedience to them is concerned.36 For the righteousness demanded by the Law is fulfilled in the believers through the grace and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, whom they receive. Thus all the admonitions of - 18 the prophets in the Old Testament, as well as of Christ and the apostles in the New Testament, concerning a godly life, are excellent sermons on, and expositions of, the Ten Commandments.
Christ appeared precisely at the time specified by Jacob (Gen. 49:10) and Daniel (Dan. 9:25), which Isaiah (Is. 49:8; 61:2) and subsequently St. Paul (2 Cor. 6:2) termed a gracious or acceptable time, "the acceptable year of the Lord" and "the day of salvation." It was evident that John had to precede the Lord
Christ, when Christ had John baptize Him before He began His ministry of preaching and performing miracles. When the divine majesty manifested Himself over Him during His Baptism in the Jordan, this showed that He had not only an inner and private call into the office with which He had been invested before the foundation of the world but also a public and a visible call. The eternal Father made Himself known on that occasion with the words: "This is My beloved Son" (Matt. 3:17). The Son was standing in the water, and the Holy Spirit descended in the physical form of a dove, alighting on Him. This was to usher in a great and remarkable transformation, not unlike the transformation of the old world into a new one through the Flood. For the Law, the Jewish priesthood, and the kingdom were to be abolished; and a new world was to be established through the Gospel. Henceforth not only the Jews but all the nations on the face of the earth were to be people of God and were to be known as such. John was to initiate this new reign. God gave him command and office to preach and to baptize, as Luke the Evangelist relates at length
(Luke 3:1–20): when the Word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias, then the change came. The Old Testament ends and the New begins with John. He no longer preaches the Law of Moses; he proclaims the grace which is to come through Christ. And soon he began to baptize on the basis of this grace. All this was so great and so novel that it vexed and annoyed the Jews very much.
The Jews always set great store by their ancestry; they boasted of it and insisted: "We are Abraham's seed, his flesh and blood. We are the chosen people of God, to whom God has promised the Messiah. And in token of this we have the Law, Moses, the prophets, the temple, the holy city, the divine services established by God through Moses, and circumcision. We dwell in Canaan, a country God promised to our forefathers and to us, as their descendants, for an everlasting abode." With pride they also pointed to their great history, unparalleled by that of any other nation. For all this they laid exclusive claim to the title
"people of God." No one else could be saved unless he became a proselyte.
God wished to silence this boast, which the Jews have been flaunting for 1,500 years, and to dispel this delusion. Christ wanted to strip them of this empty glory and honor when He said, as we have heard, that all this was to terminate with John. John was to mark the end of the old era and the beginning of the eternal and blessed reign of Christ. The second psalm sings of this (Ps. 2:8): "Ask of Me, and I will make the Gentiles Thy heritage, and the ends of the earth Thy possession." The Jews, who constituted a small and insignificant number among all the nations of the earth and who occupied but a little narrow nook in Judea, are no longer to be regarded as the only people of God. No, henceforth, as before, all the nations of the world are to be God's people. In the future the kingdom of Christ, in which He was to be King and Lord, is to be spread and extended over all the world by means of the Gospel. The Jews should have opened their eyes and ears wide. They should have believed and obeyed John's proclamation that Christ wanted to be the Savior of all nations, also of the Gentiles, and that they would not be rejected if only they accepted Christ and rejoiced in His kingdom, a far different dominion from the one their carnal minds had conceived.
Some rabbi once wrote that the city of Jerusalem was to be so great and glorious at the time of the Messiah that its walls, in their width, breadth, and length, would extend to the ends of the earth.37 But how is it possible for the world to be comprised of but one single city? After all, there must be brooks, large and small streams, forests, fields, acres, pastures, gardens, meadows, hills, and valleys. Otherwise how would people acquire food, clothing, and all that is needful for the preservation of this temporal life? How could the animals exist unless grass and all sorts of fodder grew every year? It is a mistake to assume that the physical Jerusalem, which was destroyed and razed so thoroughly by the Romans forty years after Christ's resurrection that no stone remained on the other (Luke 19:44), and which still lies in ashes, should grow to such proportions. No, the spiritual Jerusalem, the kingdom of Christ, which, to be sure, originally sprang from the physical Jerusalem (Is. 2:3; Micah 4:2), was to expand and spread over all the earth. And this actually did come to pass when the Gospel was preached and when, by means of its preaching, the kingdom of Christ was established everywhere under the dome of heaven. Now it extends to the ends of the earth. By God's grace and mercy we, too, are citizens and residents of this kingdom. We have the Bible, hear the blessed Gospel of Christ, and are called Christians after Him. We are His brethren and - 19 fellow heirs (Rom. 8:17) of all His eternal, heavenly goods. We also dwell within the heavenly walls of this Jerusalem. This Jerusalem contains and includes all the cities that heed the Word of God; they may all lay claim to the same civic privileges there.
Until the advent of the Messiah, the Jews were expected to lend ear to their priests and Levites, who meanwhile preached and read Moses and the prophets to them every Sabbath day. They were not to forget that the priesthood with its laws and statutes had been ordained and established by God through Moses.
The priests were to admonish them, patiently to await the coming of the Messiah as they preached of the coming Christ and said: "He will come. Tarry, tarry for Him! He will not remain away, but will surely appear at the appointed time." This was the mission of Moses and the prophets: to bear witness of the coming and the birth of the Messiah. We render a similar service today when we preach and comfort the pious Christians, who are terrified and assailed from within and without by the devil and the evil world, and exhort them to be patient and to await the blessed day of their deliverance, when Christ the Lord will come to judge the quick and the dead and to put an end to all their misery and affliction.
But this sounded far from plausible to the Jews. They insisted that the earthly Jerusalem was to be the Messiah's abode and headquarters. The apostles, too, were in the clutches of the carnal illusion, even after Christ's resurrection, that the Messiah was to have an earthly kingdom and that someday He would return with pomp and glory of empire and would subjugate all the world under His scepter with might, elevating all the Jews to the position of princes and lords and reducing all the Gentiles to serfdom. Thus they interpreted the passages in the prophets which prophesied very beautifully about the kingdom of Christ.
Even now they still console and admonish one another, saying: "Dear brethren, wait for the Messiah. True to His promise, He will surely appear to rebuild the old Jerusalem and to re-establish the Law, the priesthood, the temple, and divine services." Thus they attempt to restrict and bind the kingdom of the Messiah to the earthly Jerusalem. There the Messiah is to reside; and from there—so they suppose—He is to send forth Jews into all the world, appointing them masters and governors over Rome, Babylon,
Constantinople, etc. From these cities they are to bring great treasures, gold and silver, to Jerusalem, where their Messiah, the all-powerful king and lord over all the world—so they dream—is to hold court.
On the basis of Ps. 45:10 ff. they also assume that His companion at this court is to be a beautiful woman.
There He is to sit, as Solomon did of old. The Jews will be moving in and out of Jerusalem, bringing in the tribute and taxes from all the heathen lands. They insisted on their opinion and ignored entirely the words which spoke so clearly of the Messiah's suffering and death. And after 1,500 years they still cling to their delusion and superstition even though in the meantime there has been no sign from God and no deliverance from the hands of their enemies as in days of yore. On the contrary, Jerusalem, together with the temple, lies in ruins. Furthermore, no prophet has risen in their midst since those days. God has forsaken them and has left them without comfort. But even this has borne no fruit; for the more severely
God punishes them, the more stubborn they become, still consoling themselves with the conviction that they are the seed of Abraham and the people of God.
The delusion was deeply rooted in the hearts of the Jews that the kingdom of the Messiah was to be a physical and secular kingdom, something which their forebears and prophets had never taught, much less believed. Because Christ did not appear on the scene with any such expected external pomp and circumstance of empire, John the Baptist was sent to warn them and to dispel these deeply ingrained carnal thoughts that they might not neglect and sleep away the coming of the Messiah. For Christ was not to appear like Cyrus, Alexander, or Julius Caesar, surrounded by worldly splendor, armaments, silver, and gold. But He came in poverty, as the prophet Zechariah had foretold. He entered Jerusalem on an ass, the property of another, like one devoid of all possessions. And yet He brought with Him every grace and blessing.
With this in mind, the prophet cheers the people of Israel. Weary of the old, burdensome way of life under the Law, they longed and yearned for Christ and His kingdom of grace. These are his beautiful and sublime words of comfort (Zech. 9:9): "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you. He is a righteous One and a Savior." He means to say: "Do not be perplexed and troubled in your minds because He comes in such dire poverty. Rather focus your attention on the fact that He comes to you to save you from sin and eternal death, and to give you eternal righteousness and salvation."
Now Christ was to come humbly and unassumingly, without any of the show and ostentation that is so impressive, particularly to carnal minds. He was to conquer the world with His Word and His miracles,
- 20 not with gun or sword or physical might. For this reason it was not an angel who was sent to succeed Moses, the prophets, the priests, and the Levites as a messenger of God; it was a man, whose name was
John. Yet he was more than a prophet, as Christ bears witness concerning him (Matt. 11:9). He was sent by God—that is, he did not come on his own, unauthorized—to go before the Lord. He was to rap at the doors, arouse the Jews, and testify of the Lord who had been promised them, saying: "Open your doors and gates. Your Savior, for whom you have waited so long, has arrived! Awake! Behold, the new Light is present, the Light which was with God from the beginning, which is the eternal God, and which has now become man! See to it that you do not let Him go unnoticed! This is Christ the Lord, for whom you have waited so long and for whom you have yearned and sighed. He is standing before your door. Yes, He is among you (John 1:26). Go out to meet Him! Receive your Lord, and accept Him! To forestall any excuse on your part that you would gladly have received Him if only you had been informed, ample announcement and testimony has been given you." This announcement and testimony came, first of all, by means of that new miracle, Baptism, and then through that beloved and worthy man, John the Baptist, who enjoyed the esteem of the Jewish people.38 He was an excellent, saintly man. The people revered him as though he were Christ (Luke 3:15; John 1:20). Although he performed no miracles, the angel sent by God to Zacharias bore this fine testimony concerning him even before his conception, that he would be great before the Lord (Luke 1:15). He was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. His conception and birth were miraculous, since his mother Elizabeth was by nature barren and also well advanced in years. When his father doubted the angel's message, he was struck dumb (Luke 1:20) and did not regain his speech until after the child's birth (Luke 1:64). All these facts had been noised abroad and were common knowledge among the Jewish people, as we can gather from Luke 1:65. Accordingly, he also bore an appropriate name, namely, John, which means "rich in grace."39 This name was given to him by the angel before his birth. He did not have to put up with a chance name as other people do, but he received a name that conferred what it signified, as all other names chosen and conferred by God do. Thus also God's own beloved Son was not called Jesus without reason, but because He was to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). Thus John does not have this name because of his person; he has it because of his office and his testimony. For he was not to preach and testify of himself, of his food and raiment, but of Christ, who had now appeared, for the salvation and consolation not only of the Jews but of the entire world. Therefore he points at Christ with his finger and says: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). By virtue of this testimony and proclamation he deserves to be called a delightful preacher, rich in grace, one who does not preach the Law—through which comes knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20) and which makes sin abound (Rom. 5:20), which strikes terror into the heart and provokes it to wrath—but the Gospel of God's mercy for the sake of Christ, who bore our sins and rendered satisfaction for them.
Thus the evangelist describes the office of John the Baptist, to which, as already said, he will soon return. We gather from this that Christ's kingdom had its inception neither with Christ's nor with John's birth but with the thirtieth year of their life, though we know, of course, that John was half a year older than Christ. At that time God's command came to John in the desert that he should now confront the people of Israel with the testimony that the Consolation and Savior of all the world had now appeared. He was ordered to exhort them to look to and heed Christ, to warn them against neglecting and disregarding the opportunity before them. Likewise, he was to baptize all who listened to his preaching and desired
Shortly after receiving this command John appeared and preached publicly in all the region about the Jordan, on both banks of which villages and cities abounded. For he had been told: "Go, My servant John, and preach of the presence of the Messiah. Arouse them by means of the new Baptism from their sleep in the shadows of death, and lead them to Christ." So John now says: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2); "I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 3:11). The other things he preached you may read in Matthew, chapter three, and in Luke, chapter three. Thus, directing them to the Lamb of God, he preached in the many cities, hamlets, and villages, adjacent to both banks of the Jordan, saying: "Christ has come!" It was very much as though we should say: "He is preaching along the banks of the Elbe, i. e., in Wittenberg, in Torgau, or in Magdeburg." And, as Luke informs us, throngs of people flocked to John, above all the Pharisees, scribes, and priests (Luke 3:7; Matt. 3:5).
- 21 St. John also led a rigorous and ascetic life. He dwelt in the desert from his youth (Luke 1:80). He drank only water, partook of no other food than locusts and wild honey, ate no boiled dishes; he wore no linen shirt, no woolen garment, no shoes. He was a strange sight; his external appearance and his peculiar mode of living amazed everyone. Not that he wanted to create a sensation by leading such a life; it was his purpose to invest his preaching with all the more respect among the people. So far as the Jews were concerned, they were to be moved by this to ask: "What manner of man is he?" Furthermore, they were to be amazed at his doctrine. And amazed they were, saying: "St. John is indeed an excellent man. God surely sent him for a purpose! This man's doctrine cannot be without a deep significance." In this way St.
John's peculiar mode of living and his strange appearance, prescribed by God and announced by the angel, had to serve the purpose of furthering his Baptism and his unprecedented preaching, giving it a readier ear among the people. Its purpose was also to deprive the people of any excuse which they might have brought by saying: "If only a prophet or some other saintly man had informed us of Christ's presence in our midst, we would have received Him joyfully and with all due reverence and gratitude!"
Not long after this the Lord Christ Himself appeared. He did not come with a pompous display of many thousands of soldiers, cavalry and infantry, or surrounded by armies, horses, and chariots, as secular kings are wont to do. No, He made His entry as a spiritual King and Preacher, appointed by God Himself on His holy Mount Zion to preach about what the Lord had said to Him: "Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee" (Ps. 2:7). This proclamation, of course, was far different in content from those which the people were accustomed to hear from their priests and Levites. This message had its origin in Zion, and then it resounded throughout the world.
And the Lord confirmed His message with great and glorious miracles, such as had never been seen or heard before that day. Merely at His touch the ill, the blind, dumb, lame, crippled, and leprous recovered and became well. Christ also raised the dead—Lazarus, who had been lying in his grave for four days, and two others, namely, the widow's son in Nain and the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagog. And it was the purpose of all these miraculous deeds of Christ to induce the people to believe His preaching.
Later the apostles performed similar miracles, and even in greater number. For example, Peter's shadow healed the people (Acts 5:15). All these deeds were wonderful, beyond imitation by an emperor, king, prince, lord, or anyone else. This so impressed the common people that many from Jerusalem and all
Judea and other regions of the Jordan went out to John, listened to his sermons, and had him baptize them in the name of Christ. He directed them to Christ as the One who was soon to succeed him, forgive their sins, and baptize them with the Holy Spirit. This is what Luke refers to (Luke 7:29): "When they heard this, all the people and the tax collectors justified God and had themselves baptized with the Baptism of John." However, those bigwigs, the Pharisees, the high priests, and scribes, held themselves aloof, remained stiffnecked and said: "We are the descendants of Abraham and of the other patriarchs, to whom
God promised the Messiah. Therefore we are the chiefs and rulers of the people of God. If it pleases God to make a change, He will surely apprise us great princes and bigwigs through the mouth of a prophet and will not employ such a poor beggar as John for this purpose." Yes, this would have been to their liking!
But the Lord our God makes a practice of choosing a method different from the one we might suggest to Him. Therefore they remained unrepentant, "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized of him" (Luke 7:30). We find a similar happening recorded in John 7:45–49. The chief priests and Pharisees had sent their officers out to apprehend Christ. Upon their return they demanded of their emissaries, "Why did you not bring Him?" The officers answered: "No man ever spoke like this Man!"
The Pharisees said to them: "Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd, who do not know the Law, are accursed." It is really astounding that they could thus despise and reject the advent, the message, and the miracles of John, of Christ, and of the apostles. They should have been moved to accept the teaching of these great and eminent men. But since the Jews did not do this, they have been afflicted with no end of misfortune, misery, and distress for 1,500 years. And up to the present day they have persisted in their madness and folly, blaspheming the Virgin
Mary, saying that she was a whore and that Christ the Lord was a whore's child, a murderer, or a malefactor.
Furthermore, it was necessary for St. John the Baptist, who was highly respected by the people, to be the forerunner of Christ and to affirm that He really was the Messiah. For when Christ made His public appearance and began to preach, He presented an unimposing and lowly figure. As we read in Mark 6:2 f.,
He had been a carpenter's apprentice up to this time. Knowing this, many who heard Him were astonished - 22 at His teaching, His wisdom, and His deeds. They said: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" And they took offense at Him. The life and the light of man dwelt in Him; and this light was not hidden but was burning and spreading a bright glow, shining and radiating on men with miracles and words. Thus the two disciples attest in Luke 24:19: "He was a prophet mighty in deed and word." In spite of all this there was no one, or, at most, there were just a very few who accepted Christ the Lord. Since He was of no repute, John the Baptist had to precede Him, point to Him with his finger, and say: "He it is" (John 1:27).
Also (John 1:26–27): "I baptize with water; but among you stands One whom you do not know. He it is who comes after me—that is, He will begin to preach before my death—and who preceded me. I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandal." And also (John 1:16): "And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace."
The evangelist continues:
6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7. He came for testimony.
These words hurl another thunderbolt against the sectarians and fanatics of our own day, for these visionaries despise the oral Word. And now mark well the words of our text, which are intended to honor the external Word. Those desperate rogues, the fanatics, would like to drive us to the point where the Light, Christ, would be hidden from us. They say: "It is the Spirit, and only the Spirit, that must work everything!" If their assumption were correct, it would have been superfluous for John to be sent by God to bear testimony; for then all the people would have been moved directly by the Spirit to accept Jesus as the Messiah, especially since He Himself was active in their midst with His message and miracles. But it did not work out this way. No, the people took offense at His lowly figure. For this reason it was necessary for John to come with his external Word or testimony, to point at Christ with his finger, and to say: "That is He." There was no other means or method.
As we have already said, Christ Himself let His light shine with word and deed, performed miracles before their very eyes, helped all the sick that were brought to Him, taught and preached with such power that the people were astonished. Still all this bore but little fruit. The schismatic spirits, on the other hand, lay claim to better ways and means of conversion; however, they do not convert to God but to the devil himself. They are so full of the fanatical spirit that they do not realize how much is required to overcome and vanquish one's own mistaken ideas, opinions, and conceit. It takes toil and trouble to engender faith in people by the God-ordained means of the preaching ministry, absolution, and the Sacrament. Even John could not persuade all his hearers to give credence to his testimony, to accept Christ and acknowledge that He is the Light and the Life of mankind and the Savior of the world. At first not even John's disciples could be brought to believe. Therefore he had to send two of them to the Lord Christ with the question:
"Are You He who is to come?" (Matt. 11:3) He wanted them to hear Christ with their own ears, to behold with their own eyes the miracles He was performing so abundantly, and then to report their experiences to the others. Now if even John, the man sent by God, who did not have his equal among all those born of woman (Matt. 11:11), failed to persuade all the Jews to believe his testimony, what ground do these blasphemous fanatics have to stand on with their claim that the Spirit, yes, the Spirit, must accomplish it?
To be sure, it is a spirit that drives them and speaks out of them; but that spirit comes from the abyss of hell! Therefore beware of them!
Furthermore, not all who heard John's testimony and had John baptize them remained faithful. In all likelihood, many took offense when Herod seized and imprisoned him, and finally had him beheaded. All this happened at that time (Matt. 4:12; Luke 3:20). And probably they were still more offended at Christ when they witnessed His shameful death, when they saw Him hanged between two murderers as a blasphemer and a revolutionary; this may have made them reject John's testimony. Yes, many of those who accorded the Lord a joyful and reverent welcome on Palm Sunday and joined in the happy song:
"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Matt. 21:9) probably changed their minds by Good Friday. Therefore Christ said very significantly in Matt. 11:6: "Blessed is he who takes no offense at Me." Whoever fails to adhere closely to the Word of God takes offense very easily at this or that or something else. Whatever misfortune may befall us is magnified by the devil through his blasphemers, and then the blame is laid on the blessed
Gospel. Such a person is offended by so many things that he becomes bewildered and then resolves: "I shall stick with the old faith." There are many people of this type in our time.
7. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the Light.
- 23 The evangelist pays John the Baptist but slight respect; he expresses, as it were, no regard, or at least a very low regard, for him. He confines himself to saying that John was to be a witness, testifying and preaching to the Jews about Him who is the Light and Life of mankind. He does not say that John instructed the people about his strict ascetic life, about drinking only water, wearing a garment of camels hair, and subsisting on wild honey and locusts—all this perhaps with a view to organizing a new sect, calling upon all to emulate his example as a means of attaining salvation. If he had done this, he might have attracted the people to his person and become the founder of a new doctrine and sect. No, far from this! He comes as a witness; it is his office to point to Christ and to testify that He is the Lamb of God. In accordance with this mission, he directs all, even his own disciples, away from himself and toward Christ the Lord. It is as if he wanted to say: "I am not Christ, I am not the Light, I cannot illumine you, nor can I give you life. But believe in Him and be guided by Him whose witness I am. I must witness and preach about Christ, not about my camelskin or any other phase of my ascetic life. However, by means of my distasteful appearance I want to urge and arouse you to pay better attention to me as I testify of Christ, the Life and the Light of mankind. He was God and Creator of heaven and earth from eternity, and now He has assumed human nature and is dwelling in your midst. He is the Bridegroom. His is the bride."
If it is true that John the Baptist, this great and saintly man, as Christ Himself calls him, was nothing but a witness to bear testimony to Christ alone, what, then, are we to think of Francis, Dominic, and others? They founded special organizations, established new monastic orders, and set themselves and their brethren apart from the people in costume and food, even initiating a new mode of living and alleging that theirs were holy monastic orders and the proper way to salvation. They did not follow the pattern set by John, who directed the people to Christ; they drew them to themselves, attracting them to their monastic orders and their monastic rules.
The pope placed his stamp of approval on all this. He called this a perfect spiritual vocation, and pronounced salvation and double sainthood upon those who entered these monastic orders and submitted to their rules. Many people, of both low and high estate, yes, all the world, were deceived by this pretense.
They were taken in by it, thinking: "Ah, this is something extraordinary! The dear fathers lead such an ascetic life; they serve God with praying, singing, fasting, and reading day and night." Indeed, if you want to dupe people, you must play the eccentric. If one wants to catch birds, one must set snares for them, scatter kernels to lure them, plant decoys on the fowling floor. And if you want to catch mice, you have to tie bacon to the traps.
Everyone was willing and ready to donate money so generously and munificently that soon there were countless cloisters scattered throughout Christendom; and many, even among the nobility, became monks and nuns. The others relied on the good works and supererogatory merits of the holy fathers. That is what you call leading a person by the nose until he breaks his neck!
But John did not do this. He did not exhort the people to imitate his example, to don a camel's hairy hide and put a leather girdle around their waists. On the contrary, he pointed to Christ, the Word of the eternal Father, the Light and Life of mankind. Of Him he testifies that He is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). Francis should have done that too and said: "Dear friends, I choose to be poor, wear a gray cowl, and gird myself with a rope. But I do not ask you to follow my example, much less to imagine that you merit salvation thereby. All that I do, I do for your good. I east aside all cares and all other affairs that I may preach to you unhindered. And my message to you does not revolve about my monastic rule or my order but about Christ, the Savior of the world, who took your sins upon Himself, bore them and atoned for them with His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). This Man's message and Gospel is what you are to hear from my mouth; I teach none other than Christ, who is our true Abbot and Lord."
Dominie, too, should have averted the attention of the people from himself and directed it to Christ, the true Lord, Bishop, and Shepherd of souls (1 Peter 2:25). Instead, these people declared their monastic rule and order to be holy, attached the people to themselves, and consoled them with the assurance that all who adhere to their rule were on the road to salvation. What gross error, blindness, and darkness, yes, what horrible idolatry this is in the eyes of all who view it aright! More than this—the pope offered plenary indulgence for this sort of life; he commanded the angels to carry straight to heaven the souls of those who die on the road to St. James.40 He called the people's attention to themselves and to their saintly life.41 St. Paul forewarned against this very behavior in Acts 20:29–30: "I know that after my departure men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after - 24 them." The true characteristic and mark for the identification of false teachers is this, that they draw the attention of their hearers upon themselves and their life, and not away from their person and toward
Christ. I do believe, however, that the aforementioned monks recognized and acknowledged their error before they died and finally rested all their hopes on Christ, the true and only Light, through whom alone man is illumined, and not through any other. In view of this, God, who is merciful, forgave them their sins for Christ's sake.
We read that when St. Bernard was at the point of death, he remarked: "I have misspent and wasted my life disgracefully; but I take comfort in the knowledge that Jesus Christ, my Lord, has a twofold claim on heaven. In the first place, He can lay claim to it for Himself, because he is the true and natural Son of God, governing with the Father from eternity. Hence He is entitled to heaven as an Heir from eternity. But this is not the source of my comfort. In the second place, however, He has gained heaven through His holy suffering and death and then presented this to me. In this manner I, too, fall heir to heaven."42 Had St.
Bernard not died in this faith, he would have gone to the devil and into the abyss of hell with his monkery and monastic life. It is the same with all the monks in the papacy. No matter how holy and ascetic their life may have been, if they were saved, they must have come to this same realization and confessed: "I have conducted my life shamefully. I cannot put my trust in my cowl, in rules, or in my order. But I do believe in Jesus Christ, who died for my sins and for the sins of the whole world. To Him I cling, and I depart this life with implicit confidence in His consoling promise: 'Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' (Matt. 11:28)." I hope that Francis and Dominic also embraced this faith; if not, I would not want to go to the heaven they entered!
This is the general tenor of John the Baptist's message as he diverted the attention of all from himself and toward Christ. For this reason he is fittingly called a teacher "rich in grace," a preacher of grace, who proclaims the gracious and merciful message that Christ is our Light, with no reference to his locusts or to his garment of camera hair. In a similar manner we still bear witness to Christ today when we declare that He is the only Savior of the world, the Lamb of God, yes, our Shepherd, our Abbot, our Bridegroom, and our Messiah. That proclamation is the sum and substance of our testimony. Our text continues:
That they all might believe through him.
With these words the evangelist does not exclude the Jews from continuing to be the people of God.
No, these words comprehend both Jew and Gentile., both are to believe in this Christ. He wants to convey this idea: John the Baptist initiates the kingdom of Christ; he ushers in a new era. He bears witness to the Light, so that all, Jew and Gentile, may believe through him. Now the boast of the Jews, with their claim that they alone are God's people, is nullified. Deut. 4:7 and Ps. 147:19–20 record that once upon a time they actually had been God's chosen people. But henceforth the Gentiles, too, should be accounted God's people. For John the Baptist introduces a new testimony, which reads: "Whoever believes in the Son, who is the true Light, is a son of Abraham and belongs to the multitude that comprises God's people, no matter whether he is a Jew or a Gentile." Now a kingdom is being founded in which nothing at all avails— whether it bears the stamp of Abraham's seed, his flesh, his lineage, his pants, or his jerkin—nothing else than belief in the Son of God. Whoever believes in this Light has salvation, as John the Baptist declares in John 3:36: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him."
But the majority of the Jews, especially their spiritual prelates and highest rulers, rejected and repudiated John's testimony. They did not long for the eternal life to which he bore witness. Therefore they have no one to blame but themselves that God rejected them and replaced them subsequently with the Gentiles, who believed this testimony proclaimed to them by the apostles and their disciples and thus became the people of God. Through their preaching the kingdom of Christ was established and founded in all the world. This introduced a new type of worship, which no longer called for circumcision, temple,
Jerusalem, or anything else; this requires nothing but faith.
Here it is necessary to note these words which tell us that John was "sent from God" to bear witness to the Light for the purpose of engendering faith in all. A warning to you to beware of the Anabaptists and their pernicious, spiteful, and fanatical ilk is very timely and necessary. As you have often heard, these people claim that "the Spirit, and the Spirit alone, must perform everything." They ask: "What good does it do to give ear to the external Word, to rely on this as if it were the way and the means of bringing us to faith and of imparting the Spirit? For, after all, a mere word is written with pen and ink. As soon as it is spoken, it passes into thin air and vanishes." Thus they malign and blaspheme the blessed Word, which - 25 God Himself called and commissioned John to announce. Thus they make John appear like an eccentric, whose testimony could easily be dispensed with.
However, the evangelist praises John the Baptist and declares that his office cannot be dispensed with; for he bears witness to Christ and points to Him who is the Life and the Light illumining all men. This implies that the external Word serves the purpose of engendering faith and of imparting the Holy Spirit.
For God has decreed that no one can or will believe or receive the Holy Spirit without that Gospel which is preached or taught by word of mouth. This is borne out by experience with Jew and Gentile. This we also find stated in Holy Writ. In Rom. 10:17 the apostle declares: "Faith comes from preaching, and preaching by the Word of God." And in Gal. 3:2: "You received the Spirit by the preaching of faith." And in Acts 10:44: "While Peter was still saying these words about Christ—that all who believe in Him receive forgiveness of sins—the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the Word." For this reason it is aptly termed a Word of grace, of peace, of life, and of salvation.
Therefore do not be disturbed when the schismatic spirits say: "All that the scribes of Wittenberg can do is preach and exalt the external Word. That is why they lack faith, charity, patience, and other good fruits. But we have the Spirit. He produces our faith, charity, and patience, our contempt for temporal honor and possessions, and our steadfastness in all kinds of afflictions, in distress, and in death." They are conceited and overweening hypocrites, who presume to judge and condemn everyone. They see the speck in our eye, but do not notice the log in their own eye (Matt. 7:3). Therefore let them go their way. But be governed by the words: "That all might believe through him." In brief, you have the choice: either heed
John's testimony, or remain eternally without faith.
The fact that all do not believe the Word, or come to believe and to receive the Holy Spirit, through the Word, does not detract from the efficacy of the Gospel. So it has always been, even in the clays of Christ and of John. Both of them preached and testified mightily. But how few were converted thereby, or clung steadfastly to their testimony, permitting no temptation to divert them! It is my opinion that the preaching of God's Word is just as effective and powerful today and that it bears as much fruit in our time as in the days of Christ, John, and the apostles. The sincere disciples of the Gospel have always been few in number. To be sure, many have been called (Matt. 20:16); the great multitude listens to it and can also talk a great deal about it. But few are chosen to bring forth fruit with patience, "for not all have faith" (2
Thess. 3:2). If everyone believed, no one would be persecuting the Gospel.
Whatever goal these hypocrites may want to attain with their "Spirit," I do not choose to share it with them. May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble, and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sin, and who suffer persecution for the sake of the Word, which they confess and teach purely and without adulteration. Satan is a cunning rogue. Through his fanatics he wants to trick the simple-minded into the belief that the preaching of the Gospel is useless. "Greater effort" is necessary, they say. "We must lead a holy life, bear the cross, and endure persecution." And by such a semblance of self-styled holiness, which runs counter to the Word of God, many a person is misled. But our righteousness and holiness is Christ. In Him, not in ourselves, we have perfection (Col. 2:10). And I find comfort in, and cling to, the words of St. Paul spoken in 1 Cor. 1:30: "God made Christ our Wisdom, our
Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption."
Thus there is no other means of attaining faith than by hearing, learning, and pondering the Gospel.
This we must know in order to cope with the schismatic spirits and their claim that before a man is able to preach, confess, and suffer, he must "have the Spirit." In our text you hear this view contradicted and refuted. John was sent by God to testify to Christ that all might believe through him, that is, through his testimony. Hence one dare not despise the oral Word, but one must hold it in love and in high esteem. For God instituted the ministry of reconciliation and established the Word of reconciliation, that is, the Gospel, among us (2 Cor. 5:19) that we should pay diligent attention to it and hear it.
When John was sent by God and began to bear his testimony, this was the beginning of the Christian Church in the New Testament, the kingdom of Christ. He testified, not of himself but of the Light, that is, of the Son of God, that He is the eternal Father's Word, who was with God in the beginning. He declared that all things were made through Him and that He is the Light and the Life of mankind. Thus John became a servant and guide directing toward that Light, which is Christ, our dear Savior. All his testimony, likewise all the preaching of the apostles, has this one purpose: to have us recognize Him who - 26 is the true Light. And this testimony of the Light was also most necessary, for through it the whole world was guided aright. It was told whom to accept and to whom to cling.43 Now there follows:
8. He was not the Light, but came to bear witness to the Light.
This is an extraordinarily beautiful text; it directs us to the only Savior, Christ. The evangelist St. John is very painstaking in his choice of words; hence each word is replete with meaning. He was intent upon faithfully delineating the Man Christ, who is the true Life and Light and also very God and very man, and upon setting Him apart completely from all others. He urged everybody to shun all sects and to be very careful not to know of any other light than Christ, the true Light, from whom all creatures have life and their whole being. It has always been the world's misfortune to be infested with wiseacres and smart alecks,44 self-styled lights who explore their own way to heaven and presume to be the lights of the world, to teach it, and lead it to God. John warns against this. Among the Jews, too, there were many false prophets who claimed to be the real lights and enjoyed greater renown among the kings and the people of Israel than the pious and upright prophets. But these prophets were later unmasked as liars, as you can read in 1 Kings 18:1 ff.; 1 Kings 22:1 ff.; and Jer. 28:12–17.
Thus John, too, foresaw that in the future many would try to palm themselves off as teachers and lights. And it happened that soon, even during John's lifetime, Cerinthus arose to impugn the deity of the Lord Christ. Afterwards the world was overrun with these schismatic spirits. One absurd and foolish saint after another arose, each purporting to be master and teacher and to be able to light the right way to God for the people. This is reflected in the statement of the apostle in 2Peter 2:1: "As false prophets arose among the people, just so there will be false teachers among you." Christ Himself warns His Christians against such false prophets in Matt. 24:24: "False Christ's and false prophets will arise." He means to say they will declare: "Here is Christ, there is Christ. My monastic order is holy, my monastic rule is the way to heaven." "Lo," says Christ, "I have told you beforehand" (Matt. 24:25).
The evangelist John also foresaw this. Therefore he warned all men beforehand not to let themselves be misled or turned away from the only Light, Christ. For this reason he puts John the Baptist far into the background and denies that he was the Light, even though Christ Himself bore witness of him and praised him, saying that of all those born of woman none was greater than he (Matt. 11:11). When the Lord said that all born of earthly parents, whether prophet or apostle, were inferior to John, He excluded no one. He excepts Himself alone, because He was born of a virgin and not of a woman in the usual and natural manner. Here the evangelist debars John the Baptist, the chosen one and the most distinguished of all the saints, from the honor of being the Light. He declares: "He was not the Light"; that is, he could not of himself rescue the people from darkness, illumine them, or confer eternal life on them, no matter how holy and ascetic his life was. No, he was sent by God to divert the people from himself and refer them to Christ and to testify that He was the only true Light. What are we to say now of those men who turned the people from Christ to themselves and passed themselves off as teachers and the "light of the world"? For soon after the days of the apostles such men arose one after another until the world teemed with them. Each one offered to lead men from darkness to the right path of light, and promised salvation and eternal life to all who obeyed their rules. All we can say is that they were blind leaders (Matt. 15:14) and seducers and that both teachers and pupils went to the devil. A few may have recognized their error and accepted Christ, the only true Light, by faith, as I previously said about St. Bernard.45
It was mainly the blasphemous Roman see, that is, one pope after the other, who for several centuries set himself up as the supreme head and light of Christendom. This is his boast in all his bulls, books, and canon law. Yes, he also claimed to shine. But it seems to me that he shone like manure in a lantern.46 He, the chief and archheretic, hid the Gospel and buried it under a bushel. In its place he filled and flooded the world with his filth, stench, and dirty mess, that is, with his false and devilish doctrine (1 Tim. 4:1), his loathsome decrees and decretals, his gross idolatry, his abominations, and with innumerable sects and schismatic spirits. All this he prescribed as necessary for salvation. Those who obeyed him and kept his human ordinances and laws he extolled and declared saved; on the other hand, he proscribed and anathematized all who denied him obedience and submission. All in all, his enlightening was nothing else than darkness, folly, and idolatry. I think that the result of this enlightenment was that we all were blinded together with him. We groped blindly and did not know which way to turn.
The inevitable result of any disregard for God's Word is this, that the people will believe a lie to their own damnation (2 Thess. 2:11–12). For—God be merciful!—who can say how many false lights were ignited in the papacy? Who can marshal and count them all? Here St. John fixes his attention on these
- 27 lights. He uses telling and bold words to preserve us from all the false lights that have set themselves up, whether in the Old Testament among the prophets or later in the New Testament in the days of the apostles. We should seek no light other than the one and only Light, Christ, and we should take this text and similar texts to heart and keep them in mind; for they point us to Christ as the only Life and Light of man and the world's Savior, and they preserve us from all the sects and from all sham and hypocrisy.
Whoever is aware that St. John, the greatest among men, neither could nor would help people to salvation by means of his saintly and ascetic life, might know that any other saint, such as Francis, Dominic, or the pope with his austere orders, cowls, cords, and rules will be a thousand times less capable of doing this; for none of these are even worthy of being John's water bearer. They are, after all, simply manure in the lantern, and nothing more. And wherever they stuck to their own peculiar dirt in the lantern and did not, in the end, resort to the only true Light, Christ, they descended into the abyss of hell. Therefore the pope and all others who point the people to a way of salvation different from Christ the Lord all pale into nothingness, no matter what label they bear or how devout and spiritual they pretend to be.
The world, as you know, has only one light, namely, the sun, which makes the day. No other physical light illumines, makes, or governs the day than the visible sun. This is what Christ says in John 11:9–10:
"If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles." To be sure, there are other lights, such as the moon and all the stars, which also shine. But even if they were to shine at their brightest or to pool their light, these could not produce the light of day for as much as a quarter of an hour or radiate as much as one fourth of the sun's light. Yes, I suppose that these all derive their light and brightness from the sun.47 It is the sun, and only the sun, that fashions the day. Much less can there be any other light in the Christian Church and in Christ's spiritual kingdom than the one which is Christ. He alone, and no other, is the eternal Sun of righteousness, the only true Source of light for all mankind. Therefore, whoever is not enlightened by Him remains in darkness eternally.
Thus throughout the dispersion of the Christian Church among all the peoples of the world, from the east to the west and from the north to the south, she must be firmly united in this, that she acknowledges
Christ as her sole Light and that she knows and preaches none other than Christ. Thank God, we are doing this, making all our instruction, writings, and sermons conform to it.
Reason may raise its light aloft and laud it to the skies. And this light, admittedly, may be ingenious in secular and temporal matters; but under no circumstances should it presume to penetrate into heaven. Nor should we ever confer and consult with reason in questions pertaining to salvation. For in this area the world and reason are stone-blind; they will always remain in darkness and will never shed any light in that sphere in all eternity. Christ is the only Light; He can and will counsel and help.
If Christians regarded Christ as the only Light and staunchly adhered to that belief, then our views, doctrine, and faith would be uniform, and our sermons would convey the same harmonious message everywhere in the world. Our brethren in the Orient would be of one mind with us.48 If someone were to come into our midst from Babylon and hear our lectures or sermons, he would say: "I, too, believe as you teach. I also cling to the only Light, Christ." He would acknowledge that we preach of that one Light,
Christ. And if I were to travel to Turkey and encounter a Christian who was discussing Christian doctrine and faith on the basis of Scripture, I would say: "That is also my creed." This accounts for our name
"Christian"; we all are named after our Lord Christ. Our name "Christian" reflects our belief that He is our sole Light, Life, Way, Hope, and Salvation. Others may dub themselves Franciscans, Dominicans,
Augustinians, Carthusians, Mohammedans, or papists, or anything else. They are no light; they are sheer darkness. If I were to pile on one heap all the others who style themselves lights, they would still be exposed as nothing but will-o'-the-wisps or satyrs, who are seen only at night.49 They lead a person astray into a body of water, where they drown him, or they may destroy him in stone quarries or lime pits.
This is the criterion by which to judge true and false teachers. Pious, Christian teachers direct the people away from themselves and to Christ, as St. John does here with his testimony, and as we (God be praised) and others also do. For all our sermons tend toward this one goal, that you and we know and believe that Christ is the only Savior and Consolation of the world and the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). The Gospel points to Christ exclusively; and this is in complete agreement with the testimony of St. John. For this reason we do not attract the people to ourselves; we lead them to Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
- 28 On the other hand, all those who do not preach and testify of Christ but of themselves are false teachers. In this respect the wretched pope takes first rank among all the heretics and false teachers. He has decreed that salvation is dependent on his precepts and human traditions. He has usurped power over all bishops, kings, emperors, even over the angels, who, he claims, are subject to his command. And in his bulls of excommunication he hurls his thundering threats against all who refuse obedience to him and his commands; he says that they have incurred the disfavor of God. In his decretals he declares: Mandamus,
Aggravamus, Reaggravamus, Excommunicamus. So frightfully does this cruel, three-horned ox bellow.50
Because the pope blasphemes God so appallingly through his lies and doctrines of demons (1Tim.
4:1); because in this way he has, from time immemorial, misled innumerable thousands of souls; because he and his powerful faction condemn and damn the pure doctrine and persecute it as the rankest heresy; because they make bold to exterminate it and all who disseminate it, teach it, confess it, and are loyal to it
—in brief, because he adjudges his blasphemous abominations as true and holy and persists in retaining them, he is the most rapacious wolf and murderer of souls the world has ever seen. Therefore we should be constrained to thank our dear God with all our heart for His gracious deliverance from the pope's heavy chains and iron yoke and for the privilege of beholding in these latter days the bright and blessed light of the Gospel, which illumines our path to the true and eternal Light. Now we are convinced that the pope is the true Antichrist and that all his doctrine, which he has extolled as the light of the world, is sheer devilish lying, stench, and filth. Therefore we consign it to the abyss of hell and hope that our dear Lord
Christ will, by His blessed appearance, put an early end to his blasphemous and damnable rule on earth.
Someone might think: "How can the evangelist so boldly declare that John the Baptist was not the Light, when the Lord Himself called him 'a burning and shining lamp' in John 5:35?" Both are correct. He is not the Light which illumines man to life eternal. This the Baptist himself acknowledged consistently.
And this admission elicited these words of praise from the evangelist: "He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ' " (John 1:20). And again (John 1:27): "The thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."
And yet he is a light not hidden under a bushel but burning brightly and shining for all to see. That is, he appears openly and in public, illumining those to whom he is sent, who not only sat in darkness but were sheer darkness and blindness. This we gather from the earlier words (John 1:5): "The light shines in the darkness." He shone, pointing and preaching to them and saying: "Repent!" (Matt. 3:2), "Prepare the way of the Lord!" (Matt. 3:3), "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
(Matt. 3:7). Also: "Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3:10). Also: "He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12).
The sermon delivered by John in the third chapter of Luke to all Israel was sharp and incisive; and the one found in the third chapter of Matthew, addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees, whom John took especially to task, was no less severe. But they paid it no heed and "rejected the purpose of God for themselves" (Luke 7:30). He, however, does not stop there but instructs those who are terrified by his harsh sermon and whose hearts are filled with concern how they might escape the wrath to come. He directs them to the true Light, who forgives penitent sinners their transgressions, illumines them to eternal life, and baptizes them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He points out the Light, Christ, to them, saying:
"Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world, and not only yours" (John 1:29).
The Lord calls him "a burning and shining lamp," because all who accepted his testimony and believed in Christ—who is not only the Life and the Light of mankind but also the Lamb of God which bears and removes their sins and the whole world's sins—have thereby been enlightened and have become the children of light and received salvation and life eternal.
Christ also calls His disciples "the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13) and "the light of the world" (Matt.
5:14); for they preached just as John did. In the first place, they salted the entire world; that is, they preached repentance to all that dwell on the face of the earth; they rebuked and salted all that is flesh and human, because it is putrid and decayed with sin before God.51 Furthermore, they proclaimed that the world's wisdom, holiness, divine worship devoid of God's Word, and man's own pious inventions and fabrications have no value at all before God, yes, that they are an abomination to Him and are damned by Him. This is why they were called "the salt of the earth." Later they were also termed "the light of the world"; for they did not only salt, but they also radiated light. That is, they preached grace and forgiveness
- 29 of sin to the penitent in the name of Christ, comforting them with the assurance that Christ crushed Satan's head (Gen. 3:15), that God's wrath and His judgment against sin have been satisfied and stilled, and that now the promise that through Christ all the earth's nations shall be blessed (Gen. 12:3) has been fulfilled.
In other words, all who believe in Christ are delivered from sin and death, justified before God, and have eternal life. This is vouchsafed by Christ Himself in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave
His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." As many as heard their sermon and believed in Christ were saved.
And subsequently the apostles' disciples and, after them, all the pious and God-fearing bishops and teachers preached the same way. They, too, preached repentance and forgiveness of sin in the name of Christ as they directed the people to Christ. But then false teachers and heretics grew apace in number, perverting the pure doctrine and spreading the fabrications of their own mind. However, God still raised up a few devout and learned men who opposed the heretics and restored the doctrine with varying clarity from time to time.
Daniel refers to these pious preachers (Dan. 12:3): "And those who are wise shall shine [after the resurrection] like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." But those who seek their own honor and not Christ are judged by Christ in Matt. 7:23:
"Depart from Me, you evildoers." He pays no attention to the fact that they say (Matt. 7:22): "Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Thy name, cast out demons, and did other mighty works." Now there follows:
But came to bear witness to the Light.
The papists accuse me of insisting that God alone should be respected and revered. They say that I set no store by the saints, disapprove of their ascetic life and of their good works, as if they had never done anything good or useful. They say: "After all, did John the Baptist amount to nothing?" Furthermore, they aver that I have no regard for the church, for papal power, that I am abolishing obedience to the pope, etc.
No, I do not spurn John; I honor and esteem him highly. I do, however, draw a line of distinction between him and Christ, to whom he bears witness, and also between John's life and his office. John is a servant and not the Lord Himself. He is the teacher and guide to the true Light, but not the Light Itself. He administers a more exalted and glorious office than the prophets did; for John does not prophesy, as they did, that the Lord will appear sooner or later. No, he points his finger at Him who is already present and says: "Behold, that is He."
For this reason I respect his office so highly; yes, I thank God that He granted us such a faithful witness and mouth that testifies to the true Light and a finger that leads us to Him who illumines us and shines in our heart forever and ever. I thank God for giving us this finger that points us to the Lamb of God. However, I neither can nor will stake my salvation on John or place my hope and reliance on his saintliness, asceticism, and good works. For as he himself admits in John 3:28, he is not Christ: "You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ." And again (John 3:30): "He who is the only
Life and Light of mankind must increase, but I must decrease."
If this difference and distinction had been marked before our day, our forebears and surely we older ones, too, would not have paid for the merits and supererogatory works of the monks, purchased papal indulgences, prayed to the saints for succor, endowed Masses, or promoted the adoration of saints. For if John, the greatest among the children of woman (Matt. 11:11), who was more than a prophet (Matt. 11:9), cannot help you or me to eternal life and salvation with his holiness, his ascetic life, his odd dress and food, and his abstention from wine—for he was not the Light, and his life is completely rejected here—a minor saint will be far less able to accomplish this. St. Francis, St. Dominic, all the popes with their monks and nuns and priests should hide their face and extinguish their light. For if they make themselves the true Light, and not Christ, then they shed no more light than manure in a lantern. This may give off a stench, but it does not give off light.
Nevertheless, the saints (I am not referring to the saints canonized by the pope but to those who proclaim John's message of repentance and of forgiveness in the name of Christ) should be revered for their office, in which they preach the Word of God in its truth and purity. For the apostle says in Heb.
13:7: "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith." He does not enjoin them to imitate their orders, rules, works, or ascetic life. In 1 Tim. 5:17 St. Paul writes: "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." But when compared with Christ, the true Light (as those mad barefooted friars compared their St. Francis to Christ, yes, even foisted him on Christendom in - 30 Christ's place), then their light is totally eclipsed in the comparison. John bears this out when he says: "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie" (John 1:26–27).
Although moon and stars derive all their radiance from the sun, I still praise them because of their nocturnal brightness and splendor. But when the night is spent, they lack the power to brighten the day.
Their brightness has waned and is no longer visible. Even though they are still up there in heaven, they do not shine. Praise akin to this I bestow on the true saints, who are endowed and adorned with an understanding of Holy Scripture and with many gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit and employ these for the welfare and the consolation of Christendom. But when confronted by the question of delivering people from sin and justifying them before God, then these saints will hold their peace; yes, they will join the holy David in the verse: "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for no man living is righteous before Thee" (Ps. 143:2). And also: "If Thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?" (Ps.
130:3.) Their ability to shine falls short of this; they are unable to produce that happy and blessed day.
Christ alone can do this. Of Him we read in Ps. 118:24: "This is the clay which the Lord has made."
Whoever beholds this day will live eternally.
John the Baptist suffers by comparison with Christ, as he himself says: "I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals." And yet he is deserving of praise because of his office, in which he speaks of Christ with his mouth, points to Him with his fingers, and leads the people away from himself to Him who is the sole Life and Light of mankind. In brief, he is not the Light; he is a servant and a witness to Christ. His duty is to preach how and in whom I am to believe. He is a witness to the Light. Through his office he is instrumental in our becoming the children of this Light. Because of this he shines and serves as a valuable light. However, in comparison with Christ he is nothing but darkness. The relationship is like that of the moon and the stars. They gleam by night but not by day; they count for naught without the sun; none of them can usher in the day. The saints, with their praiseworthy lives, shine similarly; and yet by themselves they can bring no one to salvation. John is not the Light, although he leads many to the Light. But with respect to his office John the Baptist is a great man, and for its sake we laud and honor him. For the same reason we still honor the ministry, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution; for they are all agents, ordained by God to direct us to the Light.
9. The true Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world.
St. John constantly emphasizes the truth that Christ is the only Light. To summarize, he says: "With the exception of the Son of God, who was with the Father from the beginning and through whom all have light and life, there is no light. Whatever men are enlightened on earth, are enlightened through this only
Light and not otherwise." St. John employs a peculiar expression, and whoever is not conversant with Christian doctrine and faith will find these words dark and obscure. Is this the meaning, that every man is to be enlightened through Him? This sounds strange in view of the fact that not every man, but only a minority in the world, believes in Him.
St. John the Evangelist presented the doctrine of faith with all diligence and faithfulness to Christendom and gave sufficient warning against all kinds of schismatic spirits and sects when, in opposition to God's Word, they put forward a new spirituality, sanctity, revelation, and enlightenment through which, as they taught, man would be delivered from sins and justified. John exhorted men to believe that Christ is the only true Light and assured them that wherever He shines and is confessed, there is life and salvation. But what did it help? His Gospel, yes, all Holy Writ, lay hidden under a bushel for several centuries; and in its stead the wretched pope's doctrine, his human ordinances, and canon laws shone. As a result, Christendom is split up into countless sects. This accounted for the fact that in the papacy very few people were acquainted with the Light, and this despite the fact that all must know of it if they are to be enlightened.
Now let us study the meaning of the evangelists words. As an enlightened apostle, he realized that the devil governs and leads the world with a view to calling many sects into being at all times. To this end he ignites many new lights, all of whom boldly presume to show the people the right way to heaven. Each one claims to be the light, or a leader and teacher; and each attracts the people to himself, asking them to follow him. Before Christ's advent, for example, Satan incited many false prophets among the people of Israel. After Christ's birth he also raised up heretics in Greece. Thus he called forth Cerinthus and other heretics in the days of the evangelist John. Therefore John says in his first epistle (1 John 4:1): "Many
- 31 false prophets have gone out into the world"; and: "This is the spirit of Antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming" (1 John 4:3); and: "So now many antichrists have come" (1 John 2:18). He also appends a warning: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God" (1 John
4:1). It is as if he were saying: "Be on your guard, for the devil is going to raise up fellows of that stripe aplenty." This very thing happened. One after another arose—Marcion, Ebion, Novatus, Manes, Arius,
Pelagius, Mohammed, and finally numberless sects and factions in the papacy.52
Thus the evangelist St. John saw that every person who flits from one thing to another wants to be a light for the guidance of the people. One wants to go this way, another that way. Earlier he had said (John
1:4): "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." Now he repeats this thought, saying: "That was the true Light." He was eager to impress this indelibly on the minds of file people. He also wishes to say:
"After all, there is only this one true Light; but, in spite of this, the world is and always will be teeming with lights, that is, with teachers, each one claiming the greatest brilliancy. The one will advance this, the other that pretense." The older ones among us, we regret to say, experienced much of this in the papacy: one directed us toward Borne, another toward St. James, a third into the cloister. There was no end to the gleam and the glow of these will-o'-the-wisps.
The evangelist wants to say that this will accomplish nothing; it is not the right way. If a person—it is immaterial whether he lives before or after the birth of Christ—is to be delivered from darkness, sin, and death, he must be enlightened through no other than this Light, and through it attain salvation and eternal life. Without this he will ever remain unenlightened. No one brings this Light with him at birth, nor will he find it on earth. If he is to acquire it, he must receive it from Christ, who alone enlightens all men that come into this world.
You may counter and say: "Not all people are enlightened. The majority are even enemies of our Lord Christ. Take the Jews, the Turks, the Tartars, the papists, for instance. How can the evangelist, in the face of this, maintain that this Light enlightens all men?" He employs a common manner of speaking, such as is still current today when we say: "In this city all the citizens must hear this pastor, all pupils must listen to this schoolmaster (assuming that the city has no other) and learn from him," although we know that not all citizens hear the pastor and not all pupils learn from the teacher. And even though they all hear the pastor and the teacher, nonetheless most of them fail to benefit by it. In fact, only a few are benefited.
Therefore if I say that all citizens and pupils hear the pastor and the teacher, I wish to intimate that the city has no other pastor than Pastor John, or no other teacher than Teacher Peter.53 Consequently, if anyone in that town wants to hear, learn, and accept God's Word, he must listen to John. And if a pupil wants to learn and be instructed, he must listen to Teacher Peter. The pastor remains the teacher of them all.
Likewise, Christ is the only Light of mankind in the world; there is no other Light than Christ. And if anyone is to be enlightened, he must necessarily be enlightened through Him and through no one else; for without Him and apart from Him there is and can be no light to illumine mankind.
The fact that only a few, yes, only a small minority of people are enlightened is not the fault of the Light, Christ our Lord; for He is not only called, but actually is, the Light of the world and of all men. He shines forever and ever. God ordained Him to be this Light, as God declares through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah (49:6): "It is too light a thing that Thou shouldst be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give Thee as a Light to the nations that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." This prophecy found its early fulfillment in apostolic times (Acts
13:47). For now the Gospel was heard from horizon to horizon; it shone and gleamed not only in Christ's own peculiar domain, that is, among the Jews, to whom the promise had been given and from whose ancestors Jesus descended after the flesh, but in all the world. But the fact that not all accepted the blessed
Light, and not all accept it today, does not deprive the Light of its name and its honor.
Earlier (John 1:5) the evangelist said: "The Light shines in the darkness," that is, in all the world, which is purblind, yes, which is sheer darkness in divine matters. But "the darkness comprehended it not."
Thus the flaw is not in the Light but in those who refuse to accept it, yes, who, as Christ says in John 3:19, "loved darkness rather than light." If I close my eyes to shut out the light, or hide from it under the ground, why blame that dear sun that shines so dazzlingly? For all that, the sun goes right on shining for the benefit of all who wish to avail themselves of its light.
Our dear Gospel of the Light, which, by the grace of God, we are preaching, has now been disseminated and proclaimed not only in the German lands but also in foreign realms and empires. The Light is shining brightly before the very eyes of the people in these countries. Yes, the pope in Rome, the - 32 cardinals, the bishops, and all the papal scum and vermin know more about it than they wish. Thank God, our testimony, which is in complete agreement with that of St. John and the apostles—for we preach nothing other than what they proclaimed—is loud and sonorous; and the blessed Light is shining brightly.
But the fact that they refuse to obey it, yes, even blaspheme it, persecute and damn it as darkness and devilish lies, does not imply or prove that Christ is not the Light of all men. They are aware of the bright radiance of our teaching, but they do not want to see it. It is not the fault of the Light that not all accept it.
I am preaching to all of you who dwell in Wittenberg. But how few of you improve in consequence of my preaching and accept the blessed Light in faith and are enlightened by it! Indeed, my sermons find faith only in a minority of you. But in spite of this I am and remain the pastor and teacher of you all.
Likewise, the fact that all do not believe in Christ's message does not divest Christ of His office. No, He still remains the Light which enlightens all men born into this world. From the beginning of the world to the end He is the true Light; that is, all past and all future generations have possessed and will possess no other Light and Savior than Christ. In brief, the holy evangelist concedes no other means of enlightenment and salvation than this one. The alternative for all the world is: either this Light or eternal darkness!
This Light shone on the patriarchs before the Flood. They had the promise of the woman's Seed, who was to crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). He was their Life and Light too. He illumined them to life eternal. With this promise they comforted themselves and bolstered their faith. Of Him they preached wherever they dwelt and thus passed this on to their progeny. And after the Flood the Light again shone on the fathers. Through the preaching of the apostles He cast His bright and clear rays into all the world.
No, the world cannot and dare not have any other light for illumination than Christ alone.
This faith and confession is the true foundation on which the Christian Church is established. This is also the church's one and only and most dependable mark of identification. And it is imperative that this doctrine by means of which man attains such faith and confession be cultivated diligently. For the devil is not idle. As we see and experience, he does not cease in his attempts to divide the true church and split it into many factions and sects. Just open your eyes and look about you in the world. You will behold numerous lights, ignited by St. Francis, Dominic, Mohammed, and others. You will discover that the world is full of idolatry, false confidence, monkery, sects, and factions, each of which is at variance with the other. And, at the same time, each lays claim to being the best.
Therefore hold fast to the only Light, and pay no attention to the fact that this or that saint led an ascetic life in some rigid monastic order, that he abstained from meat and wore a hairy garment. The world soon fell prey to this lure, multiplied the orders, and accepted them in the belief that they brought salvation. Give heed to this warning, do not mind them; but say: "Even if the founders of these orders had performed miracles, had raised the dead, and had fasted or scourged themselves to death in a spirit of devotion and spirituality, it still would leave me very cold. Yes, even if an angel were to descend from heaven (Gal. 1:8) with miraculous deeds, changing stones into bread (Matt. 4:3), but coming without this
Light, Christ, I would say to him: 'I do not want to hear you; neither do I want you, for I am Christ's, baptized in His name, and purified and cleansed from sin with His blood. Your praying, fasting, and scourging do not profit me.' I believe the words of John the Baptist, who does not refer me to an ascetic and holy life but to Christ, the true Light, to whom he testifies and through whom all men are enlightened and saved. One must believe Christ, the true Light, and no one else. Therefore I shall accept only the testimony of one who bears witness to Christ and directs me to Him. But the preacher himself will never be my life and light."
May these and similar beautiful and comforting texts, in which the Gospel of St. John abounds, commend themselves to you. Take them to heart and mark them well; for they serve you against that beautiful and majestic devil who disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Yes, they will be useful to you in counteracting any kind of sectarianism. It is apparent how readily the world is charmed and fascinated by the life of a Carthusian or barefoot monk.54 The simple and unthinking common man and the peasants are allured by it. They rush heedlessly into these orders as birds fly into a fowler's net.
These texts will preserve our proper knowledge of Christ and retain our faith; they inform us as to who Christ is, what we may expect of Him, and what He really means to us. We use them as a criterion for judging whether doctrine and life are true or false. And thus equipped, no glossy veneer of spirituality, humility, and sanctity will befuddle and disconcert us, no matter how these may gleam. For these texts give us a faithful portrayal of Christ, of His person and of His work. I rub this text under the noses of the - 33 hypocrites and the work-righteous when they attempt to teach me something apart from this Light; and I refuse to believe them even if St. John the Baptist himself were their spokesman.
And when others eulogize the stringent and rigid life of the saints, pointing out that they slept on the bare ground, that they girded their loins with a hairy sack, that they served God day and night, that they abstained from meat, that they scourged and tortured themselves, I reply: "I duly recognize all this and also have words of praise for it. But what more can you say about it?" They may make bold to answer:
"Well, we should, of course, emulate their example for the purpose of achieving salvation through such asceticism." Not by any means, dear brother! Exalt them as you will; but do not venture to tell me that they are my way, my life, my light. For this they are not. Christ is the only Lamb that bears the sins of the world (John 1:29). He alone is the true Light. I am very ready to praise John the Baptist's arduous and holy life, his garment of camel's hair, his drinking of water, and his eating of locusts; but I refuse to say that this is the way that leads to heaven. He himself does not bear witness to his life of privation and holiness; but he directs me to the Lord, saying (John 1:29): "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," that is, who sacrificed Himself for your sin and made satisfaction for it. I am determined to hold to this.
Therefore the holy evangelist concludes, saying: The Word was "the true Light." As though he wished to say: "If you do not want to go astray but are intent on finding the correct and certain way to heaven without fail, then set your course for this one true Light, which radiates all the brightness and glow necessary for your salvation. Otherwise we remain in darkness and in the shadow of death. For this is the only true Light, in contrast to which all other lights which attract people to themselves and divert them from Christ, as the pope and all monastic orders have done, are false lights and will-o'-the-wisps which lead people to danger and destruction. All those who follow them grope and wander in darkness, have an evil conscience, remain in their sins without consolation, and must die and perish in them."55
10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not.
The evangelist John says next that the Word—which was from eternity, coequal with the Father in power and glory, through which all things were made, and which is also the Life and the Light of mankind
—assumed human nature, was born of Mary, came into the world, dwelt among men in this temporal life, became like any other human being in all things, took the physical form of man such as yours or mine, and was cumbered with all the human frailties, as St. Paul says in Phil. 2:7. This means that He ate, drank, slept, awakened, was tired, sad, and happy. He wept and laughed, hungered, thirsted, froze, and perspired.
He chatted, worked, and prayed. In brief, He required the same things for life's sustenance and preservation that any other human being does. He labored and suffered as anyone else does. He experienced both fortune and misfortune. The only difference between Him and all others was that He was sinless. Since He was also very God, He was free of sin. And yet He was the man56 through whom the whole world was created and made. The beloved John has told us this before, and here he deliberately and purposely repeats the same words.
This is the burden of his message: "He was in the world; and although the world was made through Him, it did not know Him." His life was like the life of any other. For thirty years He dwelt with His mother, as any other may do. In His boyhood His conduct resembled that of any other youth. He was subject to His parents and obeyed their commands. At the age of twelve, to be sure, there were intimations of future greatness when He stood in the temple listening to and asking the teachers and amazing all who heard Him with His understanding and His answers (Luke 2:46–47). But this was soon forgotten. It was only Mary, so Luke tells us, who "kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). Luke also informs us that He went with His parents from Jerusalem "to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. And He increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:51–52). A few verses earlier Luke had related: "The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him"
There is the Creator. He is in the world. He lives among men. But He is well hidden. The world did not know Him and paid no attention to Him, especially not until His thirtieth year, when He began to preach, heal the sick, and raise the dead. And since His mother Mary, the virgin, was known to be a plain carpenter's wife, she was shown no more respect than any ordinary woman. It seems to me that the world gave abundant evidence that it did not know Him. It is quite unaware that this child, lying in His mother's lap and being washed and bathed by her like any other child, is the Light of the world, is He through whom the world was created.
- 34 We must take close note of the evangelist's words. Earlier he said (John 1:3): "All things were made through the Word." However, he does not stop there but repeats the selfsame words with intent and premeditation: "The Light was in the world, and the world was made through Him" (John 1:10). For in this way He wants to fortify and reinforce the article on which our entire faith rests, namely, that Jesus
Christ is, in His nature, both very God and very man. It is as if he were to say: "The very same child that lies in the manger, takes its mother Mary's breasts, and later becomes subject to her, is the Life and the Light of man, yes, is God, the Creator of all things; for the world was made through Him."
We who are named for Christ find our chief article of faith in this truth; there is absolutely no other correct and true belief than this one, which confesses that Christ is very God and very man. This is the only saving faith. Let whoever insists on another go his way and see how he fares. If reason refuses to believe that God could become man, let her shift as she will. But we Christians believe it because God's
Word says it. Nothing is impossible to faith, may reason be vexed and offended as she will. It is irrefutably true that deliverance from the devil's power, and from sin and death, as well as the gift of salvation, are dependent on the faith that Christ is true God, through whom the world was made, and also true man, born of Mary. It is exclusively this faith, and no other, regardless of what label it bears, that saves. This is attested by Scripture in Matt. 1:21: "Mary will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." And in Luke 2:11: "For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." And in John 3:18: "He who believes in Him is not condemned."
For this reason the evangelist affirms and reaffirms that Christ, our Lord, is true and natural God. The creation of sun, moon, stars, heaven, and earth is never ascribed to an angel; for it is not an angel's work to create the world. No, this is a divine work; creating is the domain of the true God, who is not a painting or a carving, but God in His very nature and essence.
Therefore the texts: "All things were made through the Word" and "The world was made through Him" are strong testimony and incontrovertible proof against the Arians.57 They conceded that the Word was indeed an exalted, sublime, and divine Person, in whom two natures, the divine and the human, were joined. But they denied that the Word was God in His nature and in His essence, born of the Father in eternity; they maintained that He was merely called God. Arius acknowledged that Christ was true man, and he also confessed that He was God; but he would not admit that by nature He was God coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He believed that God had created Him before all creatures, also before the angels, had fashioned Him more glorious, more noble, and more sublime than all the angels, and had then called Him God. Thus reason acts smart in divine matters. But now give ear to what the evangelist says:
"All things were made through the Word" and "The Light was in the world, and the world was made through Him."
As already said, no angel or any other creature can lay claim to this title of Creator of all, but only the one true God. And now since Holy Writ assigns this title of Creator of the world, together with divine omnipotence, to Christ, our Lord, the true son of Mary, saying that the world was made through Him, it follows incontestably that He is true and essential God and Creator of all things, that, therefore, two natures, the divine and the human, are indissolubly fused in one person, namely, Christ. But, as you will hear later, He is also a child and true man.
This is the foremost article of the Christian creed. It is found only among Christians and is their greatest honor, comfort, and joy, namely: that God's very Son assumed human nature, became flesh and blood with man, sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty in equal majesty and power as man's
Advocate and Intercessor. Among the Jews, the Tartars and Turks, and also among the Epicureans, who fill the world today, He has no standing. In fact, they ridicule and sneer at us Christians because we are so stupid as to be persuaded that the Creator of heaven and earth became man and was crucified for us.
Let them go with their mistaken and heretical belief! They believe and teach whatever is approved by reason; blind and mad reason is capable of comprehending their belief that there is only one God. The heathen and Mohammed believe that too. But when we declare that three distinct Persons dwell inseparably in one divine essence, and that the Second Person, the Son, became incarnate, crushed the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), became a blessing to the human race, that is, delivered it from sin and death, then they behave very foolishly; for all of this is incomprehensible to reason. However, we Christians believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We concede that it is a sublime article of faith beyond the grasp of reason, but we know that nothing is too sublime or impossible for faith. For faith relies on God's Word and is guided by it, not by reason. Faith is firmly convinced that the divine truth is
- 35 unshakable and eternal; for God has said this, and His Word testifies to it. No, this doctrine is not derived from reason; it is derived from the Holy Spirit. And therefore, I suppose, it will always remain incomprehensible to reason without the aid of the Holy Spirit.
The world knew Him not.
But is that not surprising that the Creator was in the world, dwelt among men, and still passed unrecognized by His creatures? This was particularly true during the days before He inaugurated His ministry and performed miracles. Then there was no one who knew of Him. And yet, at that time there were several pious people in the world who knew Him—to be sure, not by reason but by power from above, by revelation from the Holy Spirit. Among these were Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, the prophetess
Anna, the shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and others. Elizabeth, full of the Holy Spirit, addressed Mary, the mother of the Lord, when she visited her: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42). And: "The babe John in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:44). And Zacharias,
John's father, also inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people" (Luke 1:68). We also hear: "And when the shepherds saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this Child" (Luke 2:17). And Simeon exclaimed: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. For this Child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel" (Luke 2:29–30, 34). And Anna
"gave thanks to God, and spoke of Him to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel" (Luke 2:38).
But because Christ's actual appearance did not coincide with the image of Him which their thoughts had conjured up—He was plain and unassuming, and enjoyed no great reputation—the rulers of the people of Israel and the common mob would not acknowledge Him as the Messiah, much less accept Him.
And this despite the fact that St. John had preceded Him as His herald and had testified of Him, and that He Himself appeared publicly shortly thereafter, preaching with power and performing miracles. His miracles, words, and sermons really should have identified Him; but this, too, helped very little.
Nevertheless, the world nailed Him to the cross. Had they recognized His true character, this never would have happened. We, however, know Him and believe in Him. And all who wish to be saved must arrive at this same belief that Jesus Christ is God and man. All who believe in this Person are saved. And whoever is not imbued with this faith is damned, together with the disciples of superstition, pseudo spirituality, false righteousness, and idolatry. For whoever does not have this belief will never be saved.
11. He came into His own, and His own received Him not.
Now the evangelist speaks about another coming of Christ. Before this he had said that Christ was in the world, born of Mary as true man, that He moved about among men but was unknown by them as the Creator of the world. But now he refers to His real advent, when, at the age of thirty, He entered upon His office, was baptized by John the Baptist, was revealed by a very unusual testimony, was ordained into the ministry by His heavenly Father, and was anointed as the Teacher and King of all Christendom. He received a genuine doctor's cap58 and royal crown, namely, the Holy Spirit, and was installed as a real
King and Priest with these words from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Hear Him, for He has My full approbation" (Matt. 17:5).59 When the Son of God stood in the water, in His holy humanity, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the physical form of a dove (Luke 3:22; John
Thus the Lord, called and confirmed by the Father, now enters upon His office publicly, as had been promised in the words of the Lord recorded in Deut. 18:15: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your brethren." Now He begins to preach and to perform miracles, first among the Jews, to whom He had been promised and whom the evangelist calls "His own." God
Himself termed the people of Israel His own through the mouth of Moses when He said in Ex. 19:5: "You shall be My own possession among all peoples." And in Deut. 7:6: "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth." As Moses had designated the Jews as God's own possession, the evangelist here calls them the possession of Christ our
Lord, to indicate thereby that Ghrist is true God, coequal with the Father. And now whatever Christ says and proclaims is to be regarded as authoritative; for He is the Prophet of whom Moses declared (Deut.
18:19): "Whoever does not give heed to Him shall be cast out from My people forever." This the Jews experienced to their great sorrow. He comes to them and raps at their door; but He finds no welcome and no admittance among them.
- 36 But is it not appalling that this true Shepherd and Bishop, a Teacher ordained and installed into office by God Himself, was not received by His own? And this despite the fact that the Holy Ghost had descended from heaven and rested on Him in the form of a dove (John 1:33), that the Father had directed from heaven that His voice was to be believed and obeyed, that John the Baptist had added his testimony and command to God's to believe in Him, and that long ago Moses had declared that they should heed the Messiah when He came (Deut. 18:15). He Himself comes into His own now as their God and begins to carry out and fulfill the prophecies regarding Him. He enters upon His office, ordained for Him by the Father; He preaches and performs miracles. Yet He is not accepted by His own. The time which the prophets had defined for the advent of the Messiah was at hand. All the miracles which, according to prophecy, were to be performed by the Messiah had free scope now. And yet they were not moved by all this.
Why not? Simply because Christ did not appear upon the scene as their imagination had depicted Him.
He came as the Savior of the world, who crushed the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), for the purpose of redeeming them and all the nations on earth from the eternal curse, that is, from the power of the devil, from sin, and death. He came to make them children of God, to justify them and save them, as the promises given to Adam and to Abraham specified (Gen. 3:15; Gen. 22:18). Such a Christ and Messiah was not to their liking. No, they wanted a Messiah who would soon make them rich, great, and mighty lords holding dominion over all the nations of the world. I suppose that might conceivably have been attained by an earthly, human king, such as Alexander. But of the Messiah the prophet Zechariah had prophesied: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Behold, your King comes to you; He is just and having salvation" (Zech. 9:9). Pursuant to this and many other prophecies the Lord appeared and performed great signs and wonders, the like and the number of which no prophet before Him had ever performed. And, as the Jews well knew and acknowledged, in accordance with the prophecies of the patriarch Jacob (Gen.
49:10) and of Daniel (Dan. 9:5), the time was now fulfilled that the Messiah would and had to come.
Therefore the Jews should have taken note of Him and given Him heed, especially since He preached with such power and such gracious words passed over His lips, amazing all the people, and since He performed such wonderful miracles, as Isaiah had prophesied long ago (Is. 35:5). To this prophecy Jesus himself referred the disciples of John, as we see in Matt. 11:5.
All this should have persuaded them to ponder the matter and to conclude: "This is truly the Messiah promised in the writings of the prophets. Praise be to God that He has privileged us to see the blessed day for which our fathers pined and yearned so long!" Yes, they should have accepted Him with reverent and joyful hearts. But the evangelist says—and this is a terrifying statement—"He came into His own, and His own received Him not." This was the necessary fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy: "Who has believed our preaching? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He has no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not" ( Is. 53:1–3).
It is my observation that the same thing is happening in our day. As in the time of John and the apostles, the Gospel has free course today, and the Lord comes to us and visits us graciously; yet very few accept Him. We are grateful to God that today we have replaced the Jews as the possession of our Lord
Christ. But for this very reason the words of our text now also apply to us. Like St. John and the apostles, we bear witness to Him today as the Light and the Life of mankind (John 1:4) and the Lamb of God that bears the sins of the world (John 1:29). He addresses us in such a friendly way in His Words and His dear
Gospel; He wants to regard us as His own Christians. But what happens? We behave just like the Jews.
They saw His unprecedented miracles, and yet they would have none of Him. Thus our doctrine today is still slandered and condemned as heresy and devilish doctrine (1 Tim. 4:1). Many of our adherents are banished and east out into a life of misery; some are murdered wretchedly as heretics and rebels simply because we teach and confess that man is justified before God and saved through faith in Christ. This faith we laud and exalt on the basis of the Gospel. We declare, on the other hand, that the pope with his faction and all others, whoever they are and whatever they are called, who do not bear witness to Christ and direct the people to Him, are seducers and assassins of the soul. And today it comes to pass that not the Turks, the avowed enemies of the Christian name, but our brethren, who bear the Christian name and claim to be
Christians, feel constrained to persecute, banish, and murder us. And all this they do under the pretext and guise of thereby rendering God a favor (John l6:2). Thus it must be, as it always has been, that those who - 37 profess to be the holiest and the best are, in fact, the ones who do the most damage to Christ, His Word, and His church. Christ Himself bears this out in Luke 13:33: "It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem." This means: He must be slain by His own; they must needs hate Christ and persecute Him and His preachers.
In our wrath against the Turk as the hereditary foe60 of the Christian Church we invoke the help of the ecclesiastical prelates, of the emperor, of kings, princes, lords, and all the estates of Christendom, urging them to take up arms against the Turk for the defense and protection of the Christian Church. Yet at the same time we are blind to the fact that we are far worse and more ferocious enemies of the Lord Christ than the Turk is. Today we are still crucifying Christ, we spit in. His face, tread his Sacraments underfoot, and soil our hands with Christian blood. And yet we presume to pose as protectors of the church. We want to take the field against the Turks and defeat them, although we are bitterer enemies of Christ than they.
For, although the Turk wages wars, as the old Romans also did, nevertheless he permits the conquered nations to practice the religion of their choice.61 But we boast of being good Christians, we teach and confess the Gospel; and at the same time we blaspheme and defame it as heresy, persecute the true
Christians, shed their innocent blood, and aspire to kill them all. And yet most of us know that our doctrine is correct and the divine truth. Far from regarding their persecution as sin, they assume that their action is proper and Christian.
Because of this we are far worse than Jew, heathen, or Turk, none of whom hates, persecutes, exiles a member of his own faith or slaughters him for his religion's sake. No, they are in perfect agreement with one another and defend their faith with one accord. But we who are called Christ's own do the very opposite. Not only will Christians who are unknown to one another and who have no ties of friendship or relationship persecute one another, but brother delivers brother, and father delivers son to be killed. Christ
Himself speaks of this in Matt. 10:36: "A man's foes will be those of his own household." The devil stimulated such hatred and irreconcilable enmity soon after the creation of the world. Therefore the devil's church and the pseudo saints always persecute and murder the true saints of God. Thus Cain killed his brother Abel, Ishmael persecuted Isaac, Esau persecuted Jacob, Saul persecuted David.
But in spite of this we make a show of Christianity. We are devout, call upon God, always have the name of Jesus on our lips. All this is particularly true of the pope's rabble, of the monks and the nuns, who have the reputation in the world that they serve God day and night. Indeed, the Jews did the same thing. In their own conceit they were far holier and more pious than we. They sacrificed, gave alms, prayed and fasted much. But how pleasing their service was to God we learn from the prophet Isaiah (29:13) and from Christ: "This people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Matt. 15:8). The gulf fixed between their heart and God can be measured by their acts: they crucified Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father. To make matters worse, they were so terribly blinded by Satan that they supposed they were rendering God a service thereby (John 16:2). We are not doing otherwise today; indeed, we are even surpassing them in wickedness. For the pope, the cardinals, kings, princes, and lords of our clay persecute and blaspheme the revealed divine truth, regard it as false and heretical, shed the innocent blood of many pious Christians; or at least they consent to its being shed by mighty lords all for the sake of filthy gain. Yet at the same time they lay claim to being Christians; they want to defend the church of Christ against the Turks, but also, and far more vigorously, against the Apparently it is the fate of Christians to be murdered only by those who bear the name of Christ and, under that very title, are Christ's worst enemies. This they demonstrate by their unanimous raving and ranting against the Gospel of Christ and by the presumption, the might, and the cunning with which they defend and maintain the cursed Antichrist's lies, his devilish doctrine (1 Tim. 4:1), and his infamous belief that leads directly into hell. For in all his books the miserable pope teaches nothing of Christ, of faith, and of God's commandments. But in them he contends that he is the head of all of Christendom, a lord over the church and over the entire world; whoever obeys him will be saved. This he teaches at the beginning, the middle, and the end of all his writings and books. Whoever acts and speaks in opposition to this must die.
What measure of success and victory against the Turk might our Lord God be inclined to grant such protectors of His church—so they style themselves—as condemn and damn His divine Word, give Christ the lie, persecute His believers in manifold ways, harass and murder them, and then piously declare that they propose to march against the Turk, give him battle, and defeat him for the honor of Christ and for the - 38 protection of His church? It seems to me that they have hitherto defeated him so thoroughly that he has maintained himself over against them for several centuries, that almost half of Europe was lost to him.
Now he is occupying one country after another, and he has penetrated Hungary and Austria up to the boundary of Bohemia and thus could scarcely be closer to us. He has advanced to the gates of Vienna, into territory where we thought his name would never be heard.62
The annals of history inform us that, several centuries ago, Christian rulers, emperors, kings, princes, lords, both ecclesiastical and temporal, from all Germany, allied themselves with foreign kingdoms and principalities, raised mighty armies, with no shortage of men, of armaments, and of weapons, and all else that serves the purpose of war and battle, and, thus equipped, marched against the Turk and engaged him in battle.63 But what did they achieve, and what loss did they inflict on the Turk? Our ancestors and some of these selfsame rulers, together with their lands and subjects, suffered great grief, damage, and ruin in consequence. And today we have the Turks before our very gates. The reason is to be found in the fact that God did not prosper the undertaking with His blessing. For this incongruity presents a terrible blasphemy against God the Father, against Christ, and against the Holy Spirit: to propose, on the one hand, to defeat the Turk and defend Christendom against him; and, on the other hand, to defame and malign His holy Word in us as devilish lies, to torment God's Christians, to exile them into misery and murder them, and, furthermore, to contemplate the extermination of the Christians and the Gospel, the pope's reinstatement into his former position of honor, and the re-establishment of his devilish rule.
It is poor strategy to wage war against the Turks by blaspheming God, murdering Christians, and decrying His Word as heresy; such a war cannot but end disastrously. In consequence, the Turk raged and ravaged so, occupied everything round about, and, adding insult to injury, called us effeminate and himself manly. Whose doing is this? It is the work of our Lord God, whose wrath we provoked with our blasphemies and our persecutions. For thus says the Lord in Deut. 28:25: "Beware that you do not cumber yourself with evil when you go to war. For, Israel, if you will not accept Me as your God, I shall dispatch enemies against you and give you a faint and cowardly heart, so that if you advance on one way against them, you shall flee on seven ways from them." The Turk, of course, does not know to what he must attribute his victory and good fortune; he imagines it is a matter of chance. But God has hurled the Turk into the world to be His rod and scourge that His own people, who do not want to accept Him, may be awakened and stirred up.
Thus these protectors of the church are just as blind and obdurate as the Jews were in their day. If only they did not involve the name of Christ and refrained from trying to palm themselves off as Christians!
But evidently they want to be regarded as Christian lords, princes, kings, and emperors; yes, over and above this, they expect high praise for their role as defenders of Christendom and of God's people. In violation of the Second Commandment they use and misuse the precious name of God atrociously; on the other hand, those who have, teach, and confess the Word of God, who believe in Christ and are children of God according to hope, they call "children of the devil" and persecute and murder them. And they claim to be the beloved children of God, genuine Christians, and the true church. What is our God to do in this situation? He comes to us Germans, visits us mercifully with His Word of peace, life, and salvation; and our spiritual and temporal rulers smite Him on the mouth and say with the people of whom we read in Luke 19:14: "We do not want this Man to reign over us."
Our Lord God makes this rejoinder: "If they want to assume this attitude and do not want to let Christ reign over them to their welfare and eternal salvation, then may they become children who obey the belief of the Roman Antichrist and his clerics. May they be persuaded that the war against the Turks cannot be crowned with success and victory until after the extermination of all the Lutheran heretics together with their doctrine and all their supporters." In compliance with this belief our princes and lords are so firmly attached to the pope's rump that they cannot disengage themselves, but cling to him even though he can be of no help to them; in fact, he never was able to be of any assistance against the Turk. The Turk does not fear the pope's interdict; his sword is sharper than the pope's excommunication.
And since our princes side with the pope, they do not succeed against the Turk. They will share the experience of the Jews, who banished the apostles and all Christians (knaves, as they regarded them) from Jerusalem and Judea and then planned the restoration of their arbitrary regime. But then came the Romans, put an end to them, razed Jerusalem so thoroughly that not one stone remained on the other (Luke 21:6), and devastated and ravaged all Judea. Thus they had to learn to their everlasting perdition that Christ,
- 39 whom they had rejected and crucified, was a Sovereign over all, whose dominion gained impetus after their destruction, taking its course over all the world through the medium of the Gospel.
It would seem to me that we are approaching the end of the world. Christ is clearing His threshing floor with the Gospel, He is gathering the wheat into His granaries, and He will soon burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12). But if the world does survive longer, and they continue to war with the Turk, they are to know that success and victory over him will not be theirs; for the Lord is contending against them. He says: "I will give you a faint and trembling heart before your enemies, so that, if you go out one way against them, you will flee seven ways before them" (Deut. 28:25). Thus their defeat is not due to the power of the Turks hosts, for it is a small matter for the Lord to save by many or by few (1Sam.
14:6). No, it is God who crushes them with His might for their vile sins, and for the visitation of this punishment upon them He merely uses the Turk as His rod. For there is no alternative: "Either kiss the Son lest He be angry, or you perish in the way!" (Ps. 2:12.)
If the time should ever come that God punishes Germany through the agency of the Turk or other barbarians, using these as His rod—not only because Germany was unmindful of Christ's merciful visitation through His Word in these latter days, wanting to adopt us as His own, but also because the majority among us still persecute, malign, and condemn this Word as deceitful doctrines of the devil (1
Tim. 4:l)—then may the Germans can upon the pope, the Antichrist in Rome, their idol, for help and counsel, that he may lay the Turk or whoever it may be under an interdict and expel the enemy by means of his doctrine, creed, and prayer. But just as the Turk does not worry about the pope's interdict but pursues his aims with the sword, so the Antichrist will not be concerned about Germany's misery and ruin; indeed, he will even laugh up his sleeve and deride the Germans. The kind of god they have will determine the kind of help they get.
Therefore, since they will not have it otherwise, let them go their way. You will not accomplish anything with them. They will persist in their contempt for, and their persecution of, the divine Word until the entire German country is invaded, and then we will have to suffer with them. But may we little flock, who are Christ's own and dwell in this world and are thus surrounded by this peril, cherish God's Word, accept it, and give thanks for the many benefits accruing to us through the advent of His Word. However, if we are to suffer, perish, and die with them, we nevertheless have two comforting advantages over the others. The first is found in our conviction that we have a gracious God, who is not angry with us even though He lets us suffer a bit. Our conscience is clear, we have the blessed hope that we are God's children. The other advantage we enjoy is this, that we shall die in obedience to Him and ascend directly from this vile world, the devil's realm, to our Lord Christ in heaven, to His eternal kingdom, free from all distress and filled with joy forevermore. These benefits are not shared by our adversaries, the persecutors and enemies of Christ. For they are Judas' kin, who see nothing but God's anger in their misery. They remain in their distress eternally; they descend into the abyss of hell.
Therefore the end establishes a great difference between the suffering of Christians and that of the godless. Both may be stabbed to death and killed; but then the Christian enters directly into eternal joy, while the godless descends into the pit of hell. Still it is terrible to contemplate that the majority, particularly the world's great men who bear the Christian name, do not truly accept Christ. Yet Christ has
His own even among these, as well as among the Jews and under the papacy. Now there follows:
12. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.
Luke tells us in Acts 2:41 that after Peter's first sermon in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day they gladly received his word after the Holy Spirit had been given to them; "and about three thousand souls were baptized." Subsequently many more were converted through the apostles' preaching in Jerusalem, not to mention the accessions to Christianity outside Jerusalem, in the countryside, in the Roman Empire, in Persia, and elsewhere throughout the length and breadth of the world. All these came through the sermons of the apostles and of their disciples. Thus in our own time we find that from day to day some are converted by Christ's followers and come over to our position. They accept Him and believe that He died for us and shed His blood for us to redeem us from the power of death, devil, and hell. These become true children and heirs of God. Previously they were children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and the devil's possession.
But with the acceptance of Christ they become children of God, provided that they remain constant in this faith.64
But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.
- 40 Here you learn what a great glory and what an ineffable eternal treasure the advent of God's Son brought to those who accept Him, believe in Him, and regard Him as the Man sent by God to help the world. They believe that He is to be the new means and agency for the bestowal of both the power and the prerogative of children of God upon all who believe in His name. If we believe that He is the eternal Word of the Father through whom all things were made (John 1:3); if we believe that He is the Light and the Life of man (John 1:4) and the Lamb of God which bears the sins of the world (John 1:29) and removes these sins and casts them into the depths of the sea, as the prophet Micah said (Micah 7:19); if we call upon Him in every need and thank Him for His inexpressible grace and benefits—then we shall have the singular privilege, liberty, and right to be the dear children of a gracious Father in heaven, to be heirs of all
His eternal and heavenly goods, to be, as Paul declares in Rom. 8:17, the brethren and fellow heirs of Christ, and to have salvation and life eternal.
How is this to be understood? Did He grant this power and privilege to all men, who, as we know, are all children of wrath (Eph. 2:3)? The evangelist replies: "No, not to all; but to all without limit and to the exclusion of none who believe in His name; this means, to all who accept His Word in faith, who remain steadfast and call upon Him." Here you hear explicitly that this high honor, glorious liberty, and power to become the children of God can be attained through no other means or method than solely through a knowledge of, and faith in, Christ. Ascetic life, the Carthusian order, the rules of St. Francis, free will, human skills, devotion, holiness, whatever you may mention on earth, yes, angelic piety and humility, also
God's Law—all these prove bootless. This glory is preached and offered to us year after year and day after day. No man, no matter who he may be, can ponder the magnificence sufficiently or express it adequately in words. We poor mortals, who are condemned and miserable sinners through our first birth from Adam, are singled out for such great honor and nobility that the eternal and almighty God is our Father and we are His children. Christ is our Brother, and we are His fellow heirs (Rom. 8:17). And the dear angels, such as Michael and Gabriel, are not to be our masters but our brothers and servants; for they also call God their Father, just as we do. This is a grand and overpowering thought! Whoever really reflects on it—the children of the world will not, but Christians will, although not all of them either—will be so startled and frightened by the thought that he will be prompted to ask: "My dear, can this really be possible and true?"
Therefore the Holy Spirit must be the Master here and inscribe this knowledge and faith deep in our hearts, must bear witness to our spirit, and say yea and amen to the fact that we have become and eternally remain children of God through faith in Christ (Rom. 8:16). St. John's Gospel was not the product of human volition. No, the evangelist was impelled by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth and, therefore, will surely not deceive us. Without the witness of the Holy Spirit it would be hard to believe that a poor human being is destined to be a son of God and a fellow heir with Christ.
Christ's observation is very correct: "The sons of this world are wiser than the sons of light" (Luke 16:8). Take, for example, a rich peasant's son; he likes to look upon himself as a great young nobleman. A distinguished citizen's son will rely on his father's reputation and money. A powerful member of the nobility regards himself as a prince of the land, esteeming himself very highly. And it is, in fact, important if one can truthfully pride oneself on being the son of a great lord, prince, king, or emperor; for high rank and position, as everything else, are part of God's good creation. Over and above this, God has commanded that these be paid their just dues, that they be feared, respected, and obeyed. Therefore the world rates it a much higher honor and privilege to be the son and heir of a prince, a king, or a count than to be the possessor of God's spiritual goods, although by comparison all these are nothing but poor bags of worms65 and their glory sheer stench.
Just compare all this with the ineffable dignity and nobility of which the evangelist speaks: "To all who received Him," that is, believed in His name, "He gave power to become children of God." If we really believed with all our heart, firmly and unflinchingly, that the eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the world, is our Father, with whom we have an everlasting abode as children and heirs, not of this transitory wicked world but of all God's imperishable, heavenly, and inexpressible treasures, then we would, indeed, concern ourselves but little with all that the world prizes so highly; much less would we covet it and strive after it. Indeed, we would regard the world's riches, treasures, glories, splendor, and might—compared with the dignity and honor due us as the children and heirs, not of a mortal emperor but of the eternal and almighty God—as trifling, paltry, vile, leprous, yes, as stinking filth and poison. For this glory, no matter how great and magnificent it may be, is, in the end, consumed by maggots and snakes in the grave. And if those who sit enthroned and exalted here on earth do not depart this life in the knowledge of, and belief in,
- 41 Christ, they will pass into the hands of the devil; "their worm will not die, their fire shall not be quenched"
St. Paul had this skill and knowledge of Christ; and he prized it more highly than all worldly power, wisdom, holiness, yes, more than the righteousness that proceeds from God's Law. This prompted him to say in Gal. 6:14: "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Likewise in Phil. 3:7–8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse."
And now this possibility and prerogative of becoming children of God is offered and granted through Christ, God's Son, to all who believe in His name. But it is terrible to say and to hear that this great and magnificent offer to be God's children is not only despised, derided, and ridiculed by the blind and condemned world, but that this doctrine is also reviled and regarded as the greatest blasphemy; those who believe in Christ, confess His name and Word, and thus are children of God, are executed as children of the devil, as blasphemers and revolutionaries. This is what the Jews did to Christ Himself, the onlybegotten Son of God, accusing Him of inciting the people and forbidding them to pay tribute to the emperor (Luke 23:2), of making Himself the Son of God (John 19:7). Even if this power to become the children of God were available as far away as the city of Babylon, the world should be willing to crawl there on its hands and knees in quest of it. But it is apparent what our real attitude is.
Furthermore, the devil occasionally assails the pious Christian hearts so hard with his fiery darts (Eph.
6:16) that they not only become oblivious to the exuberant glory of their filial relationship to God but also give way to the opposite ideas, as, for instance, that God has forgotten them or forsaken them, or has repudiated them and east them from His sight. For that matter, St. Paul did not always leap for joy and glory unrestrainedly in his kinship with God, and then, in that knowledge, defy the devil and the evil world. This is borne out by the following and other statements: "And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling" (1 Cor. 2:3). And in 2 Cor. 7:5 he speaks of "fighting without and fear within."
Thus our faith is still very feeble and cold. If it were as firm and stable as indeed it should be, we would almost die for sheer joy. But, God be praised, we know that even those of little faith are children of God. And Christ does not say in vain: "Fear not, little flock" (Luke 12:32). But we should at all times sigh and pray with the apostle: "Lord, increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5); and with that man in Mark 9:24: "I believe; help my unbelief!"
This is our consolation, that the believer in Christ has been assured and guaranteed that he is an heir of God, not a servant or a maid but a son, who is an heir to all the possessions. To acquire this privilege we should be ready to crawl to the ends of the world on our knees, yes, on our bare feet.
13. Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.
These words are the evangelist's confutation, as it were, to all those who lay claim to anything within themselves of which they may boast. However good or rich it may be, or however much of it there may be, it contributes nothing toward becoming a child of God. Conversely, the evangelist shows clearly and distinctly with these words who really are the children and heirs of God, privileged to call God their
Father. Here you must disregard all that is of high esteem and repute in the world; you must look away from all creatures. Although all this may originate and spring from God, yet it cannot contribute anything toward becoming a child of God. For everything that we are and have properly belongs into hell and is damned and destined to perish. Here nothing at all will avail except the rebirth from God through faith in the Son of God, who became man.
The evangelist speaks of three types of fatherhood and sonship, three types of things that are prized in this world or lend themselves to man's boasting.
The first category deals with those born "of blood." This class was created by God, as we read in Gen.
1:27–28: "God created man; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply.' " This denotes the birth "of blood"; it refers to those who were born of flesh and blood and are natural human beings. These may boast of their father and their mother, for theirs is an honorable birth.
With the words "not of blood" John may have had particularly the Jews in mind; however, the text is more comprehensive than this and embraces the whole world. The evangelist means to say: "The natural
- 42 estate, to be a father or mother, son or daughter, to be born of blood, from the union of male and female, is of no value at all here; this does not make one a child of God." Even if the noble blood of one hundred thousand emperors and empresses coursed through the veins of father and mother, they would still lack the power and ability to produce children of God or to impart salvation to them through the infusion of their blood. This does not detract from the fact that the paternal and maternal estates are God's own creation, without which all emperors and kings on earth would be powerless to fashion and create one little hair, much less a man or a woman.
Therefore to beget children of God it is not sufficient to be creatures of God, to be father and mother, husband and wife, although heaven and earth with all that is in them were created for the sake of the married estate, which is the fountainhead of all other estates66 and a source of rich blessings. No, the evangelist adds that the sonship of God makes particular requirements; it denotes a special birth, a birth from God, just as God chose the Jews from all nations to be His people. Otherwise, take all the various stations in life, from the highest to the lowest, and you will find that all—emperors, kings, princes, townsmen, peasants—are called "flesh and blood" and are born of blood.
The physical birth produces a finite and ephemeral creature, corrupted by sin and unassured of life for a moment, one that will die and pass away. Therefore such a creature must manifestly be rejected by God as unsuited to life eternal. All of us without exception, born of flesh and blood, are a rotten apple, a stinking carcass in the sight of God; our physical birth will not aid us a bit toward attaining the sonship of God. Though we were the children or sons of the noblest emperor on earth, we would still remain nothing but the offspring of a physical birth. To become children of God requires a different type of birth, namely, the birth from God, or the birth from water and the Spirit.
By virtue of their blood the Jews are the noblest aristocrats on earth. If one wished to portray people of noble birth, it would be necessary to take the Jews because of their calling and election. For they were set apart and exalted by God above all others, and to them was given the promise of Christ. God said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "Through your Seed shall all the nations or families of the earth be blessed"
(Gen. 12:2; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14), not only spiritually through Christ but also physically. The greatest and foremost men on earth issued from their blood; for example, the holy and inspired patriarchs, prophets, and kings from whom we received the Old Testament Scriptures. They were outstanding both as teachers and as warriors, and through them God did mighty deeds and wonders. It was for them, according to Biblical record, that the powerful Icings of Babylon and Nineveh, as, for example Belshazzar (Dan. 5:30) and Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:37) and many others after them, were punished. We need not even make mention of the fact that Jesus, their kinsman, was descended from their seed after the flesh. This is why
He declares in John 4:22: "Salvation is from the Jews."
Since God thus preferred and elected this race above others for the physical birth of His newborn Son, according to the promise given to the patriarchs and finally also to David: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne" (Ps. 132:11), it stands to reason that, if any one is, the Jews must be endowed with noble blood. And they were well aware of this; they gloried in it, boasted of it, said defiantly: "We are the children of Abraham, the seed of Abraham, and therefore the people of God." St. John the Baptist takes them to task severely for such conceit and for their boastful assertion that they are Abraham's seed when he says: "Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'we have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Matt. 3:9). As though he wished to say: "You are boasting much about your noble birth and descent from Abraham; and, admittedly, you are his and the other patriarchs' children and offspring. From them, according to God's promise, great prophets, kings, princes, and the like, were to spring. But do not be presumptuous. For the select Seed, promised to them, is now present among you, ready to inaugurate a new era and to abolish the old. Look to Him and accept
Him. If you do not, it will serve no purpose that you are Abraham's seed. Indeed, you will be rejected, and your priesthood and kingdom will come to an end. For even now "the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3:10).
Thus both John the Baptist and the evangelist John reject the physical birth of all men, even the Jews' especially chosen and select descent from Abraham, as a basis for becoming children of God. To be sure, the Jews were the noblest of all races in the world, exalted over all emperors, kings, and princes, and in possession of the greatest privileges and glories. Yet all this is of no help or service toward the attainment of the spiritual birth. This is God's work alone, and it preserves us eternally. With this statement God does not wish to create confusion. Nor does He wish to disparage the natural birth of man, which is highly
- 43 regarded in the world, yes, as the one and all. All of life's estates on earth, both the high and the low, find their origin in this physical birth. And all these estates, as we have already heard, God wants us to respect and honor as His own creations. God has ordered and commanded us to honor our parents, to be obedient to spiritual and to temporal government, and to observe certain differences in authority, setting the father above the child, the master above the servant, the ruler above the subject, the husband above the wife.
Therefore a son should not say to his father, a subject to his ruler, the servants to their master and mistress:
"I am as good as you are. Although you are father, prince, master, or mistress, I am God's creature just as much as you are. Therefore do not be so bossy!"67
This physical insolence is unwarranted. Here we are concerned with the spiritual birth, not with birth from blood, in which the parents, according to God's order and command, are the superiors of the children, the government of the subjects, the masters of the servants. And if you are a true Christian and child of God, then you will not despise this order and creation of God; but you will say: "Just because I have been reborn from God through faith in Christ and because this is my physical father, I will comply with his commands and honor my parents according to the order of creation. I will obey my rulers and faithfully serve my master and mistress." For despite the believers' rebirth from God through faith in Christ, God still upholds the position of parent and child, of master and servant, in the world; He does not permit the estate of marriage or any other estate to cease. Therefore in the world there must be a distinction among persons, lest the subjects rebel against their superiors, the chairs climb on top of the benches, and the children hold sway over their parents.
It is true that you are the equal of father, mother, ruler, or master when judged on the basis of faith, spiritual birth, and eternal inheritance. It is even possible, if they are godless, that you excel them in that respect, if, for instance, the father should happen to be a Turk or some other kind of unbeliever, hostile to the divine message, one who refuses to hear or to tolerate it, whereas you are a Christian and a child of God. Nevertheless, the spiritual birth does not abrogate the duty of obedience to parents and to government, but confirms it. Each, the physical and the spiritual birth, has its own proper domain.
According to your spiritual birth, you are a child of God and lord of all; but according to the physical, your parents and rulers are your betters and superiors, even though they may be less pious in God's sight than you. For it is God's intent and order that we esteem our parents and our government more highly than ourselves. The servant and the maid must have their master and mistress. Therefore you must say: "When
I move in the sphere of creation, then father and mother, master and mistress, king and prince rank far above me. Here I propose to be a pious son, for I must honor father and mother and acknowledge their higher station in life. And why? Well, this is God's design and order. He wants me to be a son, a servant, or a subject."
However, one must exercise caution and not confuse these two births. In matters pertaining to spiritual life the physical birth plays no role whatever. If you are a nobleman, do not pride yourself on your aristocratic birth, and do not torment your peasants and treat them like dogs. Do not imagine that, by virtue of your noble birth, you are better in God's sight than preacher, townsman, or peasant. And it is a fact that the nobility today regards all other classes as a stench in their nostrils. God did not grant you your nobility as a cause for conceit, but for useful service. The world cannot refrain from abusing these gifts. A nobleman acts as the peasant's tormentor and vampire; a rich citizen bleeds a poor one; so the peasant, too, will skin and flay the townspeople. This is the general custom in all walks of life. It has all degenerated into boasting and blustering. But God did not ordain it that way. This is not the purpose God had in mind with a king, a nobleman, a rich burgher. No, His plan was that these all were to be agents in the service of man's welfare.
Parents were not accorded their position solely that they may delight in their children or that they might enforce their every whim, much less that they might provoke them to anger and embitter them with harsh penalties, but that they might rear them in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Similarly,
God did not bestow power on rulers and regents that they might defiantly boast of this, levy taxes on their subjects at will, plague and suppress them in various ways, but that their subjects may lead "a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way" (1 Tim. 2:2), under their protection and patronage. St.
Peter also says that the rulers are sent by God "to punish those who do wrong and praise those who do right" (1 Peter 2:14). For such services one should willingly pay them taxes and tribute, and respect and honor them. The more exalted and distinguished one's position in life is, the more eager and intent one should be to counsel, to aid, and to comfort others. For whatever God may vouchsafe us, whether spiritual
- 44 or temporal gifts, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, power, riches, money and goods—all should be employed for the welfare and the betterment of our neighbor.
But the world does not do this; it misuses all creatures, money, wine, and grain. It is niggardly and stingy, it is ostentatious about everything. Whoever is rich, learned, or of noble birth, flaunts this showily before others and despises those who are not so fortunate. Nobody bears in mind that on Judgment Day
God will demand from everyone an accounting of how he carried on his office or calling. God will say: "I have favored you above others with nobility of birth, with a deep understanding, with wisdom, power, and riches. Have you used all these gifts for the welfare, the betterment, and the comfort of your neighbor?
Have you loved him as yourself?" And when your conscience confesses: "No, Lord, I did not befriend him in his need. I was bent only on my own advantage. I forsook him. I regarded all others as stupid," then
God will reply: "In view of this, depart from Me, you accursed, into the pit of hell, into eternal fire68 (Matt. 25:41). I did not create you and all My goods and pour them so lavishly into your lap to engender conceit and contempt for others in you but for their proper use and application." Likewise, God insists that a wife should not commit adultery, that the husband refrain from fornication and other villainy, and that they beget children in their married estate and comfort and help each other. Let him who abuses his gifts beware!
So St. John the Evangelist rejects the physical birth and position in life, no matter how high and noble, because it contributes nothing toward our becoming children of God. He also repudiates the Jews, to whose lineage Christ the Lord belonged, for boasting of their blood and presuming that their descent from Abraham would stand them in specially good stead. This they are wont to do to the present day, interpreting all the sayings of the prophets to mean that God performed great miracles, exterminated kingdoms and monarchies, out of respect for the blood of Abraham. Thus they claim to be preferred by God before others. But birth from a particular father and mother does not make one a child of God. If it were possible for a hundred thousand emperors to have been our progenitors, this would not accord us the slightest advantage in any filial relationship with God, since this would not give us birth for heaven. Yet God does not belittle physical birth and position in life; He preserves each with all its due dignity in the world. Yes, He commands that children honor their parents, though the latter may be poor beggars, that subjects obey the government, and also that parents and government use their office for the welfare and good of children and subjects and administer their office well. But all this does not earn them regeneration for life eternal.
The evangelist continues:
Nor of the will of the flesh.
As you have heard, the physical birth is, according to Scripture, the fountainhead of all other births and stations in life. It is followed by another birth: the birth of the will of the flesh. Others may, if they will, disagree with my interpretation and analysis of these words. This is my understanding of them:
Children "of the will of the flesh" are those not born to parents but theirs from choice, by adoption and appointment as heirs. By way of illustration: If a man marries a widow who has a son or a daughter by a husband now deceased, this son or daughter becomes the second husband's stepson or stepdaughter. Or take the instance where a childless couple adopts a boy or a girl who is not their natural flesh and blood.
Such children are termed "half children" or stepchildren in the Law of Moses.69 Nevertheless, they call their stepfather, to whom they are not related by blood, "Father" and their stepmother, "Mother." Likewise children of another type—let us call them legal children because they have been declared to be son or daughter by legal process and adoption—say "Father" and "Mother" to those who are not their natural parents. This is what St. John means when he speaks of those born "of the will of the flesh," that is, of man who is flesh.
It is true that such filial relationship is highly lauded by the world. It is generally found among prominent people who, without offspring of their own, adopt poor orphans as their children and heirs.
Poor people, of course, can scarcely support themselves and are little interested in finding heirs. But before God such a filial relationship has no standing, no matter how it may be eulogized by the world. For "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). Let it be and remain customary in the world for people to adopt children, who now become theirs by the statutes of law, namely, children "of the will of the flesh"; that is, let a person, whether man or woman, voluntarily and without constraint accept a child, son or daughter, not his by nature, with the resolve to regard this child as his own and appoint it heir of all his possessions. It was a common practice among the Jews, as it is in the world today, to say: "I will be your
- 45 father, and you shall be my son or daughter." But these children by will or by law are not necessarily God's children; such adoption does not make them children of God.
Let me make this clear. In the days of David and Solomon, when Judaism was in flower—also in the days of other kings, yes, at all times—many Greeks and other Gentiles joined the ranks of the Jews. They adopted their faith, their mode of worship and religion; they were circumcised, and they observed the laws of Moses in all respects as the Jews themselves did. These people were guests and strangers, not Jews by nature, not descended from the blood of Abraham; yet they were Abraham's seed by adoption. They were
Jewish proselytes, partaking of all the glories and honors of the Jews, who were Abraham's natural issue.
These proselytes might have ventured to boast: "We are better than the Gentiles, for we entered Jewry by law and by the will of the flesh or man. We are members of the chosen nation of God, we are God's children, and for this reason we propose to be saved." Then the evangelist would have intervened by saying: "No, whether you achieved this sonship by nature and blood or by law and adoption is immaterial.
It avails you nothing unless you come to Christ." For the will of the flesh is the will and statute of man.
Since only the will of man is operative here, there is no birth of God. Such persons are not the children of In brief, the evangelist refuses to recognize any filial relationship either by blood or by adoption, whether it be by a birth such as introduced by Eve or by a process of decision and law. These have no efficacy in the attainment of eternal life. To become children of God requires a different type of birth.
Nor of the will of man.
These two births, those of blood and of the will of the flesh, do not help us to become children of God and to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The third birth, termed by the evangelist "of the will of man," does not help either. This third type is exemplified by the custom of calling someone "father" as a token of respect and honor. To illustrate: We may address our pastor, preceptor, or teacher who teach and instruct us as "Father"; or these men may call their listeners parishioners or their pupils "sons." This is done by reason of their faith, their piety, or their obedience. Thus the prophets were called "fathers."70 Thus St.
Paul called Timothy (1 Tim. 1:2) and Titus (Titus 1:4) his sons. These men are fathers, not by blood or by adoption but by honor, which their listeners, who revere them as their masters and fathers, wish to accord them. And it is God's will that a venerable man be called father. Thus St. Paul bids Timothy to exhort the old men as fathers, to treat the young men as brothers, the old women as mothers, the young women as sisters (1 Tim. 5:1–2). And in Rom. 12:10 we read: "Outdo one another in showing honor." In Phil. 2:3:
"In humility count others better than yourselves." It is right and proper, honorable and pleasing, to follow this observance suggested and ordered by the holy apostle Paul that an old man address his young companion "Dear son"; that a young man address an old man or his instructor "Dear father"; and that a young woman and an elderly, respectable matron address each other as "Dear mother" and "Dear daughter."
But this third type of sonship does not achieve the sonship of God either; it does not justify before God. Even though I could truthfully boast: "I have heard Abraham and Moses, Samuel or David, Elijah and Isaiah," or even if I could claim to be a disciple of John the Baptist, yes, of Christ Himself, had heard
Him preach, and had witnessed His miracles—as some bragged to Paul: "Well, we have heard Christ Himself preach; and we suppose, Paul, this is something that you cannot claim"71—or even if Paul had been my preceptor and teacher—all this would not make me a child of God. Even if all the prophets and apostles had been my fathers, that is, my teachers, this would not make me any better than those whom they had not taught. St. John casts aside as a rotten apple everything of which man might be tempted to boast self-reliantly; he eliminates everything but the birth from God and recognizes as children of God only those who accept Christ. These alone shall be enabled and entitled to glory in the fact that God is their Father and that they are His children.
Nevertheless, one should not forget that the three types of fatherhood enumerated—by blood, by adoption, and by honor—are creations of God; they are pleasing to Him and confirmed by Him. And it is the will of God that children look up to, love, and esteem their fathers by blood, by adoption or law, or by honor; for God ordained that there should be differences in rank and position in the world. To honor our pastors, preachers, or preceptors, and to regard them as fathers even though there are no ties of blood, meets God's full approval. The same applies to our reverence or obedience toward the government, or to the honor shown pious and God-fearing people by using the appellation "father." Thus the servants of the Syrian Naaman called him "lord" and "father" as a mark of respect (2 Kings 5:3, 13). In emulating their
- 46 example we fulfill the will and counsel of an inspired man. Therefore this marks a good and useful, proper and godly work, a work entirely in accord with God's will and command. But in spite of all this it neither enables nor entitles us to call ourselves children of God. Such a demonstration of honor and obedience is, to be sure, a fine and precious virtue in the eyes of the world; but it is valueless before God if we think we shall be saved on the strength of it. For the purpose of salvation all this is dead and invalid; the requirements are far higher.
To repeat, these three categories of birth are good, useful, honorable, and God-pleasing, especially the birth of blood; for this was ordained and blessed by God for the purpose of begetting children in marriage.
God also takes delight in the other two types: the second, according to which those without offspring adopt others as their own and make them their heirs; the third, in which homage is paid parents, pastors, preceptors, rulers in conformity with God's will and command. To pay these honor is also conducive to the observance of all law and order and is the essence of all true virtue and good practice. But all things have been impaired and corrupted by original sin. They have no value before God. Indeed, they are absolutely useless as a way to salvation.
This is surely dealing summarily with all three of the aforementioned births, blasting anyone's hope of becoming a child of God on the basis of them. To become a child of God requires more, as already said, namely, that we accept Christ, the Son of God, our dear Lord, believe in His name from whom alone, and from no one else in heaven and earth, we receive the "power to become the children of God" (John 1:12), since we are not born "of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."
Thus we must sharply differentiate between the original creation and regeneration, which restores to us what we lost after creation. There is a vast difference between what is spoken of in this text and what is meant by "creation." It always remains true that a prince takes rank above a subject, that a father has authority over a son, and a master over a servant. God ordained this distinction and insists on its observance as His creation and ordinance. But such a distinction has no bearing on the filial relationship with God. Death terminates such a temporal differentiation. Maggots and snakes will one day consume our high social position and noble birth. We become children of God only through faith in Christ. We continue:
This is a new birth, which destroys and condemns any claims the preceding three may make, with all their worthiness and honor, for procuring salvation. To summarize what the evangelist has said thus far:
Through God's creation and blessing we were born of the blood of our parents; some poor, pitiable, and deserted children are adopted and reared as heirs by pious people; our students are pupils and disciples of their preceptors, whom they honor—some more, some less—according to the command and will of God, as their fathers. But the fatherhood by blood, by law, or by honor, justifies and saves neither the fathers nor the children. The high honor and glory of the sonship of God is attained solely through the birth of or from God, through believing in the name of the man called Jesus Christ, true and natural son of Mary, born of her in time and begotten eternally of the Father. This has been amply stated before. This Jesus
Christ, our Lord, alone imparts this birth, granting believers in Him the privilege, the right, and the power to become God's children. He alone bestows sonship. Therefore they and only they are children of God who are born of God, that is, who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of Mary. And these believers are not "born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."
Thus the evangelist annuls all glory, power, and might and says: It is of no advantage for salvation to be emperor, king, prince, wise, learned, or rich. For all human beings, those of high and of low estate, are flesh; and "all flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God will stand forever" (Is. 40:6–8). Whoever remains faithful to the Word and accepts the testimony of John—also impressively emphasized by Isaiah's testimony to Christ in chapter forty—and believes in Christ's name, falls heir to this inexpressible glory of sonship with God, whether he be emperor or king, burgher, peasant, servant, shepherd, or beggar. Thus all, without exception, whether male or female, who hear the Word of Christ and believe in Him are privileged and able to say in truth:
"Through Christ I am God's child and heir of all His heavenly goods, and God is my Father."
Therefore we should feel impelled gladly to give ear to this blessed proclamation; and if it were not so close at hand, we should even be willing to crawl on our knees more than a hundred miles to get it, and then engrave it deeply in our hearts for our assurance. For anyone who would believe firmly that he is
- 47 actually God's child, would be a blessed man, secure from, and unafraid of, any mishap that may befall, of the devil, of sin, and of death.
This is the proclamation of the Gospel. It is decidedly different from that found in the books of the philosophers, of the sages of the world, of the asinine pope, and of his scribblers. Even at their best, they can offer no bit of advice with regard to the question under discussion. And yet, I regret to say, they have far more adherents than the dear Gospel, which is the exclusive possession of the Christians, as the Lord says: "The poor have the Gospel preached to them" (Matt. 11:5). May God help us to accept this proclamation of the Gospel, so that we may be found among that small group to which the words of the evangelist refer: "But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God."72
14. And the Word became flesh.73
In our text the Word gets a new name. Earlier in our chapter the evangelist called the Word God, then a Light which came into the world and created the world and yet was not accepted by the world. Now he uses the term "flesh." He condescends to assume my flesh and blood, my body and soul. He does not become an angel or another magnificent creature; He becomes man. This is a token of God's mercy to wretched human beings; the human heart cannot grasp or understand, let alone express it. However, we
Christians can at least learn to prize and esteem these words; they were acknowledged and preserved even in the papacy. Although the Antichrist in Rome and the devil frightfully mutilated and perverted all that is divine in the church, God nevertheless miraculously preserved Holy Scripture—even though it was darkened and dimmed under the pope's accursed rule—and passed it down to our day. Thus God also preserved these words of the Gospel, which were read from the pulpit every Sunday, although without the proper understanding. Also the words of the Decalog, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, as well as Baptism and one kind in the Sacrament have survived under the pope's devilish regime. God restrained him from destroying and treading everything underfoot. Although the Gospel was obscured and the proper understanding of it was hidden, God still kept it for the salvation of His own. These words, too, "And the Word became flesh," were held in reverence. They were sung daily in every Mass in a slow tempo and were set to a special melody, different from that for the other words.74 And when the congregation came to the words "from the Virgin Mary, and was made man," everyone genuflected and removed his hat.75 It would still be proper and appropriate to kneel at the words "and was made man," to sing them with long notes as formerly, to listen with happy hearts to the message that the Divine Majesty abased Himself and became like us poor bags of worms, and to thank God for the ineffable mercy and compassion reflected in the incarnation of the Deity. But who can ever do justice to that theme?
The dear church fathers took particular delight in these words; they set great store by them, and they praised God, as we read here and there in their books, for the great honor conferred on us when He humbled himself and assumed our flesh and blood. In Heb. 2:16 we hear: "He did not take on Himself the nature of angels, but humbled Himself and He took on the seed of Abraham." He became our flesh and blood. Who can express this adequately? The angels are much holier than we poor sinners, and yet He adopted our nature and became incarnate from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary.
This fact elicited the awe of St. Bernard and gave rise to many fine thoughts, found especially in his devotions. He gave it as his opinion that this had caused the archfiend Lucifer's fall and eviction from heaven.76 Perhaps Lucifer, so St. Bernard supposed, had fore-knowledge of God's eternal resolution to become a man in time, and not an angel. This provoked his insolence against God. He was aware, of course, that he was a creature more beautiful and excellent in appearance than man. This also aroused his envy of mankind; he begrudged man the high honor of God's assumption of human nature. This vexed him and his companions. They became envious when they learned that God would despise them and assume human nature. Therefore Lucifer and his hosts fell and were driven out of heaven.
For if an emperor were to place a beggar at the head of his table and were to assign the seats at the lower end to great and mighty lords, kings, princes, to learned scholars and wise counselors, they would certainly be amazed and humiliated by this act. We human beings on earth cannot do better than the elder son, of whom we read in Luke 15:25–30. His brother, the prodigal son, the reveler and rake, was now reduced to begging and had returned. In welcome his father had butchered a fatted calf for this spoiled son, who had devoured his living with harlots and knaves, whereas the father had never given even a kid to him who always obeyed his commands. When the elder brother heard all this, he became angry and jealous.
- 48 St. Bernard thought that Lucifer and his company were similarly affected when they learned that God was to become a man and not an angel. And if we really ponder the matter, we cannot but conclude that it would have been far more reasonable and honorable for God to adopt the nature of His noblest creatures, the angels, than that of sinful human nature, which had imbibed the poison of the old serpent, the devil, in Paradise. God's assumption of human nature and the union of God and man in the person of Christ is comparable to placing a filthy sow at table and chasing away holy and pious people.
Furthermore, St. Bernard said that the good angels rejoiced at the time and said: "If this arrangement is pleasing to God, our Lord and Creator, then it is also pleasing to us." And they remained in heaven and recognized Christ as their Lord and God. This is verified in Matt. 28:6, where the angel says to Mary
Magdalene and to other women: "Come, see the place where the Lord lay."
Although these ideas expressed by St. Bernard do not constitute an article of faith, they do sound plausible. It is indeed annoying to our nature to see God Himself take on this poor, feeble, and corrupt human nature, and disdain the holy, glorious, angelic nature. Thus St. Bernard's heart and mind gave free play to his reflections on the words of our text, and his meditations betoken his wondering delight over them. That is also what he wants to convey to and impress on us.
The dear fathers, I say, were amazed that the divine majesty assumed every aspect of this bag of worms, our human nature, except sin and guiltiness of death. He ate, drank, slept, waked, etc.; but He was not born in sin as we were. To be sure, this is so indescribable and inexplicable that anyone who really believes it must needs wonder. Yes, heaven, earth, and every creature must be awe-stricken at the thought that God should regard man dearer and nobler than an angel, although man is really a wretched creature by comparison. God's preference for the human nature over the angelic might well arouse envy. But all this should make us meditate on the great glory that is ours. For the angels in heaven rejoice over the incarnation. This is why they constantly surround the Lord and serve Him. This is why they were about His grave when He arose from the dead.
Therefore the holy fathers had good reason to contemplate these words so much: "And was made man." It would not be out of place for us still to weep for joy. Even if I should never be saved—which God forbid!—this thought would still fill me with joy: that Christ, who is of my flesh, blood, and soul, is sitting in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, and that such an honor has been conferred on my frame, flesh, and blood. As St. Bernard further deliberated on these words, he derived some very comforting thoughts from them. He said: "Now I can see that God my Lord is not angry with me; for He is my flesh and blood and sits at the right hand of the heavenly Father as Lord over all creatures. If He were ill-disposed toward me, He would not have taken on my flesh and blood."77 We, too, should contemplate these words, "And was made man," with reverent awe and sing them with long notes as is done in church.78 This is proper and right, since all our comfort and joy against sin, death, devil, hell, and despair revolve about them and nothing else.
The following tale is told about a coarse and brutal lout. While the words "And was made man" were being sung in church, he remained standing, neither genuflecting nor removing his hat. He showed no reverence, but just stood there like a clod. All the others dropped to their knees when the Nicene Creed was prayed and chanted devoutly. Then the devil stepped up to him and hit him so hard it made his head spin. He cursed him gruesomely and said: "May hell consume you, you boorish ass! If God had become an angel like me and the congregation sang: 'God was made an angel,' I would bend not only my knees but my whole body to the ground! Yes, I would crawl ten ells down into the ground. And you vile human creature, you stand there like a stick or a stone. You hear that God did not become an angel but a man like you, and you just stand there like a stick of wood!" Whether this story is true or not, it is nevertheless in accordance with the faith (Rom. 12:6). With this illustrative story the holy fathers wished to admonish the youth to revere the indescribably great miracle of the incarnation; they wanted us to open our eyes wide and ponder these words well.
I have also read of a number of people who, when persistently assailed by the devil, crossed themselves and spoke these words: "The Word became flesh," or the equivalent: "I am a Christian!" with the result that the devil was beaten and put to flight and their peace of mind was restored. And I believe this to be true, so long as the words are spoken from a believing heart. Little is gained against the devil with a lengthy disputation; but a brief word and reply such as this is effective: "I am a Christian, of the same flesh and blood as my Lord Christ, the Son of God. You settle with Him, devil!" Such a retort would soon make him depart.
- 49 It is certain that if anyone could speak these words "And the Word became flesh" in true faith and with strong confidence in hours of the greatest temptation, he would be delivered from his trouble and distress; for the devil fears these words when they are uttered by a believer. I have often read and also witnessed it myself that many, when alarmed and distraught, spoke these words "And the Word became flesh" and at the same time made the sign of the cross, and thereby routed the devil. Belief in these words was so powerful that it overcame the world and the devil. There is another story or legend which is told about the devil. He was listening unmoved as the initial words of the Gospel of St. John were being read: "In the beginning was the Word." But when the words "And the Word became flesh" were pronounced, he vanished.79 And again, whether this story is truth or fiction, the fact remains that the devil will surely take to his heels before anyone who speaks or meditates on these words in true faith. That the Son of God is the Light and Life of mankind is a thought he can bear. He chuckles contentedly inside himself when he observes that man does not accept Christ, as St. John declared in verse eleven of our chapter. But the words "God became man" knock all his thoughts to pieces.
It is, however, a frightful misuse and a piece of witchery to write the words "In the beginning was the Word" on a slip of paper, incase this in a quill or some other container, and hang it around one's neck or somewhere else; or to read these words as a protective charm against thunder and storm, as was customary in the papacy. Sorcerers also have the habit of misusing the names of Jesus, Mary; of the four evangelists,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; of the holy three kings; also the words: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" in connection with their knavery and whoremongering.80
The godless do this in Imitation of the apostles, their disciples, and many pious bishops and saints of a later day, who performed signs and wonders if they spoke only a few words from the Gospel. The godless also uttered these words with the intention of performing such miracles. The Jews declare that Jesus had wrought miracles with the help of the Tetragrammaton.81 And they supposed that by repeating this, though without faith, they could do the same thing. Luke cites an example in Acts 19:13.
But, brother, not that way. You are making it a work without faith. There is a world of difference between the words of a believer and those of an unbeliever. If faith is wanting, there is no power in the words. Unless the devil wants to strengthen an error thereby, he does not care at all if a godless papist or a sorcerer uses the same words that a Christian quotes in faith. A Christian's words, however, the devil cannot ignore. And if you speak the words in faith, it will be done to you in accord with those words; they cannot but be effective. Therefore there is a great difference between him who speaks these words in faith and him who employs them for sorcery. Every sorcerer feigns holiness, saying: "You must recite the Lord's Prayer three or five times and pronounce the names Jesus, Mary, Luke, and John; also the words:
'The Word became flesh.' " Without these words, they say, their magic is impotent. They declare: "After all, those are good words, found in Holy Scripture." May the devil take such wisdom! These words were not given for you to misuse; you are to believe them, in order that you may get your wish and desire in and through faith. But your disregard of faith and your practice of sorcery and monkey business is a shameful abuse of these words.
Such a fellow was Simon Magus. When he observed that the Holy Spirit was imparted visibly through the laying on of the apostles' hands (Acts 8:18–19), he offered them money, saying: "Give this power to me, too, that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." He did not care about faith;
Ms sole concern was the acquisition of the power to transmit the Holy Spirit to others. This gift he wanted to purchase from the apostles; then he wanted to work miracles without faith. He wanted to degrade it to an object of barter, convert it into a fair, where he would fleece others with this gift. St. Peter answered him severely, saying (Acts 8:20): "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money." The words of our text are meant for those who believe them, not for those who mumble them without faith. But since these knaves discovered that the holy fathers used these words for their protection, they began to practice magic with them.
One reads of a holy nun who said no more than "I am a Christian" when assailed by the devil.82 And with these words she protected herself against the devil, who was forced to leave her. I am inclined to believe this story; for many a pious soul was kept wonderfully in the true faith through God's grace while in the papacy, as Abraham was in Ur of the Chaldees and Lot in Sodom. It is true that whoever could sing such words against the terrors of the devil and against the evil world would never be duped by the devil. It is a small word, but it is pregnant with meaning and power. Wherever it is spoken in faith, the devil cannot abide. But in the mouth of an adulterer, a whoremonger, or a miser the word profits nothing.
- 50 Therefore we should constantly have such and similar words in our heart and on our lips. We should learn not to argue with the devil when he tempts us; for he surpasses us by far in might, cunning, and understanding—even of Holy Scripture. We should beat him off curtly with the words "The Word became flesh" or "I am a Christian" or "I believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and became man." Then see what he will accomplish!
It is not surprising if an unbeliever parrots these Scriptural words of a believer without effect, for there is no power without faith. Therefore the dear fathers accomplished much by writing so much and so often about these words: "The Word became flesh"; "And was made man." This was done to inculcate reverence for them. Formerly, during the papacy, one uncovered the head, genuflected, or, in some places, even knelt during the chanting or reading of these words. Now we can sing and hear them with far greater and holier joy, because today, thank God, we know and understand what an indescribable treasure is offered, yes, is given us through these words. For those who accept and retain them in faith are the children of God.
To summarize, no angel, much less a prophet or apostle, can fully express the truth that the eternal Son of God, who, according to Is. 53:9 and 1 Peter 2:22, "committed no sin, and no guile was found on His lips," and, for that reason, was not guilty of death, yet became incarnate for our comfort and salvation.
Yes, He became a curse and sin for us, in order to deliver us from the eternal curse and to justify us (Gal.
3:13; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21).
Thus the evangelist John preached of the Word, which was in the beginning, which was with God the Father, which was eternal God with the Father, through which all things were created, which was the Life and Light of mankind shining into the darkness, which came into the world, which dwelt among men, and, in spite of this, was not recognized by man. However, that He might be made manifest, God sent John the Baptist to go before Him to bear witness of Him. But the great multitude paid John's testimony no heed.
And when Christ came into His own, preached, and wrought miracles, His own did not accept Him. But to those who did receive Him He gave power to become the children of God. All this we have now covered in detail.
John fails to mention Mary, the Lord's mother, with as much as a word. Luke, however, does write at some length in his second chapter about Christ's birth from her in Bethlehem. John gave the mother scant attention. Paul also disposes of her with the brief words "born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4). For the greater the men of God and the larger the measure of the Spirit in them, the greater the diligence and attention they devote to the Son rather than to the mother. The outstanding men have always insisted that we fasten our gaze on the fruit, that is, the Son of God, who made and created all, who is the Light of the world, and who became true man. To be sure, Mary was a holy, pure, and chaste virgin, favored among women, as the angel assured her in Luke 1:42 and as she herself sang in her song: "Henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48). But her one concern was the incarnation of the true Son of God. John refers to Mary in chapter two of his Gospel. Here he reports that Christ almost chided her at the marriage at Cana, saying to her: "O woman, what have you to do with Me?" His one purpose was the proper portrayal of the person of Christ.
And the Word became flesh.
The evangelist states: "The same Word of which I declared that it was in the beginning, through which all things were made, which was the Life and Light of man, became flesh." In Scriptural parlance "flesh" denotes a complete human being, as in John 3:6, where we read: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
It goes without saying that of a woman both body and soul are born, not an inanimate mass of flesh, a physical being of flesh and blood, designated by Scripture with that one word "flesh." Similarly, fleshly wisdom, glory, power, and strength are the equivalent of what we in the German tongue call human wisdom, glory, power, and whatever may be great and glorious in the world.
Thus the most precious treasure and the strongest consolation we Christians have is this: that the Word, the true and natural Son of God, became man, with flesh and blood like that of any other human; that He became incarnate for our sakes in order that we might enter into great glory, that our flesh and blood, skin and hair, hands and feet, stomach and back might reside in heaven as God does, and in order that we might boldly defy the devil and whatever else assails us. We are convinced that all our members belong in heaven as heirs of heavens realm.
We have already heard how Axius, Cerinthus, and other heretics impugned the article concerning the deity of Christ. Heretics also arose to call His humanity into question. They asserted that Christ, the true
- 51 Son of God, was without a soul, inferring this from the fact that the evangelist failed to make mention of a soul but merely said: "And the Word became flesh." Thus the Apollinarists83 alleged that Christ adopted only a human body, but not both body and soul; they declared that His divinity replaced the soul. They were stupid asses. It would be lust as logical to say that Christ had no body either; for "flesh" and "body" are not identical. But we cannot be mistaken, because we follow Scripture, which says in the story of the creation of Adam and Eve: "They will become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). Into our language we translate this:
"Adam and Eve will become one body." In Scriptural usage the word "flesh" embraces both body and soul, for without the soul the body is dead.
In spite of the fact that throughout Scripture body and soul, together with all their capacities, are called flesh, those stupid asses take the word to mean the kind of flesh dogs and wolves have. Those people have no understanding of Scripture. The text "The Word became flesh" supports our position. "The Word," that is, the eternal Son of God, "became flesh," that is, became man, born of the Virgin Mary. In the German language the word "body"84 does not denote a corpse; it denotes a living person in possession of body and soul. Therefore the view referred to is rank heresy and is easily detected. And we should gladly hear sermons on this article of faith, accept it in true faith and with a happy heart, and praise and thank God for inviting us to this blessed proclamation.
It is true, the evangelist might have said: "The Word became man." However, he adapts himself to Scriptural parlance and says: "He became flesh." He does so to point out its weakness and its mortality.
For Christ took on the human nature, which was mortal and subject to the terrible wrath and judgment of God because of the sins of the human race. And this anger was felt by the weak and mortal flesh of Christ.
With that word "flesh" the evangelist wanted to indicate this inexpressible humiliation. Isaiah says (53:10): "When You make His soul," that is, His life, "an offering for sin, He shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days." And St. Paul writes to the Galatians (3:13):85 "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us."
But we are not to assume that the evangelist used the word "flesh" lightly. Human reason cannot comprehend the magnitude of God's anger over sin. Therefore it does not fathom Paul's full meaning when he says that God had made Christ a sin and curse for our sakes (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). But the dear
Lord was fully aware of this; He felt and endured the great and terrible wrath of God so that "His sweat became like great drops of blood" and an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43–44).
The same Word, which became man, Mary suckled and carried in her arms as any other mother does her child. He came to men, lived and dwelt among them. Thus it was no ghost but a true man, "taking the form of a servant," as St. Paul says (Phil. 2:7), "being born in the likeness of man" with regard to seeing, hearing, speaking, eating, drinking, sleeping, and waking, so that all who saw and heard Him were constrained to confess and say that He was a true and natural man. He did not withdraw from people, retire into some shelter, escape into the desert, where no one could hear, see, or touch Him. But He appeared publicly, preaching and performing miracles, thereby enabling all the people who were about Him, among whom He moved and lived, to hear and touch Him. Thus John says in the beginning of his epistle: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands" (1 John 1:1). And at the same time He was the Word of life and the Creator of all creatures. All this is what the evangelist wants to convey with the words: "And dwelt among us." He was no ghost; He was a true man. St. Paul bears this out in Phil. 2:6, where he says: "Though He was in the form of God, He did not think it robbery to be equal with God but took upon Himself the form of a servant and was like any other man."
The heretical Manichaeans, knaves that they were, took offense at the assertion that the Son of God had become man.86 To embellish their error, they reigned great saintliness and profound wisdom, saying that it was an insult to the divine majesty to claim that He had been born from poor and sin-corrupted, impure and mortal flesh, and from the flesh of a woman at that. They protested that it was impossible that the divine purity, which exceeds the brightness of the sun, should submerge itself into this vile slime.
Therefore they averred that Mary was not the true, natural, and physical mother of Christ. They used the analogy of a piece of red glass, which casts a red shadow on the wall, where it can be clearly seen although the wall is, in fact, not red in color; or of a sunbeam, which shines through a piece of blue glass and casts a blue reflection. Thus, they claimed, a shadow or phantom passed through Mary, like a ghost that has no real body or soul. They claimed that Christ had only resembled a man, but, in reality, was no - 52 true human. Thus they reduced Him to a ghost; this implies, of course, that the Jews crucified an incorporeal phantom.
In this way they tried to make their heresy palatable. And, in fact, they did succeed in seducing many good people; for this is a glittering and glistening heresy. St. Augustine lay ensnared in it for nine whole years, and he would have remained there had not the assiduous praying of his mother Monica liberated him.87 It sounds shocking when these people claim that Christ neither ate nor drank and that the Jews crucified a phantom, not the real Christ. By their denial of Christ's humanity, at which they took offense, they wished to pay homage to God.
But we believe the Scriptures and confess with holy Christendom, which existed at all times and will endure till the end of the world, that this article of our holy Christian creed, together with all others, is firmly and solidly established by the testimony of the holy prophets and apostles, the spokesmen of the Holy Spirit: that Christ, our Lord and God, assumed true human nature, not the nature of an immaterial phantom, and that He became a natural man like any other man of flesh and blood. He did not flutter about like a spirit, but He dwelt among men. He had eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chest, stomach, hands, and feet, just as you and I do. He took the breast. His mother nursed Him as any other child is nursed. He acted as any other human does. He was born as a true man from the Virgin Mary; the one difference, however, was that He was not born in sin as we are, that "He committed no sin, and no guile was found on His lips" (Is.
When the evangelist declared that Christ dwelt among us, he meant to say: "He did not appear like the angel Gabriel, who came to Mary with God's command and then soon departed from her; for angels do not tarry long in visible form among mankind. Christ, however, remained with us according to His human nature, which was inseparably united with the divine since His incarnation. Into His thirty-fourth year He ate and drank with us, He was angry and sad, He prayed and He wept. He executed His Father's mission, suffered persecution and death in the end at the hands of His own people. And thus the Jews crucified the true Son of God, the Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8); and we saw His blood oozing forth and flowing to the ground."
This is the article of faith which we Christians believe, which is our greatest consolation, and by means of which we become children of God. We should not engage in lengthy debates about whether the fact that God became man redounds to God's glory or to His disgrace; but we should accept it gladly and with all our hearts as something for our welfare and comfort, and we should thank God for it sincerely.
We have beheld His glory.
What does this mean? The evangelist wants to say that Christ not only demonstrated His humanity with His actions, by dwelling among the people so that they could see Him, hear Him, speak with Him, and live near Him until His thirty-fourth year, by suffering cold, hunger, and thirst in this feeble and wretched human form and nature, but that He also displayed His glory and power in proof of His divinity.
Of this He gave proof with His teaching, His preaehing, His signs and wonders, convincing anyone of His Godhead who was not blinded and hardened by the devil, as the high priests and scribes were. By word and deed He proved that He was God by nature: He healed the sick and raised the dead; in short, He wrought more and greater miracles than any prophet before Him, in fact, than any other human being ever was able to do.
By way of illustration, as God brought forth heaven and earth through the Word, that is, through Him, even so He, too, performed all that He wished by uttering a word. For instance: "Little girl, I say to you, arise" (Mark 5:41); and: "Young man, I say to you, arise" (Luke 7:14); and: "Lazarus, come out!" (John
11:43); and to the paralytic: "Rise, take up your bed and go home, be delivered of your sickness" (Matt.
9:6); and to the lepers: "Be clean!" (Matt. 8:3; Luke 17:14). In a similar way He fed 5,000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish, prompting those who witnessed this miracle to say: "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world" (John 6:14). When a great storm arose on the sea and the Lord rebuked the winds and the sea, all those in His ship marveled, saying: "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?" (Matt. 8:27). With His words He also exorcised the evil spirits. All this He could accomplish with a single word.
As of the Only-begotten of the Father.
This is the first time John calls the Word the only-begotten Son of the Father. In these words: "As of the Only-begotten of the Father" you have the evangelists own explanation and the answer to your
- 53 question regarding the meaning of his words: "In the beginning was the Word"; "All things were made through the Word"; "He was the Life and Light of men." Here you hear his own interpretation of them:
"The Word, which was with the Father from eternity and is the Light of man, is called the Son, yes, the only.begotten Son of God. He alone is that, and no one else." Here we find the idea clearly stated which the evangelist wanted to convey earlier with the term "Word." Henceforth he intends to preach plainly of the kingdom of Christ. Hitherto he has done so with odd and obscure expressions which lack clarity in any language. But now he says: "This is God's only-begotten Son."
God has many sons and daughters besides; but He has only one only-begotten Son, of whom it is said that all was created through Him. The other sons are not the Word, through which all things were made; but they themselves were created through this only-begotten Son, who is coequal Creator of heaven and earth with the Father. All others became sons through the only-begotten Son, who is our God and Lord.
There are many begotten sons; He alone is the only-begotten Son, begotten in the Godhead from eternity.
Thus the Word, through which all things are made and preserved, was made flesh, that is, man, was born according to the flesh from the seed of Abraham and David, dwelt among us, and redeemed us from the curse and the power of the devil. By virtue of His incarnation and His eternal and glorious divinity we poor mortals who believe in His name become children of God, and God becomes our Father. We emphasize that Christ alone is, as St. Paul declares (Rom. 1:4), the only-begotten Son of God, through whom God creates, rules, and makes all things.
We must treasure this text and take comfort from it in hours of sadness and temptation. Whoever lays hold of it in faith is lifted out of his distress, for he is a child of eternal bliss. And to this honor he falls heir through the only-begotten Son, who is God from eternity. Now this Gospel begins to be lucid and clear.
Until now the evangelist employed peculiar expressions, uncommon in any language, saying: "In the beginning was the Word"; "through the Word the world was made"; and "the Word became flesh." Who ever heard such speech before? But now all becomes plain and evident. Now the evangelist says: "The Word, of which I have spoken to you, is the only-begotten Son of God, true God and Creator with the Father, differing only in this, that He was born of the Father, and the Father not from Him." Thus we confess and pray: "And in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son." In Gen. 1:3 we find a similar expression:
"God said." And, as already stated, John here adds the explanation.
That Jesus Christ is very God and very man, the only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten of Him in eternity, and born of the Virgin Mary in time, and that believers in Him are redeemed from sin and all evil
—this is our Christian faith. This alone makes us Christians. It makes us adopted sons of God, but not His natural children; for Christ, our Head, alone is the natural, true, and only-begotten Son of God the Father.
This Gospel should be highly prized and regarded by us, as the holy fathers also regarded it.88 For whoever has the Son is free from trouble, for then he is a child of God. Although he is not the only-begotten Son of God, he nonetheless becomes a son of God through Him, and as such he is His coheir and brother.
The evangelist also stated that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," as any human being dwells among men. We have learned that Christ was a natural man, and then we also beheld His glory as that of the only-begotten Son of the Father. This glory was demonstrated when He raised the dead and when He Himself arose from the dead by divine power. Thus He said in John 10:18: "I have power to lay
My life down, and I have power to take it again." After His resurrection He showed Himself alive for forty days, imparting the Holy Spirit. Thus the same Word that became incarnate is "full of grace and truth."
Accordingly, the evangelist differentiates between Christ and the patriarchs, Moses, and all the prophets; he exalts Him above all the others. It is as if he were saying: "In all ages there have been great men, though in some more than in others. For example, there were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, all of whom proved by word and deed that they were friends and children of God. God worked many great miracles through them; they preached and taught, and their sermons and teachings were passed on to us as our inheritance through the records of Holy Writ. For this reason they were excellent and great men even in the eyes of the world. They believed in Christ as their
Savior who was to come; and thus they were children of God, born of and from God, the same as we.
They proved themselves by word and deed; and the glory we perceive in them is divine, not physical and earthly. The Old Testament Scriptures also bear witness to this. Nevertheless, they are in no respect comparable to the Word that became flesh."89
Thus the evangelist sets the only-begotten Son of God apart from all the other children of God and from the saints by saying: "We have beheld His glory." He was not like the other children of God, who - 54 have only a measure of grace and truth. He alone, the evangelist wants to say, is "full of," or is, sheer grace and truth "as of the Only-begotten of the Father." For He manifested Himself as different from, and far more glorious than, all other sons and children on earth. Therefore He ranks high above all God's adoptive children. His is a peculiar and special glory from the Father, since He is separated from, and preferred above, all other children and sons. In Ps. 45:7 we find this corroborated: "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with oil of gladness above Thy fellows." His whole life demonstrated that He was not one of the ordinary children.
On the occasion of His Baptism God the Father testified from heaven that this was His beloved Son, with whom He was well pleased; and the Holy Spirit descended and alighted on Him in the form of a dove
(Matt. 3:16–17). For this reason He is not a son of God in the sense in which Abraham and David are sons of God. He is the Exemplar,90 the Head of all the children of God, and the only-begotten Son of God, as we confess in the articles of our Christian Creed: "I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father."
The word "only" separates Him from all other sons. We who believe in His name are, as already said, also children of God, born of God through Baptism or the washing of the Word. But He is the Head and the First-born among His brethren (Rom. 8:29), the only Son, through whom all the others gain their sonship.
This knowledge makes it unnecessary to look for many saviors and mediators. For we acquire this sonship neither through the holiness of the patriarchs or the prophets nor through the innocence of the angels but solely through the only Son, the only-begotten Son of the Father. In the papacy we tried to become sons of God through the intercession of St. Christopher, St. Barbara, Mary, and other saints; but this was futile.
In Christ's miracles, wrought not only before but also since His resurrection, when He sent His Spirit from heaven to preserve His church against all sects and tyrants, as He does to the present day, we find ample proof that Christ is the most exalted and the first-born Son, who imparts to all who believe in His name the power and ability to become children of God. Abraham, David, Elijah, Peter, and Paul are also children of God. But they cannot confer upon others the power, the right, and the freedom to become
God's children; rather they themselves are recipients of it from Christ, as all the other believers are. He alone is the only natural Son of God, in possession of this power and prerogative by virtue of His eternal birth from the Father. Through Him as the only-begotten Son of the Father all things were made, and through no one else. And that we are coheirs of grace, of eternal life, and of salvation we owe exclusively to Him. Therefore we should joyfully praise and thank God that we, who are mere foundlings and not God's children by nature and birth, should advance to such power and glory, that as many of us as believe in His name are accepted as children of grace and are born of God from water and the Spirit (John 3:5).
Thus Christ fully deserves to be called the only-begotten Son of the Father, for by nature no one is like Him. We are not children by nature, but we are heirs by grace. Therefore it is comforting to hear Christ say to us: "Where I am, there you shall be also" (John 14:3). And: "Because I live, you will live also"
(John 14:19). This knowledge should satisfy us. We should feel impelled to thank the dear Lord heartily that we live as sons by grace and mercy, though not by nature, as He does. From the fact that there are so many of us who were born of mercy and grace it necessarily follows that we cannot be the only Son of God, as Christ is, who was born from the divine nature of the Father from eternity.
Full of grace and truth.
We Christians must learn to familiarize ourselves with this phraseology or diction of Holy Writ, indeed of the Holy Spirit, which is so strange to the heathen, to the worldly-wise, and to all unbelievers.
This is the evangelist's meaning: "The Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, whose sermons we heard and whose miracles we witnessed, lived and deported Himself in such a manner as to constrain us to say that He is the true and natural Son of God, full of grace and truth."
To bring about a better understanding of these words, we must contrast Adam and Christ. Through Adam's disobedience and fall original sin was passed on to us, so that we also fell victim to sin and death and incurred God's anger, His damnation, and eternal punishment. Thus we see nothing but God's wrath and disfavor in Adam. We find it reflected in our own wretched, burdensome, and brief life on earth, in all sorts of distress, in sickness, fear, want, misery, and grief, and, in the end, in death. This is why our harassed world laments and complains about this woeful life. Our daily experience also tells us that no one is sure of life even for a moment. One dies of the plague, another drowns, a third one is stabbed to death.
And there is nothing more malodorous and filthier than the human carcass. For this reason we hurry to bury it, and in the grave it feeds the maggots. Although human misery is a daily spectacle, it usually affects few people until it strikes them directly. This world is a veritable vale of tears, an abode of sadness,
- 55 a cheerless desert; for we behold Adam and all men full of God's disfavor, displeasure, wrath, curse, and condemnation. Adam is not full of grace.
By contrast, nothing but grace, love, peace, joy, and favor is evident in Christ. All of these are lavishly and profusely His, since He is the dear Child of the heavenly Father. Therefore He is a far different man from Adam. The comparison between the two is like that of devil and angel. Whatever Christ says and does pleases God; His acts and words are none but the best. In Is. 42:1 God says: "Behold My Chosen, in whom My soul delights." During Christ's Baptism in the Jordan and also on Mt. Tabor the Father Himself called down from heaven in public testimony and said: "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him" (Matt. 3:17; Matt. 17:5).91
Christ's words: "Your sins are forgiven" (Matt. 9:2) and those addressed to the deceased Lazarus:
"Come out!" (John 11:43) are both well spoken and also well executed. And the Father adds His yea and amen to these words, so that everything Christ says and does is sheer grace, love, and joy; for He is the Favorite, the only-begotten Son, who can do nothing amiss. Therefore we must never doubt the Word of Christ, our Lord. We must have our children baptized in accordance with His command and receive the blessed Sacrament; then God the Father will be well pleased for the sake of His beloved and only-begotten
Son, through whom He made us acceptable and "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world"
(Eph. 1:4). And, as John tells us later: "From His fullness have we all [he includes himself] received grace upon grace" (John 1:16).
By using the words "full of grace and truth" the evangelist paints for us the most charming and appealing picture of Christ. He wants to say: To Christ, and to no other, is the verse recorded in Is. 53:9 applicable: "There was no deceit in His mouth." He is "full of grace and truth." In brief, everything in Christ is well pleasing to God. The Father loves Him and is affectionately and kindly disposed toward
Him. The Father finds no defect and no blemish in Him. It is not only grace that prompts the Father to be delighted with everything the Son says and does; no, all that He says and does is also perfect in itself, so that the Father has nothing to condone in Him. Christ Himself says in John 5:30: "I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me." He loves the Father with all His heart.
The saints in this world were not like this. They always did what displeased God; they were sinners.
Moses was a great and holy prophet with whom God Himself conversed and through whom He transmitted the Law to the people of Israel. However, no matter how holy he was, he was nevertheless a sinner and was barred from entering the Land of Promise (Num. 20:12). Abraham, that distinguished, great, and saintly man, worshiped idols in Chaldea (Josh. 24:2). Aaron, too, was tainted with sin. In short, in all the saints from Adam clown to our day we detect flaws. Therefore you must say: "They were human." The promise of Christ was not given to Abraham because of any inherent worthiness and holiness; for before God called him from Chaldea, he had served idols, as we find recorded in Josh. 24:2.
And Abraham's own words: "I am but dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27) offer ample proof that he placed no reliance in his own glory. The patriarchs who followed were all sinners—Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron.
The Spirit of God does not lie when He says: "All men have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). I make bold to declare that David, who is eulogized above others, also fell into gross and grave sin, to say nothing at all of his greatest sin. Thus all the other saints had ugly, large blots and blemishes in their character. Peter denied
Christ; Paul persecuted Him. If they had not been under the great, broad heaven of grace and forgivness, the devil would besmirch them and us too.
But here we behold the only Son of God, of whom Isaiah declared that He did no violence (Is. 53:9); and St. Peter says that He committed no sin and that no violence was found on His lips (1 Peter 2:22). All
His thoughts, words, and deeds were good, beneficial, and salutary. And through this only-begotten Son of the Father, of whom St. John says that He alone was "full of grace and truth," all believers from the beginning to the end of the world are blessed, sanctified, made children of God, and redeemed from the curse, not through their own sanctity, miracles, and praiseworthy deeds, no matter how enlightened and endowed with divine gifts they may be.
But someone may interpose: "What if all this is but a fallacious hope? What if this follows the pattern of the world, where one person may be shown mercy for a certain reason and this same mercy may be withheld from another? What if this grace of Christ is also spurious?" No, says the evangelist, this is not a fictitious and false grace; it is a grace free from hypocrisy, deceit, and duplicity; it makes all the words and actions of the Son not only pleasing to the Father, dear to Him, and cherished, but also genuine, and sincere, and the absolute truth. It is a real grace. Christ did not have to earn this grace; it was His by - 56 nature. This grace and truth are, therefore, pure and genuine by their very nature. For Christ's person was pure and genuine; He was not born in sin, nor did He commit any sin. All His words are true and reliable, without deceit and falsehood. His words are not only gracious or full of grace but also true. He gave His body and sacrificed His life for us from pure love. This was pleasing to the Father. There were no flaws and defects in this love and obedience (Phil. 2:8); but everything was perfect.
And now God is pleased also with us, who believe in Christ and who thereby become partakers of this grace and truth. But if this grace were to terminate for us and if God then were to enter into judgment with us, our gross deficiencies would come to light. God must pardon our iniquity and folly. Therefore our only source of comfort must be the knowledge that if we believe in His name, we are children of grace and truth, receive the Holy Spirit, and have no reason to doubt that God loves us and takes pleasure in us for the sake of His only-begotten Son, in whom we believe.
What if God were to bring us to trial and say: "You boast of being a child of grace and My son. But can you say that you love Me with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, as My only-begotten Son did?" Whenever such thoughts come to pious hearts, fill them with grief, and cause them to be sorry and to lament deeply—as many psalms testify concerning their numerous shortcomings—then we have no other recourse than to cling to Christ and to take comfort in the evangelists words: "But to all who received Him." Then we rely firmly on his statement, and in the name of Christ we call upon God the Father to make the sign of the cross over us and say: "They are sinners, neither as pious nor as pure as they should be. But because they believe in My only-begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, I shall not be angry with them. None of their sins harm them if they continue in faith."
Thus we find our refuge and protection from the wrath of God under the shadow of the wings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who do not believe in Him and who are, therefore, not under His wings, are and remain subject to God's wrath. No holiness will avail, neither will the Law of God nor the respectable life and the wisdom of the philosophers and the sages of the world. Indeed, if all the Jews were to confront
God with their Moses, and all the reputable pagans with their most glittering virtues and deeds, everything they do would be nothing but ungraciousness, lies, and deceit. For since the person is not right with God— and his righteousness can be attained solely through faith in Christ—his works, be they ever so holy and good, cannot be instrumental in acquiring salvation.
As already said, a comparison between Adam and Christ is to the point. Even if Adam and his descendants perform the most laudable works, possess a high degree of intelligence and intellect, practice virtue and decency, authorize good laws and establish order, institute the best government at home and abroad—all these are great and admirable deeds, greatly esteemed by the world, and indeed necessary, beneficial, and indispensable in the world—still all this does not meet the essential demand. It does not stand the test before God. It cannot make us children of grace and truth, nor does it enable us to achieve salvation and eternal life. In the first place, every person has inherited both sin and death from Adam and, therefore, is subject to God's wrath and displeasure. In the second place, all the good that a person may do nevertheless lacks the proper ardor, genuineness, and sincerity. Yes, before God it is nothing but dissimulation, masquerade, and mummery; neither the person nor the deeds are satisfactory. Thus without the grace and the knowledge of Christ the whole human race in all its conduct, no matter how worthy it may seem, is nothing but mendacious and false hypocrisy and fantastic deception.
But if we are to become gracious, genuine, and true children of God and partake of grace, there is no other means to that end than belief in the only-begotten Son of God the Father, full of grace and truth, for whose sake the Father loves us and takes delight in our works. Thus we derive benefit from our Lord
Christ and share in His grace and truth. Of Him alone Ps. 45:7 sings: "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the off of gladness above Thy fellows."
The psalmist's meaning is: "No man has ever been found in the world who loved righteousness and hated wickedness"—unless it be the righteousness of the Shrovetide carnival, in which the actor only feigns piety92—"with the exception of Thee, Lord. Thou alone hast possessed this love and hatred genuinely and perfectly. And in view of this God, Thy God, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit, above Thy fellows, so that Thou mightest rejoice and comfort and gladden all those who believe in Thee and remain steadfast in their faith. In this way they will participate in the enjoyment of Thy oil of gladness." Christ's righteousness and truth is of a type different from that of the world. He
- 57 has been anointed and now is full of grace and truth, whereas all others receive such grace through Him and from Him.
The world's justice often miscarries. Injustice is often practiced unwittingly. Furthermore, worldly righteousness has no validity whatever before God. For the maintenance of peace, God, of course, views the practice of human justice and righteousness with favor; He views it as His own carnival in the world.
But in heaven it has absolutely no value. There a different kind of righteousness is required, namely, the righteousness that works forgiveness of sin through our faith in the only-begotten Son of God.
For that mission, Christ, our Lord, very God and very man, was ordained and appointed by the Father.
He is to be the Fountainhead and Spring from which flow sheer grace, truth, and righteousness. From Him we are to acquire, and through Him we are to enjoy, the benefits of grace and righteousness. From Him we receive, as we shall hear later, "grace upon grace" and truth upon truth. Of Him the evangelist says that we have seen Him with our eyes, heard Him with our ears, touched Him with our hands, and recognized by His words and works that He is the Word of life and the indescribable Source of all grace and truth (1
John 1:1). And now whoever desires to partake of these, whether he be Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, or anyone else, let him come hither and receive them from Him and from no other. If he fails in this, he is eternally lost. Later this evangelist informs us that "we all," without exception, "received from His fullness grace upon grace" and truth upon truth. And in Col. 2:10 we read: "In Him we are perfect." Thus all of Holy Scripture, from beginning to end, points solely to Christ as our Source of grace and truth, ignoring all the saints in regard to this matter. If grace and truth are to be acquired at all,
Christ's fullness must perform this. Our few morsels and crumbs, our odds and ends, are not adequate.93
So far we have heard the holy evangelist St. John describe how the eternal Word became flesh or man, how He dwelt among us so that we beheld His glory, a glory of the only-begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth. We have heard that He is free from sin and guile, without a trace of sham and deceit, but perfect in word and deed; that He is full of grace before all of mankind, that is, without sin, wrath, and ungraciousness; that He is full of truth, that is, that all His actions are not mere sham but true, sincere, and essentially good. This portrayal of the Son of God sets Him apart from all the children of men.
The picture of us human beings is quite the reverse. After the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise we lapsed from grace to wrath, from the truth to lies, from righteousness into sin, from life to death. We fell into God's disfavor; now only sin, wrath, disfavor, and deception are to be found in us. Our entire activity, our wisdom, all our thoughts and desires in matters pertaining to God are not sincere and true but sheer falsehood, deception, and sham. In Ps. 116:11 we read: "All men are liars." Thus all, none excepted, be they who they will, bear God's disfavor and wrath; all are sinners worthy of eternal death.
Even if we do the best of which we are capable by our natural powers, still it all remains nothing but semblance and sham, hypocrisy and deception. For the sin in which we have been ensnared prevents us from doing and working any good thing.
The blinded and accursed world, which lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19) does not believe this, much less the hypocrites and pseudo saints; indeed, they regard their entire doctrine, their life, and their deeds as upright and holy and as a service rendered to God, although, in reality, it is all deceit and a lie. For the wrath of God, His disfavor, and their sin, in which they are mired up to their ears, prevent them from doing anything good, honest, and true. Now we have a clear picture of the Word and of how we look by contrast.
John bore witness to Him, and cried.
The messages that follow now have a strange and curious ring. They are just as foreign to reason as those you have heard up to now. Nor will they be found in the books of the world's sages, whether philosophers, jurists, sophists, or papists. They are incomprehensible to human reason. Only Christians apply themselves to the acquisition of this skill. But they, too, remain abecedarians, and they find it necessary, though they live to be a hundred, to study as long as they live. To the ears of the worldly-wise, statements of John the Baptist such as these: "He was before me," and "From His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace" sound odd and strange, even absurd, preposterous, and foolish. None but the Christians understand them.
15. This was He of whom I said: He who comes after me ranks before me, for He was before me.
16. And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.94
- 58 You have heard above that John the Baptist was sent by God as a witness to the Light, first of all, to acquaint everyone with the Messiah's advent. This was made necessary by the mean and inauspicious demeanor the Messiah bore when He began to preach and perform miracles. He appeared ill such a plain and abject form that His work commanded no respect. Therefore it was John the Baptist's mission to preach so that the people.would not pass Christ by without notice. Yet they did this while they were awaiting a Messiah in some other form. Furthermore, John was to bear witness to Christ to prevent the Jews from clinging to him in the belief that he was the Christ because of his austere and saintly life. We know that the Jews dispatched priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem with the query: "Who are you?"
(John 1:19). John's ascetic life was merely to lend emphasis to his witness to Christ. In spite of this, Christ enjoyed little esteem from the vast multitudes. They regarded Him as a smith or a carpenter; they were offended by His insignificant person rather than reformed by His message and miracles.
But John persisted in his calling and faithfully carried out the task to which God had appointed him; he bore witness to Christ the Lord and directed the people away from himself to Christ. The Jews should have paid heed to his testimony, taken it to heart, and realized that John was bearing witness to Christ and not to himself, especially since he declared unequivocally (John 1:20): "I am not the Christ [we shall return to these words later], but I have been sent to witness to Him. I am shouting and proclaiming that He is the Light and the Life of man, full of grace and truth." John was commissioned to point to this Christ and to lead all mankind to Him, so that he might induce all who were dead in sin and sitting in darkness and the shadow of death (Luke 1:79) to come to Him, to believe in Him, to be animated and illumined by Him, and thus to become partakers of His grace and truth. For this was the purpose of Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection, that all believers in Him might be justified and saved.
The holy evangelist says:
This was He of whom I said: He who comes after me ranks before me.
This refers to the time now past, prior to Christ's public ministry, when John the Baptist, pursuant to God's command, began to preach. He means to say: "Immediately after the termination of my own work the proper man and preacher will appear on the scene. Watch for that event!" For John is not speaking here of the birth of Christ, which took place six months after John's birth, but of His office. The import of his words is: "As an honest and upright man I preached of Christ. My testimony was given in the open. I did not speak in remote nooks and corners, but I traveled up and down the banks of the Jordan and into all the adjacent cities (Luke 3:3). And this was my testimony and proclamation: Do not look to me but to Him who follows on my heels. When I am about to cease my testimony of Him, then you may know that He
Himself is present and at hand. For only He, the Lord Christ, will succeed me. No other teacher or preacher will intervene between me and Him, nor a different proclamation or doctrine, nor another prophet."
Now you can see that St. John is a faithful and truthful witness, who does not attract the people to himself but directs them to Christ and says: "The purpose of my preaching is to persuade you to prepare a way for the Lord and to make His way straight. Furthermore, I am baptizing you with water; but at the same time I want to tell you that my Successor, who is far more excellent and the thongs of whose sandals
I am not worthy to untie, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16). Thus you now hear and see that all I say and do merely points to Him, to Christ the Lord." And the evangelist St. John praises and lauds the Baptist's testimony for diverting everyone's attention from himself and directing it to No one can deny that all this came to pass. For no sooner had Herod laid hands on John, imprisoned him, and silenced his preaching, than Christ appeared and preached. Thus He convincingly corroborated
John's testimony of Him, for He worked such signs and miracles as had not been seen or heard of in Jerusalem and in Judea before this. John, too, preached mightily, so that the city of Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the countries bordering on the Jordan wandered out into the desert to hear him. However, he performed no miracles; but he witnessed with great earnestness to the Lord, saying: "Now you see and hear me, but when I am cheeked and perish"—for Herod, that archhypocrite, who had a large following at that time, had him beheaded for the sake of that infamous whore Herodias—"beware that you do not neglect Him, but joyfully accept Him who will follow me immediately. Make sure that you recognize Him as the one who had been promised our forefathers, who was to crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15) and to bless all the peoples of the earth and not only us Jews" (Gen. 22:18).
- 59 St. John the Baptist could not have given them a better or more reliable testimony than this: "Look to Him who will succeed me soon, who will create a greater sensation in this world with His sermons and miracles than I did." And Christ did appear shortly after John's proclamation. For Annas and Caiaphas did not preach soon after John the Baptist; Christ did, and He preached with power.
Many whose eyes and hearts were opened by God followed the advice, relied on John's testimony, and believed in the Lord Christ, saying: "John did no sign, but all that John said about Jesus was true." That many believed in Him we find recorded in John 10:41: "And many believed in Him." And in John 7:40–
41 we hear: "When they heard these words, some of the people said, 'This is really the prophet.' Others said, 'This is the Christ.' " And in John 11:27 Martha declares: "Yes, Lord; I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world." And in John 9:38 we hear that the man born blind, whose sight the Lord had restored, believed that Christ was the Son of God, and that "he worshiped Him."
The rulers and the great multitude, however, were loath to hear this. To them it seemed ridiculous and offensive to recognize and accept a poor beggar from Nazareth, whose parents were plain and despised people, as the Messiah promised their nation. The dear Lord came from Nazareth on foot, not mounted, without any show of wealth or power. Had He been Annas' or Caiaphas' son in Jerusalem, He would have been esteemed. Now all were offended by the fact that He came from Nazareth. They said: "Is the Christ to come from Galilee?" (John 7:41.) And when Philip informed Nathanael: "We have found Him of whom
Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (John 1:45), the pious Nathanael replied: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46.) And others said: "He has a demon, and He is mad; why listen to Him?" (John 10:20.)
They did not benefit by John's warning: "He who will follow me soon is the right man; He will bring it to pass. There you will hear a real preacher and will behold miracles. He will take matters in hand differently from the way I did. Do not neglect to heed Him, but accept Him with a happy and grateful heart. If you do that, you will select the right man." But John's warning bore no fruit. It was an affront to them that Christ was a plain carpenter's son and His mother a poor beggar. They were more offended by His humble person than they were impressed by John's testimony or affected for their good by Christ's precious teaching and miracles. Indeed, the servants of the chief priests and the Pharisees who had been dispatched to capture Christ replied to the query why they had not brought Him: "No man ever spoke like this man! For this reason it is not right to persecute Him" (John 7:45–46). The Pharisees should have done and spoken likewise. Instead, they rewarded the dear Lord in the same manner in which Herod rewarded
John the Baptist, Christ's witness and forerunner. They should have been mindful both of the prophecies and of John the Baptist's pronouncements. But since the person of Christ was not to their liking, prophecies and pronouncements were futile and in vain. It would have been different if Caiaphas or another chief priest had been concerned. On the other hand, a few pious hearts did feel impelled to confess that never before had a prophet preached or performed miracles as He did. They exclaimed: "Oh, a great
Prophet has arisen among us, through whom God redeemed His people!" They pointed to Christ, saying that in His person Moses' prophecy regarding the great Prophet whom God would send to the Jewish nation (Deut. 18:15) had been fulfilled.
He who comes after me ranks before me, for He was before me.
St. John the Baptist wishes to say: "In order to forestall your offense at His lowly and despised person and figure, I want to identify Him for you. My sermons have informed you that He would come soon after me. Now let me tell you that He is already in your midst. But since you neither know Him nor want to know Him, let me inform you that He excels me by far, for He was before me." He did not precede John in His humanity; for St. John was conceived, fashioned, and born earlier, namely, half a year before the Lord. John was born around St. John's Day or St. Peter's and St. Paul's Day;95 Jesus, however, around
Christmas. Thus St. John was one half year older than Christ.
St. John wants to say that christ the Lord existed before His incarnation and, therefore, prior to himself —not as a human being, for he, John, was a half a year older than the Lord—but with respect to His divinity. For He was the Word who was in the beginning, the true Son of God, the Life and Light of mankind, through whom all things were made. This is like saying of a child that it had antedated its mother, or its conception in its mother's body, or its birth. Surely this is never encountered in nature. This leads us to infer that this must be an unusual Child, that He must be God. Thus here St. John wants to say:
"This man, Christ, was before me. He lived before I had my being. Yes, He also existed before His own - 60 mother was born. In other words, He was God from eternity; for the angels also existed before Mary, but Christ preceded all the angels, yes, all creatures.
"You will see Him, who is your Lord, your God and Redeemer, coming to you. Even now He is among you in His humanity and in His lowly and despised form. But His existence reaches back beyond
His physical birth from Mary; He existed before He appeared in human form. This means that He is very God and very man in one person. The angels, heaven, the earth, the sun, and the moon have existed since the beginning of creation. But Christ preceded them all; yes, He was their Creator. For this reason you will find Him a Teacher and Preacher whose equal the world has never seen or will ever see, who not only surpasses me in every respect—even though Christ prefers John to all other children of men (Matt. 11:11)
—but also excels all prophets, patriarchs, and fathers. He is also older than all, one who, according to His divinity, has neither a beginning nor an end. And in order that you may not only behold and recognize
Him as true God and man, I also want to inform you why He came to dwell among you. Truly He did not come without a purpose or to seek His own welfare; He came for your salvation and bliss.
"I was delegated to be His herald, to bear witness to Him, and to baptize you with water. Moses was appointed by God to lead our fathers out of Egypt. It was the calling of the other prophets to rebuke the people of Israel for their sins, especially their idolatry, and to comfort the pious hearts with the message of the advent of Christ. These prophets also testified gloriously of Christ's person and office, as I am now doing; and they wrought great miracles and performed praiseworthy deeds. But they and I cannot be compared to Him. Indeed, we are not worthy of untying the thongs of His sandals. For He alone never committed any sin; in Him alone dwells nothing but righteousness and holiness. His life and being alone are pure; yes, He alone is full of grace and truth. And we, on the other hand, are full of ungraciousness, wrath, and deceit. And if we are to attain these divine gifts, we must lay hold of Him."
This is St. John the Baptist's meaning when he continues:
And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.
This is one of the golden texts in St. John's Gospel; it is on a par with the one which we have already discussed: The Son of God is "the true Light, which lights every man that cometh into the world."
Therefore whoever does not acknowledge Christ and believe in Him, and does not make Him his own, is and remains a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and of damnation, no matter what he is called or what he is. But if man is to find mercy, Christ alone must be the means. He alone makes us paupers rich with His superabundance, expunges our sins with His righteousness, devours our death with His life, and transforms us from children of wrath, tainted with sin, hypocrisy, lies, and deceit, into children of grace and truth. Whoever does not possess this Man possesses nothing.
Thus St. John the Baptist takes all of mankind from the world's beginning until the Day of Judgment collectively and passes one verdict on all, namely, that they are liars by nature and without grace. But at the same time he suggests a remedy. "Behold," he says, "you will receive a blessed, comforting Preacher.
He will not merely proclaim, but in mercy He will bring and present what neither Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, nor an angel from heaven, no prophet or saint or even I, could announce or bring and give to you. And all men, from Adam to the end of the world, excluding none, who hope to attain truth and grace must derive these from Christ's fullness and thus participate in His benefits." For He came into the world and took upon Himself our human nature to redeem us from wrath and make us children of God, and that we might partake of His fullness.
The holy evangelist informed us earlier that without Christ life, light, and mercy are unattainable. Only the believer in Christ's name enjoys the power and the prerogative to become a child of God. This places all men, including all saints, whatever their name, into one category and labels all as sinners and liars devoid of grace as long as they rely on themselves and have not Christ. For all the descendants of Adam were born in sin and in disfavor with God, with nothing good in them, but imbued with falseness, hypocrisy, lies, and deceit. It avails nothing that they feign piety and saintliness, that they point to their good works, that they want to be regarded as humble and spiritual; all this is useless unless they become children of God through faith in Christ.
But we see that the godless and blind world is so steeped in its nature, its mischief, and its disgraceful vices that it rejects any criticism and reproof of its vanity, its religious fervor, good works, its wisdom, its self-elected spirituality, its sham holiness, and idolatry as error, falsehood, lies, and deceit, as something by which it only increases the wrath of God and strays ever farther from the truth. Yes, the world upholds
- 61 its error with all its might and persecutes and murders all who oppose it. Today we find this exemplified in the papists.
Well, you may counter by pointing to imperial laws, to worldly government, to good discipline, all of which are intended to protect the godly, punish evildoers, and maintain order and decency. You will ask me: "Do you mean to say that these are also evil and sham?" No, I reply, they are good, necessary, and salutary within their sphere and the use for which God instituted them. For this reason St. Peter declared:
"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right" (1 Peter 2:14).
But if one aspires thereby to gain forgiveness of sin from God, God's grace, eternal life, and salvation, then it is all a delusion and without the power to accomplish this purpose. Even Moses with his Law cannot help here. St. Paul says that "no human being win be justified in God's sight by works of the Law, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). Here only He can give counsel and help who declares: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5); and "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6); and "I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
Therefore it is a terrible and detestable blindness and a demonic presumption when a person has the audacity, as an work-righteous and hypocrites do, to attempt atonement for sin through his works and tries in this way to earn the grace of God. It is wretched arrogance for a jurist, a scholar, a monk, or a nun to venture to boast this way. This is like a poor beggar—lice-ridden, syphilitic, leprous, filthy, stinking, and crawling with maggots and worms over his whole body, but nonetheless proud and arrogant—who vauntingly says: "Just look at me, a handsome fellow!" And in answer to our question: "After all, what are you?" he replies: "Well, I have a head, five fingers, two feet. Is this not reason for happiness and pride, since I possess a beautiful, clean, and healthy body?" "Yes, you are a fine heap of filth! You are so full of running sores, pus, and syphilis that I am surprised anyone still endures you and your stench and that people still wait on you. This they do, not because of any beauty in you but out of piety. They show you sympathy, patience, and mercy to keep you from perishing in your stench and filth and from being consumed by lice, worms, and maggots." But if that beggar were to boast of anything, he should say: "I, a miserable leper or syphilitic, boast of receiving the mercy and benefaction of being tolerated in this hospital, where I am nursed and given bed and board. For this I am indebted to godly people who will not let me perish in my filth or fall prey to the worms. Of their alms, their charity, and aid I may well vaunt.
But I have no reason at all to boast of myself beyond this, that pious people are doing everything good for me, an unworthy and wretched person."
Therefore we have no right to indulge in much bragging and boasting when we step before God. Even if we were members of the highest aristocracy on earth and were prone to take pride in this, before God we would still be nothing but bags of worms or bags of manure, infested with lice, maggots, stinking and foul. Therefore St. Paul says (Rom. 3:23): "All have sinned," the whole world is guilty before God. And Isaiah (64:6) declares: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment." The fact that our dear God overlooks our shortcomings and shows us mercy; that He has given us life to date, although He would have a full right to cast us into hell's abyss at any time; that He tolerates us poor bags of maggots in the world and in this vale of tears, which is a true hospital and infirmary for us who are all syphilitic and leprous before God—all this we owe to His mercy and compassion and not to our good works. If these are good, they are so merely because God is indulgent and patient with us. For "if Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?" (Ps. 130:3). Thus we realize that we have nothing of which to boast but God's mercy and compassion which Christ imparts to us from His inexhaustible fullness.
In view of all of this, it is amazing that we are so given to pride, to boasting and bragging, and that we glory in such things as our beauty, riches, noble birth, power, skill, wisdom, honorable life, good works, holy orders, merits, and the like. For in the sight of God all this is sheer wrath, disfavor, falsehood, filth, and dirt, without grace and truth (Phil. 3:8).96 And if we were not blind with seeing eyes, we would perceive that God humbles us amply, visits us with so many adversities and ailments, and finally with death, as a penalty for our sins, to remind us that we are not sure of our life for a single moment and that we would be eternally lost and damned if Christ were not our Lord and Savior.
But if we do want to boast, then let us boast that we receive from the fullness of Christ, that we are enlightened by Him, attain forgiveness of sin, and become children of God through Him. For this is the sum and substance of it all: Whoever wishes to be safeguarded from the devil's might and to escape sin
- 62 and death must draw from this well, Christ; from Him flows all salvation and eternal bliss. This fountain is inexhaustible; it is full of grace and truth before God; it never fails no matter how much we draw from it.
Even if we all dip from it without stopping, it cannot be emptied, but it remains a perennial fount of all grace and truth, an unfathomable well, an eternal fountain. The more we draw from it, the more it gives.
Such water, as St. John remarks later, wells up to eternal life (John 4:14).
The sun is not dimmed and darkened by shining on so many people or by providing the entire world with its light and bright splendor. It retains its light intact. It loses nothing; it is immeasurable, perhaps able to illumine ten more worlds. I suppose that a hundred thousand candles can be ignited from one light, and still this light will not lose any of its brilliance. Likewise, a learned man can educate a thousand scholars without forfeiting any of his own learning. The more he shares with others, the more he has himself. Thus Christ, our Lord, to whom we must flee and of whom we must ask all, is an interminable well, the chief source of all grace, truth, righteousness, wisdom, and life, without limit, measure, or end.
Even if the whole world were to draw from this fountain enough grace and truth to transform all people into angels, still it would not lose as much as a drop. This fountain constantly overflows with sheer grace.
Whoever wishes to enjoy Christ's grace—and no one is excluded—let him come and receive it from Him.
You will never drain this fountain of living water; it will never run dry. You will all draw from it much more than enough, and yet it will remain a perennial well. "Such a preacher," declares John the Baptist,
"will be yours. Do not let reliance on your own piety, on your compliance with the Law of Moses, or on your many good works keep you from recognizing Him. Your deeds do not stand the test. No matter how they may gleam and glitter, they are all false and fatally deceptive. For you are not only walking in darkness; but you yourself are darkness, subject to death and sin, together with all the other people on earth. But if you want to become truly pious, pure, righteous, and blessed, go to Him on whom God the Father has set His seal (John 6:27). He is the rich and inexhaustible Fountain and Fullness from which all patriarchs and prophets, in brief, all the saints—including me, John—also drew, always have drawn and taken, and still do. All of us without exception, no matter how holy we may be, come empty and fill our little casks from His well and His fullness."
Nor should anyone approach faintheartedly and suppose: "How can we all take from Him? I am not worthy, I do not belong among the saints, I am a Gentile." All this gives rise to despair. This is St. John's reply: "Listen to what I, who am sent by God, have to tell you: The Gentiles have the same right, a right granted out of pure mercy, to take from Christ's fullness as have the Jews, the seed of Abraham, who possessed the Law. The Law does not aid or assist them in being called the people of God, nor does it hinder the Gentiles from being idolatrous. All, yes, all, whether Jews or Gentiles, who wish to receive grace and to be found truly righteous before God must necessarily draw and fill their flask from this incessant and overflowing fountain and must quench their thirst from this spring of living water which wells up to eternal life (John 4:14). In brief, Christ's fullness is without limit and measure; therefore confidently fill your cups and quaff with good cheer. For here you find an overabundant supply of water which reaches into eternal life. And in all eternity you will have ample cause to thank and praise God for this."
And what do we really receive? "Grace upon grace." John speaks of two types of grace. Christ's grace is the unfathomable well and chief fountain of all grace; he called this "Christ's fullness." And ours is that grace which we draw from Christ, which He distributes among us and which He gives us for His mercy's sake to render us pleasing and agreeable to God. Thus St. John diverts us from any reliance on self and from any confidence in our own work and merit, and he directs us to the mercy of Christ and to the love of God. This he does not only in this text but throughout his entire Gospel and his epistles. He wants to pose the question: What does God regard, and what moves Him to be favorably disposed toward you and to remit your sin? Is He actuated by your sacrifices, your circumcision, the divine worship in your temple?
No! Much less is He persuaded by my monasticism, in which I disgracefully squandered fifteen years of my life, wickedly crucified Christ, my dear Lord, with my blasphemous celebration of the Mass, and misspent the best years of my life to my own and other people's detriment. Nor is God moved by a coarse shirt worn and slept in by a Carthusian monk or by members of other orders, nor by the fact that someone walks to St. James' clad in full armor,97 great though this ordeal may be. No, God does not barter His rich and boundless grace for your grimy, lousy cowl or your foulsmelling, greasy foods98 or for other works, no matter how attractively they may gleam and glisten. For since they are without grace and truth, they are worthless; yes, before God they are a sham, an empty delusion, and an abomination. Therefore God's eyes
- 63 rest on something quite different. He is gracious and compassionate for the sake of the fullness and ineffable grace of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, because Christ is in the highest favor before God.
We are endued with this grace, and God is pleased with us for the sake of His beloved Son (Eph. 1:6).
All toil and effort to seek other ways leading to heaven are futile and vain. There is absolutely no other way than this; we must take from Christ's fullness. Thereby we obtain grace, that is, remission of sins, become children of God and heirs of eternal life. We receive salvation for the sake of Christ's grace, in whom God detects no sin, deceit, or falsehood, nothing but grace, truth, righteousness, and life. In view of this, God loves Him sincerely and commands us to hear Him. But now He says: "If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water" (John
7:37–38). And now I believe in Him and come to Him, my dear Lord and Savior, as to Him who is full of grace; and I ask Him to quench my thirst with His living, fresh, rich, and perennial fountain. I am certain that He will fulfill my petition; for He came full of grace into this world that we might enjoy and partake of His grace.
This is the correct and reassuring message of the blessed Gospel, which the pernicious and blasphemous see of Rome has trodden underfoot for several centuries, deluging all Christendom with its lies and demonic doctrines (1 Tim. 4:1) and instituting its worship and innumerable other abominations.
As a consequence, Christendom neglected and, unfortunately, lost this chief fountain and source, which overflows with rich and full grace; and it substituted Christ's mother Mary for Christ, praying to her for grace. Thus only the words "Hail Mary, full of grace!" remained current, and the words of our text passed into oblivion. But the words remain written: "And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace."
But even this was not enough. Each one chose a particular saint for himself. The one took St. George; the second, St. Christopher; the third, St. Francis; the fourth, St. Dominic; the fifth, St. Barbara.99 And this in the face of the Scriptures clear statement that "there is only one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). In all of Holy Writ we find not a single instance of adoration of the patriarchs, the prophets, and apostles—much less of St. George and St. Barbara, who probably never existed, and of the other saints created by the pope, like St. Francis and Saint Dominic, about whom no one knows anything with certainty. But even if we were to concede that they were full of grace, they would still be unable to impart any of it to me.
If this blessed doctrine had remained and prevailed in Christendom, then neither the pope, who murders spiritually with his false teaching, nor the Turk, who butchers physically with his sword, would ever have arisen. But that is the usual course: If one refuses to accept the precious Word and the divine truth, or if one is soon satiated with them, God sends a strong delusion (2 Thess. 2:11) and lies which the people will believe; this results in the destruction of country and people, in disruption and devastation.
The most beautiful and finest kingdoms and countries, in which the apostles planted the seed of the Gospel and in which the Gospel was subsequently preached in its purity by pious bishops and teachers for a long time, are now occupied by the cruel tyrant, the Turk.100 There the proclamation of Christ no longer resounds in the open—it may still be preached in secret where Christians are found—and the devil
Mohammed is worshiped and adored in Christ's stead. In due season Germany will not fare any better. For ingratitude and contempt for the Gospel are so extreme among us who are termed evangelical and among the papists, our enemies, who persecute the Gospel and are blasphemous and heretical, that God cannot condone it but will punish it sooner or later.
St. Paul places Adam and Christ in juxtaposition, when he declares in Rom. 5:12: "Sin came into the world through one man." As grace follows upon grace in Christ, so sin follows upon sin in man. Through his disobedience and transgression of the divine commandment Adam fell into sin, which polluted his body and soul, so that he was full of sin, wrath, and ungraciousness. This misery and abominable corruption he transmitted to his descendants, that is, to the entire human race. Just as Adam fell into sin and became subject to death, so we all who descended from him must bear sin, sorrows of all kinds, and death, sin's penalty, simply because we were born from the sinful flesh which was Adam's since the Fall.
Thus sin follows upon sin. St. Paul expresses it thus: "Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" (Rom. 5:12). And David declared: "Behold, I was begotten of sinful seed, and in sin did my mother bear me" (Ps. 51:5). This means: All children are conceived in sin in their mother's womb, and are carried and born in sin; for they are begotten of seed that is poisoned with sin. Sin follows upon sin inherited from birth. We are procreated
- 64 from sinful seed and tainted flesh. This sin is ours, not by commission but by reason of our birth from him who sinned once upon a time.
St. Paul goes on to say: "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience [Jesus Christ's, who was the only person with grace] many will be made righteous" (Rom.
5:19). He wishes to say that Christ alone is holy and righteous, full of grace and truth. He fulfilled the Father's will, as we read in Ps. 40:8: "I delight to do Thy will, O My God." "And He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8). We all benefit from this grace, truth, holiness, and righteousness of our Lord. He places His Word into our mouths, and faith into our hearts, so that we adhere to Him and are certain that He cleanses us "by the washing of water with the Word" (Eph. 5:26);
He also imparts to us His grace and righteousness. As Adam is the fountainhead of sin, misery, and death, and transmits all these to us, so that we now speak of sin upon sin, so Christ is the fountainhead of all grace, truth, and life, from whom we derive a fullness of grace, life, and truth. This is "grace upon grace," that the Father takes delight in us for Christ's sake, and that through Christ we receive the Holy Spirit and are justified.
In view of this, we may ask: Then what are Moses and the other prophets? Did they accomplish nothing? St. John replies that they faithfully administered their divine office.101 In his own words:
17. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
You have heard that Christ is full of grace and truth, and has redeemed us through His righteousness, innocence, and obedience, so that we also partake of these, as we take from His fullness.
This gives rise to the question: "Is it really by grace alone, with no merit at all, as you assert? If we must all take from His fullness, it follows that we are not justified and saved by our work and merit. If this is true, of what use is Moses to us with his Law? Why does God burden and torment us with the Law?
And what has been accomplished by our strenuous efforts to keep and fulfill it? What fools we were to torment ourselves so with the Law!" St. Paul follows a similar line of argument with the Romans and the Galatians (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:18). Such questioning and vexing thoughts naturally follow when reason hears a sermon on grace attained through Christ. It learns that man is not saved by works but that God regards the grace of Christ—His birth, His suffering, His death, and His resurrection—and that the Law only "brings wrath" (Rom. 4:15), and that "through the Law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). So our question persists: "What purpose does the Law serve? To the gallows with Moses and the Law!" This is how the antinomians are blaspheming today.102
St. John replies thus: "The Law," it is true, "was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
You have heard truth and grace defined before; however, it will not be amiss to touch on these again briefly, for a good song bears repetition. "Grace" means that God is merciful to us, that He deals graciously with us for the sake of Christ our Lord, forgives us all our sins, and that He does not impute them to us or punish us with eternal death. Grace is the forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake, the covering of all sin. That is grace. When we speak of "truth," we mean that God not only wants to be gracious and merciful to us and remit our sins but that henceforth our lives must be something precious, despite our persistent frailty and sinfulness, our flesh and blood, and so many evil lusts even after our Baptism. We must wrestle and contend with our flesh and our sins, which God has a perfect right to judge and punish.
So much of the old Adam still creeps into our being, and it will never be different.
Marriage is also ordained and instituted by God. It is God's ordinance that husband and wife live together and beget children. But this institution is still tainted with sin; we are all conceived and born in sin. The estates of society themselves are good, but they are still stained and marred by human sinfulness.
We might find fault with these estates, but this does not detract from their intrinsic virtue. Thus not everything in the secular realm and in the home is blameless either, and God might have ample reason for rebuke and reproof. Whatever in the secular realm, in the home, or in the church proceeds from faith must be approved and applauded, though we may often find shortcomings in their administration. The secular realm or the home or whatever estate Christians may fill must be regarded as good in view of their acceptance and approbation by God. Truth is present when a thing is not sham, not only in its being and life but also in its words and deeds; as the prophet says (Is. 53:9): "There was no deceit in His mouth."
Thus, although a Christian's life is in reality not immaculate, he is nevertheless viewed as a righteous being whose sins are forgiven and who is accepted by God. Because we believe solely in this Man, God
- 65 will hide us under His wings and will not impute our sins to us; this is done, not for our sakes but for the sake of our Lord Christ, in whom we believe.
This grace and truth were not taught by the Law or given by Moses. Grace and truth draw a line of demarcation between Christ and Moses. The Law is not to be discarded as useless. It is given for a good purpose, as we learn from Rom. 7:10–12: "It indeed promised life, but it proved to be death to me. This, of course, is my fault, and not the fault of the Law; for the Law is good, holy, and God's glory." And St.
Stephen, too, declares in Acts 7:38: "You have received the Word of life from Moses." To be sure, it did not impart life; for we were not able to fulfill it. But it was to be a means to that end. The Law is holy and good; in view of its authorship God's commandment cannot be evil and wrong. John abides by this opinion when he declares that the Law was issued for a good purpose, but that it offered no grace and no truth. It only points to eternal life, but it does not impart it to anyone. The Law is not to blame for this; we, who do not keep it, are at fault.
To be sure, the Law declares (Ex. 20:3–12): "You shall have no other gods; you shall not take the name of God in vain; you shall sanctify the holy day; you shall honor your father and mother." All this is important, holy, proper, and good. The Ten Commandments preach a good sermon. What does the Law do beyond this? It is a message that points me to life, but it does not grant life. To point and to grant are two different matters, widely separated. The Law says: "Whoever believes in God will also call upon Him, will keep the Sabbath, and will honor his parents, as the First, Second, and Third Commandments of the First Table demand. And whoever also performs the work prescribed by the Second Table will live. Those are words containing a directive for life, but they do not bestow life. For where is there anyone who keeps them?
Disciples of the Law may be divided into two categories. When the members of the first class hear the message of the Law, they assume that they can keep it by their own power and strength: they grow presumptuous and proud, lapse into sheer hypocrisy, become pseudo saints, bow their knees, smite their breasts, tithe like the Pharisee in the temple (Luke 18:12), become sourfaced, and debase themselves. All this is hypocritical babbling and external show, since they contradict the truth with their deeds. But still they strut about in their insolent delusion that they have kept all the commandments of God by their own power and strength, and they suppose that they have found life in the Law. Yes, they make bold to find life in their own capacities, and they maintain that whoever merely hears the Law can also instantly keep it. But to hear and to observe the Law are two entirely different matters. "For it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law who will be justified" (Rom. 2:13).
The sophists103 and the pope also taught that man can love God above all things by virtue of his own innate strength. This is tantamount to saying: "I can impart life to myself; I can carry out whatever a that I should love God with all my heart, soul, and strength! The young man in the Gospel also said: "All these I have observed from my youth" (Mark 10:20). This is also the tenor of the pope's preachment: that we can readily keep whatever God may ask of us, and that this fulfillment will not be wanting if only the message clearly states the demands. Such people are twofold sinners; they are drowned and dead in sin, and at the same time they give way to the illusion that they are righteous and can keep the Law. The papists, the Turks, the Jews, and all the ungodly are still ensnared in this evil. Turkish, papist, and Jewish belief is: "No sooner heard than done." And once upon a time I, too, was a fellow of that stripe.
Then there are the other disciples of the Law. They expend their strength on the Law, toiling, disciplining, and tormenting themselves, only to sense in their hearts that they are unable to keep the Law with their deeds. I, too, once belonged to that group. Such people set about attempting to fulfill the Law with their works. They labor incessantly, mortify their flesh, wear coarse shirts, fast, and scourge themselves in an effort to meet the Laws prescriptions. But I also experienced that when one is assailed by the devil,104 terrified by death, and confronted by perils, then one is prone to despair and to flee from God as though He were the devil. For one lacks heart to say: "I believe in God and am confident that He will be gracious and merciful to me." Instead, this class is quick to call upon the saints: "O Holy Virgin Mary, O
St. James, O St. Barbara, help me!" They lack the strength to stand the test of one single terror, though thereby they violate the words of Ex. 20:2: "I am the Lord your God." Although this text is clear, such disciples of the Law cannot cite it; they say: "You are not my God; You are the cursed devil, and I wish there were no God at all!" Thus the second type of disciples of the Law labor over the Law until they
- 66 realize their weakness and impotence, and despair at the thought of keeping the Law. Finally they perceive their inability to observe the Law. Of course, we all still transgress the Law.
I must also speak about the grievous sins against the Second Table. For instance, we are commanded to honor our parents and to love our enemies. But one often finds that a son is hostile to his father, even curses him for punishing him. Although the son should really show him honor, he would like to have his father on the gallows. Likewise, it is common to hate one's enemies; one wishes they were nine fathoms under the sod. However, I am forbidden to be angry with my brother. Though he grieves and harms me, I am to forget it all and love him. But the heart will never be set aright by the Law. Even though we strove to remain chaste in the papacy and tortured ourselves with fasting, it was all futile. The more we tried to fend off the evil lust, the worse we fared. All who belonged to this second class have discovered from their own performance how impossible it is to fulfill the Law with our works. Thus the first class of disciples of the Law are double rascals, genuine hypocrites like the Pharisee in the temple. The members of the second class feel the gravity of the Law, to be sure; but they despair when they detect their inability to keep it.
So I declare that the Law is a lesson and a word of life, but only for the person who observes and fulfills all it prescribes. For the Law shows you very accurately what you must do. It is written: "By doing which [God's statutes and ordinances] a man shall live" (Lev. 18:5). But where are those who can do this?
The hypocrites are not doers of the Law. We still fall short of God's demand that our heart trust in Him and that we rely utterly on Him; thus we forfeit our eternal salvation. Furthermore, God forbids very earnestly that we flee from Him, that we despair and distrust Him; but He insists that we have confidence in Him as our Father. But it is impossible for me to do this. When a temptation assails me, or I find myself on the threshold of death, I regard God as the devil, yes, as an angry God who bears me a grudge.
It is proper that the Law and God's Commandments provide me with the correct directives for life; they supply me with abundant information about righteousness and eternal life. The Law is a sermon which points me to life, and it is essential to remember this instruction; but it must be borne in mind that the Law does not give me life. It resembles a hand which directs me to the right road; such a hand is a useful member of the body. However, if I do not have feet, a wagon to travel in, or horses to ride on, I shall never go by that road. The hand gives me the proper direction, but it will not conduct my steps along the way. Thus the Law serves to indicate the will of God, and it leads us to a realization that we cannot keep it. it also acquaints us with the nature of man, with his capabilities, and with his limitations. The Law was given to us for the revelation of sin; but it does not have the power to save us from sin and rid us of it.
It holds a mirror before us; we peer into it and perceive that we are devoid of righteousness and life. And this image impels us to cry: "Oh, come, Lord Jesus Christ, help us and give us grace to enable us to fulfill the Law's demands!"
That is the significance of these words of the evangelist: "The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." It is as if he were to say: The Law, given through Moses, is indeed a Law of life, righteousness, and everything good. But far more was accomplished through Christ. He comes and fills the empty hand and purse; He brings with Him the fulfillment of the Laws precepts and demands. He supplies grace and truth, and the means which enable me to keep the First, the Second, and the Third Commandment. Thus I acquire a trust and a faith in God as my Father, and I begin to praise His name with a cheerful heart and to hallow His name. But from what source does this come to me? It is not attributable to my own ability, nor is all this attainable by my merits and by my performance of the works of the Law. No, we owe it all to our illumination by the Holy Spirit, our regeneration by the Word of God, and our faith in Christ. These instil in us a new spirit, which renders God's Word and the Law pleasing to us. Now I take delight in the command to trust God above all things. I sense that I can do it; I have started with the lesson and have already mastered the ABC's. The grace of God, which Christ has bestowed on me because I believe in Him, now makes the First Commandment a pleasure for me.
Some will grow and advance in this respect more than others. Formerly I found that I had no delight in the Law. But now I discover that the Law is precious and good, that it was given to me for my life; and now it is pleasing to me. Formerly it told me what to do; now I am beginning to conform to its requests, so that now I praise, laud, and serve God. This I do through Christ, because I believe in Him. The Holy Spirit comes into my heart and engenders a spirit in me that delights in His words and works even when He chastises me and subjects me to cross and temptation. A pious child loves its father dearly and obeys him; it knows that the father also loves it, though he may punish it. The child will kiss the rod and will regard
- 67 the whipping more highly than any apple, saying: "Dear rod, you benefit me greatly! How well you have whipped me!" The child will readily bear the punishment and will be all the more affectionately disposed toward the father, for the love and trust that the child has for its father sweetens any punishment. We share that experience. If we recognize the blessings accruing to us from Christ, our hearts will leap for joy. And when He visits me with misfortunes, griefs, and perils, I begin to thank Him, saying: "Thank God eternally that He is chastising me this way! Formerly I might have imagined that God had forsaken me.
But now sickness is as welcome to me as health, and dungeon and prison look like a royal hall to me. For since I know that God is a gracious Father, all this is pleasing and precious."
The fact that I received grace I owe to Christ, to His grace, and indeed also to His truth; therefore the evangelist declares: "Grace and truth came through Christ." This the Law cannot do or grant; its sole function is to point. If we had been able to keep the Law and attain all this of our own strength, then grace would have been unnecessary; we would not have had to receive grace upon grace. Then John should have said: "God gives the Law, and truth proceeds from the fact that we keep it by our own strength." However, this is not the content of our text, but: "Moses gave the Law, and I did not keep it but neglected it." What help is there for us? Whatever is done for us is done for the sake of the man Christ, who possesses the true grace, which is imparted to me through Him.
This is the sublime article of our Christian faith on which we discourse daily. It is imperative that we study it diligently, for it is all-important. Those who ignore this article and lapse into the doctrine of the Law, seeking righteousness through the Law, come to be Turks, Tartars, papists, and godless men. The doctrine current among papists and Jews is: "If you wish to be saved, give ear to the Commandments of God. If you can keep them, God will be merciful and gracious to you." Natural reason and human wisdom cannot transcend that viewpoint. According to their process of reasoning, we must rely on our own strength. This we do until we discover that we must despair of our own deeds.
It is necessary, therefore, to learn well this grand distinction between the Law and grace. We must distinguish between the office of Christ and that of Moses, placing each into his proper sphere and not confusing the office and work of each, as we all did until now and as some still do. I myself was befuddled by this for over thirty years.105 Christ in His mercy was hidden from my eyes. I wanted to become justified before God through the merits of the saints. This gave rise to the petition for the intercession of the saints.
On a portrait St. Bernard, too, is portrayed adoring the Virgin Mary as she directs her Son, Christ, to the breasts that suckled Him.106 Oh, how many kisses we bestowed on Mary! But I do not like Mary's breasts or milk, for she did not redeem and save me. Thus the other saints were also worshiped, despite the injunction running through all Holy Scripture to hear and to love God the Son and to put our full trust in Him in every temptation, as the First Commandment demands. It is impossible to proclaim a more sublime worship of God than that demanded by the Law. The First Commandment states: "God insists on a sincere confidence. You must fear Him above all things." The Christian is like the child that has been chastised but nonetheless still loves its father and is confident that the father still loves it. The works of the First Commandment surpass in value all the monks' cowls, fasting, praying, and all the other monastic works. Thus the works demanded in the First Commandment are holy works of the Law. But who can really perform them? Truly, no man; for, with the exception of Christ, all are sinners. When Christ comes to you and says: "I have shed My blood for you, My blood intercedes loudly for you," He brings with Him the remission of our sins out of sheer and free grace and gives us the Holy Spirit, who is our Comforter and Advocate. And the Holy Spirit says: "The Law teaches you that you must do this and that, but you have failed to comply. Yet all the sins in which you were born, and also the sins which you have committed, are to be forgiven. Then God will lend His aid, so that you may begin to keep the Law through Christ, in whom you believe. And all this is effected through Christ's grace and truth."
The Law, however, is not to be discarded; for if we east the Law aside, we shall not long retain Christ.
We observe this in the spirits who presume to have done all;107 they either develop into Turks or fall prey to despair. But those who teach and understand the Law correctly are the ones who lead the people to a realization of their sins and alarm them with the Law, and then comfort and cheer the dejected and terrified with the Gospel. This is the right teaching of the Law. If so used, the Law is a holy doctrine. But those who rely on their works in the hour of death must despair.
The monks used to console thieves and criminals before their execution thus: "Oh, don't despair! I will designate the tortures and the disgraceful death you are about to suffer as a ransom for your sins."108 Fie upon you with your doctrine, which directs a person in his extremity and in dire need of counsel and help
- 68 to rely on his own works! What they should have said is: "You are a poor sinner and criminal deserving of death. Now render satisfaction to the world and endure the condign punishment imposed on you by the secular authorities. But you can render God no other satisfaction than that procured by the death of Jesus
Christ. He alone has brought us grace and truth. He died and shed His blood for us in order that all who believe in Him and call upon Him might attain forgiveness of sin and be accepted as righteous children of God." Then a thief or a murderer would be able to say: "Come, dear executioner, do your duty! I have commended my soul to Christ." Such a one would not be troubled or grieved by the hangman's rope or the executioner's ax but would meekly bear the deserved penalty. The custom of holding a crucifix before a dying person has kept many in the Christian faith and has enabled them to die with a confident faith in the crucified Christ.109
Therefore, you young fellows who have not yet had to sweat through these trials and who were born in a blessed time, must acquaint yourselves intimately with the difference between Moses and Christ. Moses is a good, useful, and excellent preacher who, in the three Commandments of the First Table, persistently urges that we love, fear, and trust God. Thus Moses' office is useful, and his message is blessed, but only inasmuch as it teaches me what I must do and directs me to another man, namely, to Christ. For after Moses, and beside Moses, Christ, the Son of God, was given to us as a preacher who informs us of what
He Himself has done, namely: that He acquired grace and truth for us and that He assists me in obeying the precepts of the Law; that is, He obtained remission of sin and a gracious God for us. Christ secured grace, that is, the forgiveness of sins, so that the believer in Him would obtain that forgiveness.
The word "truth" signifies that henceforth all is righteous and in order. Christ's office accomplishes this. Therefore beware of jumbling Moses and Christ. Do not make a Christ out of Moses, as the pope and the Turk did when they converted Christ into a Moses. They still labor under the illusion that they can keep the Law, declaring: "If you just hear the Commandments of God, you will have the power to keep them."110 No, that is not true. We read: "From His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace." In brief, Moses' mission is not to teach me how to keep the Law, or to endue me with the strength and power to keep the Law but to instruct me in the correct comprehension of the Law and of its demands upon me.
Christ alone must endow me with the ability to keep it. The ideas expressed in the terms "ability to do" and "perfectly," therefore, pertain solely to Christ and not to Moses or to us and to our strength. Thus the Law is indeed beneficial and useful to me even though I do not fulfill its precepts. Well, if I don't, who does? Jesus Christ, who brought grace and truth; for it was the only-begotten Son who revealed these to us from the Father.111
We have heard that the Law was given by Moses but that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
We have discoursed on the significance of this.
Now the evangelist continues:
18. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who sits in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.
Holy Writ employs its own peculiar mode of expression, and we must familiarize ourselves with it.
Here we have to ascertain the meaning of the phrase "to sit in the bosom of the Father."112 Ordinarily one does not speak of a father's "bosom" or of a man's "bosom" at all. Fathers take children into their "arms" or hold them against the "chest." It is customary, however, to speak of a mother's bosom, or to say that a maiden holds children to her bosom. The bosom is that which is encompassed by the two arms. We
Germans use the terms "to embrace," or "to enfold in one's arms." The German translation does not fully capture the meaning of St. John's peculiar phrasing. He wants to say: We have received it from the only
Son of God, who clings to the Father and rests snugly in His arms. John wishes to assure our hearts that the Word revealed by the Son must be absolutely trustworthy, since the Son rests in the bosom and in the arms of the Father, so intimately close to the Father that He is reliably informed about the decisions of His
St. John informed us earlier that the Law was given by Moses, and he also defined the truth which emanated from Christ. Our present statement follows on the heels of that one: "No one has ever seen God" except the only Son, who lies in the Father's arms. This text has caused much unnecessary distress in the higher schools. With concern the question has been raised: "Since no one has ever seen God, is it possible for one to know God or to arrive at a certainty of the existence of God with one's own innate powers?"113
The answer was yes, and St. Paul's words, recorded in Rom. 1:19f., were cited in corroboration: the existence of a God is evident to the Gentiles, perceived by them from the works of the creation, "so that - 69 they are without excuse." They are all acquainted with the law of nature. The Gentiles are all aware that murder, adultery, theft, cursing, lying, deceit, and blasphemy are wrong. They are not so stupid that they do not know very well that there is a God who punishes such vices. Furthermore, their reason tells them that the heavenly bodies cannot run their definite course without a ruler. Thus St. Paul says Rom. 1:20 f.:
"The invisible nature of God, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made, namely, in the creation of the world …. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him; but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. They were blinded and worshiped oxen, calves, hogs, storks, and snakes." Who can reconcile these statements? On the one hand, St. Paul says that man can know God; on the other hand, St.
John clearly states that no one has seen God, be he ever so wise, clever, and smart, except the only Son of God, who revealed Him to us. Furthermore, Christ tells the Jews in John 8:54–55: "You claim to know
God, but you do not know Him; you call Him your Father but do not know who He is." And let us note that here Christ is not rebuking the Epicureans, those fat sows, or the smug scorners, or godless people, who are not interested in God, but the holy Pharisees, who were concerned about God and were seeking
Him. It is they whom Christ informs: "If the Son, whom the Father embraces in His divinity, had not come to reveal God to us, no one would know Him." How can these statements be harmonized? The words "no one has ever seen God" exclude all those who seek God and try to find Him with their reason.
Someday this question is going to cause trouble.114 But you must learn to answer it in the following way: There are two kinds of knowledge of God: the one is the knowledge of the Law; the other is the knowledge of the Gospel. For God issued the Law and the Gospel that He might be known through them.
Reason is familiar with the knowledge of God which is based on the Law. It almost got hold of and sniffed God, for from the Law it saw the difference between right and wrong. The Law is also inscribed in our hearts, as St. Paul testifies to the Romans (Rom. 2:15). Although the same truth was stated still more clearly by Moses, it still remains true that all rational beings can of themselves determine that it is wrong to disobey father and mother and the government, to murder, commit adultery, steal, curse, and blaspheme. Therefore transgressors of the law, whoremongers, murderers, and thieves were severely punished by the Romans and other pagan nations. Many books have been written about this subject. And these murderers, thieves, and similar rascals—if one collared them and did to them as they did to others— had to admit their wrongdoing in court; for their own conscience tells them that it is not right for one man to kill another. They have the content of the Law of God and the Ten Commandments written in their hearts by nature. They can recognize wrong both in themselves and in others; but while they censure others for infractions of the law, they do not censure themselves. They, too, break the law if they can do so in secret. St. Paul refers to this in Rom. 2:3, 20 f.115
The Sadducees, too, knew God in the sense that they believed in a God who gave His Law to enable mankind to live in peace on earth. They held that those who kept the Law and served God with an outward observation of the Decalog were to be rewarded with life and happiness here on earth, that God would bestow riches on them and repay the evildoers with evil. According to their ideas and understanding, God would dispense aid and blessings here on earth exclusively. Their belief that one should do good and shun evil reflected at least a degree of understanding. But they abused this, doing evil and neglecting the good.
Thus they acknowledged the Law of Moses—inscribed in their hearts too—and condemned violations of the Law; but at the same time they themselves became guilty of the infraction which they found reprehensible in others. As you know, the great thieves hang the petty thieves;116 they reprimand others for sins which they themselves commit. A thief who pilfers something worth five guldens must be hanged, whereas a rich burgher, peasant, or nobleman who steals one hundred or three hundred guldens on the market annually—and that contrary to his conscience and his better knowledge—goes scotfree, because he does it secretly. A nobleman may purloin one, two, or three thousand guldens a year and nevertheless strut about arrayed resplendently in his cloak of marten and in his golden chains. But since both nature and conscience disclose their wrong to them, they are without excuse. Their own hearts must indict them and tell them that they are deserving of punishment.
Reason can arrive at a "legal knowledge"117 of God. It is conversant with God's Commandments and can distinguish between right and wrong. The philosophers, too, had this knowledge of God. But the knowledge of God derived from the Law is not the true knowledge of Him, whether it be the Law of Moses or the Law instilled into our hearts. The people do not obey this Law, especially when they look about and observe that the greater the rogue, the greater his fortune. They infer that there is no God who - 70 punishes sin, and accordingly they follow the crowd bent on sin. Or those who would be the most pious argue: "I will honor father and mother, offend or murder no one, will not defraud anyone or rob him of his wife, child, property, and good name; if I conduct myself in this way, I shall be saved." Then from this knowledge of the Law come others, who want to do better but are not nearly as good as the aforementioned; in fact, they do not hold a candle to them.118
To illustrate, let us take a monk. He depicts God to himself as enthroned in His heaven, tailoring cowls, shaving heads, and manufacturing ropes, coarse shirts, and wooden shoes. And then he imagines that whoever clothes himself in these not only merits heaven for himself but can also help others get to heaven. This is blindness beyond all blindness, as must be apparent to all. It is not one whit better than the blindness of the heathen, who worship oxen and calves and cannot be compared to those who seek to keep the Law of Moses or the dictates of the natural law. For what comparison is there between a friar's lousy, shabby jester's cap and cord, plus all his hocus-pocus, and the command to obey father, mother, and government? Even the heathen are superior to this group. They demonstrate a deeper knowledge of the Lord, our God, by their better comprehension of God's Commandments and demands. One might speak of this as sniffing the existence of God without tasting it. The heathen, the philosophers, and all wise people have progressed to a point where they recognize God through the Law. You have already heard, however, what is accomplished by this type of knowledge.
The other sort of knowledge of God emerges from the Gospel. There we learn that all the world is by nature an abomination before God, subject to God's wrath and the devil's power, and is eternally damned.
From this the world could not extricate itself except through God's Son, who lies in the bosom of the Father. He became man, died, and rose again from the dead, extinguishing sin, death, and devil.
This is the true and thorough knowledge and way of thinking about God; it is called the knowledge of grace and truth, the "evangelical knowledge" of God. But this knowledge does not grow up in our garden, and nature knows nothing at all about it. Reason has only a left-handed119 and a partial knowledge of God, based on the law of nature and of Moses; for the Law is inscribed in our hearts. But the depth of divine wisdom and of the divine purpose, the profundity of God's grace and mercy, and what eternal life is like
—of these matters reason is totally ignorant. Tiffs is hidden from reasons view. It speaks of these with the same authority with which a blind man discusses color. About this John says correctly: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made this known to the world."
The proper way to acquire a knowledge of God is the right-handed one, to know for sure what the thoughts and the will of God are. No human being can enlighten you on this. As a matter of fact, the human race stands in need of grace through the Son. Reason is confined to the first type of knowledge of God, which proceeds from the Law; and it speaks a vague language. All Turks, Jews, papists, Tartars, and heathen concede the existence of a God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who, as they say, makes life contingent on our observation of His commandments and prohibitions. The pope goes a step beyond this and also speaks about Christ, but what he says is merely historical.120 But the fact and the knowledge that all men are born in sin and are damned, that Christ, the Son of God, is the only source of grace, and that man is saved solely through Jesus Christ, who is the grace and truth—this is not Mosaic or legal knowledge but evangelical and Christian knowledge.
Christian knowledge comes when I hear that the entire human race is so deeply steeped in sin that no one can or will keep God's commandments, and that we would have had to condemn ourselves before the judgment seat of God if the Son of God had not come, assumed human nature, taken pity on us, and drowned our sins in His blood, thus saving those who believe in Him. No human reason has an inkling of this knowledge; there is not a trace of it in the books of the jurists and sages or even in the Law of Moses.
Therefore the Scholastics should not debate the question whether man, of himself, can discover that there is a God. They have always striven to know God from the Law, which is inscribed in every heart. But the question should not be "How can God be known from the Law?" but "How can He be known from grace and truth?" For the knowledge from the Law suggests itself automatically and very emphatically when one is terror-stricken or in the agony of death. But the knowledge of God in His grace was revealed from heaven and was otherwise entirely hidden to man. The first mode of knowing God is natural and universal and was reinforced by the Law of Moses. But the Law must not stand there in isolation; grace and truth must accompany it. And the knowledge of God in His grace is the skill and the wisdom which the Son alone has revealed to us. All the saints since the beginning of time either had to learn this, or they were lost. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, the knowledge of grace was at once divulged to them in the - 71 promise of Christ. They were told that the woman's Seed would crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), which means that Adam should be saved through this grace which the promised Seed would bring to the world.
That is the spiritual and Christian knowledge of God. The other is carnal and earthly and issues from reason, for it is written in our hearts. But this knowledge must be proclaimed from above and take form in the heart; that is, one must learn that God confers grace through His beloved Son. Therefore behold how blind the world is in its way of knowing God.
Thus we must take note of this plain and clear text, which informs us that no one has ever seen God; for it is true that no one, of himself, can know God in the evangelical sense. The barefooted friars121 were much blinder than the heathen; for they supposed that by donning a gray cowl, girding themselves with a rope, and vowing poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope they would be pleasing to God, and that not only they themselves would be saved but that they could bestow some of their works on others. Where do you find this written? You will not find it in Moses, in reason, or in the Gospel. These friars pictured God to themselves as sitting in His heaven and fashioning cowls, ropes, and tonsures for barefooted friars.
Their knowledge of God is on a plane with that of the heathen; yes, Cato proved to be their superior when he said: "If God is mind, as the hymns tell us, you should worship Him principally with a pure mind."122
God is different from man; therefore we owe Him honor, worship, and reverence. But the monks come along and place a jester's cap on our God, vowing chastity, obedience, and submission to the monastery's prior. And if we prod them with questions: "Is this knowing God? What prompts you to do this?" they reply: "In our opinion it is a good practice." But one's opinion is not sufficient. Why not examine the Law of Moses? He speaks of many works far better than yours, for example, the fear, love, and service of God, obedience to parents, not killing anyone, and living chastely. These works surpass all the works designed by man.
Moses and his Commandments are better and older than the custom of wearing a friar's cowl. But in spite of this, monasticism was drubbed and drummed into the people; and they insisted on calling a monastic order holy. This, however, did not reflect a knowledge of God; it was blindness. Still they claimed: "Oh, this is the right way to live!" But listen, dear monk, who prescribed your deeds? What devil commanded them? The monks will answer: "They are inspired by our piety." Moses and our reason are better informed. They demand that one must not steal, also that one must obey parents and government.
They are teachers instructing us in matters serving the interests of our temporal life. And if Moses'
Commandments are as nothing in comparison with the knowledge of God from the Gospel, what must be said then about the value of the fabricated works of human righteousness? And in the face of this the papists still dare to prefer human traditions to the Law of Moses. They are foolish and ludicrous enough to rank cowls, tonsures, and ropes above filial obedience. This is as blind as you can get! But that is the way man fares when his reason digresses from the Law and the Gospel.
To summarize, we have been so abominably corrupted by sin that we not only know nothing about our first and natural knowledge of God any longer, but we have also defected from the righteousness of the Law and fallen into lies. With our own fabricated works we presumed to reconcile God.
Thus reason recognizes God from the Law of Moses, as we find stated in Rom. 1:19, 32. But in the sense of the Gospel reason knows nothing of God. For this is a new revelation from heaven, which not only acquaints us with, and instructs us in, the Ten Commandments but also informs us that we mortals are all conceived in sin and are lost, and that no one keeps the Law, but that those who want to be saved will be saved solely through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. Here is the depth of His nature; here is the will of God.123 May everyone be apprised, be he who he will—whether he has Moses on his side or whether he is totally submerged in his own righteousness—that there is no salvation or knowledge of God outside Christ. No one is approved by God unless he is marked with the grace and truth of the Son. This knowledge is concealed from reason. Even today the papists and all the others are ignorant of it. I must come creeping to Christ and be found protected by the Son, attaining everything through His grace and truth. This is God's will and intent. This is knowing God aright. Thus after the Fall Adam knew God through the Son, as did all the patriarchs and prophets. They hoped for the advent of the promised
Messiah. Through Him they received grace from God. They did not linger with the Law, but through faith they looked to Christ. When they realized their inability to render perfect obedience to the Law, Christ appeared to their troubled and despondent hearts, proclaiming the Father's grace and will: He, the Son, would become incarnate of a virgin and would die for them. This is why we say that it is impossible to see
- 72 God by means of the Law or by reason. No one can fathom Him, or climb to His heights. He is too lofty.
He is seen only by those born of God, not by those born of the blood.
Whence comes the knowledge of the God of grace and truth? It is given by the only-begotten Son of God. The Son of God, who is in God and who Himself is God, is indispensable for this. For He comes from the Father, and He knows the truth. There is no other doctor, teacher, or preacher who resides in the Godhead and is in the bosom of the Father but the one Doctor, Christ. Humanly speaking, the Father enfolds Him in His arms and caresses Him. He who is in the divine essence descends from heaven to us and becomes man. Who else could have revealed God to us? Consult all the law books of the jurists, all the books of the philosophers and of all heathen. You will find that they do not exceed the knowledge of God contained in the Law of Moses, enjoining us not to steal, not to commit perjury, and to love government and parents. To know God from the Law with His back turned to us is a left-handed knowledge of Him.124 Therefore walk around God and behold His true countenance and His real plan. God is seen properly only in Christ. There we learn that all who wish to be saved must confess that they are damnable sinners, and that they must rely on Him who is full of grace and truth. Thus they also attain grace and truth; this is the true mind of God. We must depend on Christ; this is the true knowledge of Look at Holy Scripture. From the days of Adam, Christ has always revealed God to mankind. He never ceased proclaiming such a knowledge of God: that through Him we derive grace and truth, that is, life eternal. It was to poor, fallen mankind that Christ wished to preach, not to cows and pigs. Therefore let no one boast of his knowledge of God, whether he be a Carthusian or a barefooted friar, a Jew, a Turk, or a Tartar. Yes, Moses himself could not behold God. When Moses desired to see God, saying: "Show me
Thy face!" God said: "Indeed, if you would see Me, you would have to die; however, I will show you My back and My cloak, but to behold My face means death" (Ex. 33:18–20).125 Thus Moses viewed God's mercy from behind, as it is seen in the divine Word. As for the rest, Moses knew what he was to do; but he was not able to see God's plan and purpose.
Through the only-begotten Son and through the Gospel one learns to look directly into God's face.
And when this happens, then everything in man dies; man must then confess that he is a blind and ignorant sinner who must forthwith appeal to Christ. When a monk clearly realizes in his heart that an alien righteousness, the righteousness accorded us by grace for Christ's sake, must save him, he will ask:
"What am I to do now with my cowl, my monastic order, my rule?" Cowl and rule will be cast aside. All that he hitherto esteemed as sacred he now regards as dung, yes, as dead. His own righteousness and holiness, whatever has its origin in human power—all this must die, be committed to the grave, and interred. Man no longer wants any part in it. The knowledge of the Gospel is the face of God, the message that we have grace and truth through the death of Christ. Whoever does not have Christ, will not be saved
—whether it be Moses, pope, cardinal, Mass, purgatory, vigils, and requiem—all this is nothing but death, death, yes, the devil himself. For God has placed His grace solely in the only Son. If we are without Him, we can fast ourselves to death, confess, observe vigils; but for all that we will never have a good and cheerful conscience. For this reason St. John here invites us never to lose sight of the mercy of God in Christ, for it all depends on Him. Let the Carthusians brag! All will be futile without the grace and truth of Christ. Life resides exclusively in the grace and truth of the dear Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And only he who remains in Him knows God.126
The last time we heard John describe John the Baptist as one who bore witness to the Light, that is, to the Son of God, and as one who testified that we take all from His fullness, grace upon grace; that the Law was given through Moses, but that grace and truth came through Christ; and that no one has ever seen the Father but the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father and has revealed Him to us. Thus far we have treated this testimony and message of John according to the measure of grace which God has granted us.
From this we have learned the sum total of the entire Christian faith and doctrine, namely, that Christ is very God and very man, who came into the world that we also might attain grace from His grace and take all from His fullness. All depends so entirely on the Son that no one can know anything of the Father unless the Son, who is acquainted with the Father's innermost thoughts, reveals it to him. Thus all the world is to be drawn into the realm of the Lord Christ and become subject to Him, for without Him no one can be saved.
This offers us an excellent sermon and testimony of Christ which we cannot comprehend fully in this life; we must accept it in faith until we understand it perfectly and also see it in the life beyond. These are,
- 73 to be sure, very brief words; but they present an epitome of Christian doctrine and life. We continue on this subject:127
29. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said: Behold, the Lamb of God.
It is evident from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that John did not know Christ before he baptized Him. He did, of course, conclude from the angel's announcement before his conception that he was to precede Christ and be His herald and forerunner, "to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins" (Luke 1:76–77). John was also aware that the Lord was to follow him soon, for before his entry into the ministry the command had come to him in the desert to proclaim to the Jewish people up and down the countryside that the Lord had come. At the same time John was to baptize with water. John proclaimed the advent of Christ in order to forestall any excuse the Jews might bring up for their ignorance of Christ and their failure to recognize Him because of His humble appearance.
Now John was cognizant of the fact that he had been born to this office, that he had been consecrated and ordained for this mission from the womb (Jer. 1:5), to prepare the way for the Lord. On the very day on which the Word and command of the Lord came to him, therefore, he began to announce the presence of the Messiah to his people (Luke 3:2). He traveled up and down the banks of the Jordan, faithfully pursuing his office and preaching from place to place that the people should pay heed to the presence of the Savior, of whom the Scriptures and the dear prophets had prophesied. The time was now at hand, he declared, as he exhorted them to open eyes and ears. This was the burden of his message to the people: to make ready to receive Him. However, he was not acquainted with the person of Christ until He who had ordained him into the ministry informed him: "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is
He" (John 1:33); later these words were confirmed with deeds. This happened, for instance, when Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John. The heaven opened, and the voice of the Father was heard, saying: "This is my beloved Son." And the Holy Spirit descended on Christ in physical form, as a dove
(Matt. 3:16–17). Then John thought to himself: "This must be He." Therefore he now opens his mouth and proclaims that Christ, the Messiah, had been born and was already in their midst, and that they should accept and not neglect Him. Lest the Jews accuse God of sending the Messiah secretly without revealing
Him to them, and, therefore, because of His poor and lowly appearance, refuse to recognize Him, God dispatched John to wander up and down the Jordan and there to baptize and remind the people of the presence of the Messiah. When Christ came to him to be baptized, John was not yet well acquainted with Him but began to recognize Him gradually in the course of the conversation. Later in chapter one we shall hear of Christ's Baptism by John, for what is said about John in our present text took place after Christ's
Baptism. At that time John supposed that Christ would necessarily be extraordinary and remarkable in His outward appearance; he surmised that one day Christ would come to him for Baptism. But when John beheld the heaven opening over the Baptism of Christ, heard the voice of the Father, and saw the Holy
Spirit descend in the form of a dove—when he witnessed this magnificent spectacle, then John was convinced that this was the Messiah. And John was seized with a sense of deep humility, awe, and reverence, thinking: "Lo, did I baptize Him over whom the heavens open?" This prompted him to exclaim: "Indeed, I should be baptized by You, whereas You ask me to baptize You." Therefore the Lord replied: "Let it be so now" (Matt. 3:15); then He stepped out of the water and went about His mission.
The record in Matthew gives the impression that these words between John and the Lord were exchanged before the Baptism. I shall let it pass without quibbling, although it may well be that the conversation took place after this event. Occasionally the evangelists reverse the order of events; they often report them out of their chronological sequence. It is my opinion that John delivered his memorable redeem His people, and of whose fullness we all should take grace upon grace, after His Baptism, when he witnessed that striking scene and was assured by that revelation not only of the presence of Christ but also of His true character. To be sure, God had given His Law through Moses; but this had not improved matters; rather it had made them worse. Grace and truth, however, had not come into the world through the Law of Moses or anything else, but solely through Christ. Therefore all who sought help were to rally about Him. Furthermore, the Law was no longer to have validity, because the Man had now come for whose sake the Law had hitherto been observed. John, too, now looked upon his office as terminated; for now He had appeared who baptized not only with water but also with the Holy Spirit. In all probability
John made this statement after he had seen and baptized Christ.
- 74 The same is true of the beautiful sermon briefly reported in our text. The evangelist speaks of "the next day," namely, a day following upon the Lord's Baptism, whatever day it may have been. This does not imply that it was on the very next day—since the Lord was led up to sojourn in the desert for forty days after this event—but on one of the subsequent days, when Jesus was walking up and down the banks of the Jordan, very likely after He had entered upon His ministry and was now going to search for disciples.
At such a time John saw Jesus approaching. It is probable that he recognized Him from the time of His Baptism. He is seized, as it were, with a cordial and happy awe and humility. He does not deem himself worthy to approach Him, but he begins to honor and to praise Him from afar. From a distance he points to Behold, the Lamb of God!
This is an excellent and splendid testimony of John regarding the introduction of the new rule and kingdom of Christ. It is a powerful statement. The words are clear and lucid; they tell us what one should think of Christ. John's earlier words (John 1:17), "The Law was given through Moses," can hardly be called praise of Moses. But in this passage John virtually chides him, as if he were saying: "You Jews sacrifice a lamb every Passover, as Moses commanded you. In addition you butcher two lambs daily, which are sacrificed and burned each morning and evening. It is a lamb, to be sure. But you Jews make such a display of it, you praise these sacrifices and boast of them so much, that you eclipse the glory of God, push God into the background, and deprive Him of His honor. Compare the true Lamb with the lamb which the Law of Moses commands you to butcher and eat.128 One is a lamb procured from shepherds.
The other, however, is an entirely different Lamb; it is the Lamb of God. For It has been ordained to bear on Its back the sins of the world. Compared with this Lamb, all the lambs you butcher in the temple, roast, and eat count for nothing.
"The paschal lamb of the Law was, indeed, splendid child's play, as well as a ceremony instituted to remind you of the true Lamb of God. But you exaggerate its significance and assume that such butchering and sacrificing were done to remove your sins. Don't give way to that illusion! Your lambs will never accomplish that. Only the Son of God will. Those lambs in the Law were merely to be the people's toys, to remind them of the true Paschal Lamb, which was to be sacrificed at some future time." But they had nothing but contempt for all this and supposed that a lamb slaughtered at Passover sufficed. Therefore
John, as it were, juxtaposes Moses' lamb and Christ, the true Lamb. The Law was not to extend beyond Christ. John wishes to say: "Your lamb was taken from men, as Moses commanded in the Law of God
(Ex. 12:3–5). But this is God's Lamb. The Easter lamb is a Lamb from God, not a lamb selected from the wethers. The lamb of the Law was a shepherds lamb or a man's lamb." John wants to say: "This is the true
Lamb, which takes away the sin of the people. With your other lambs, sacrificed on the Passover festival, you did try to remove your sin; but you never succeeded. In this Lamb, born of a virgin, you will. It is not a natural lamb or wether referred to in the Law, and yet It is a lamb." For God prescribed that it was to be a Lamb that should be sacrificed and roasted on the cross for our sins. In other respects He was a man like all other human beings; but God made Him a Lamb which should bear the sins of all the world.
This is an extraordinarily free and comforting sermon on Christ, our Savior. Neither our thoughts nor our words can do the subject full justice, but in the life beyond it will redound to our eternal joy and bliss that the Son of God abased Himself so and burdened Himself with my sins. Yes, He assumes not only my sins but also those of the whole world, from Adam down to the very last mortal. These sins He takes upon Himself; for these He is willing to suffer and die that our sins may be expunged and we may attain eternal life and blessedness. But who can ever give adequate thought or expression to this theme? The entire world with all its holiness, rectitude, power, and glory is under the dominion of sin and completely discredited before God. Anyone who wishes to be saved must know that all his sins have been placed on the back of this Lamb! Therefore John points this Lamb out to his disciples, saying: "Do you want to know where the sins of the world are placed for forgiveness? Then don't resort to the Law of Moses or betake yourselves to the devil; there, to be sure, you will find sins, but sins to terrify you and damn you.
But if you really want to find a place where the sins of the world are exterminated and deleted, then cast your gaze upon the cross. The Lord placed all our sins on the back of this Lamb. As the prophet Isaiah declares (53:6): 'All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way,' the one hither, the other yon. One sought God in this manner, another in a different way; there were countless modes of looking for God."
- 75 And as it happens when one loses the right way, and, for instance, turns in the wrong direction at a crossroad, one false decision leads to a hundred others. Thus the one chose the rule of St. Francis for help, the other the order of St. Benedict. And pope and Turk, each according to his own judgment, fabricated his own means of penance for sin. But it is written: "They have all gone astray." But now, which is the right way, the way that guards against going astray? The farther one strays from the right road, the more confused one grows. Isaiah says that the right way is this: "God placed all our sins upon Him and smote
Him for the sins of the people; when we all went astray, God put all our sins on the back of His Lamb, and upon no other. He ordained the Lamb to bear the sins of the entire world."
Therefore a Christian must cling simply to this verse and let no one rob him of it. For there is no other comfort either in heaven or on earth to fortify us against all attacks and temptations, especially in the agony of death.129 And whoever believes that this Lamb bears the sins of all the world must regard pope and Turk as the Antichrist. 130 For the pope has taught that the Christian must be concerned with bearing his own sin, atoning for it with alms and the like. This is his shameless lie even to the present day. But if what he teaches is true, then I, not Christ, am yoked and burdened with my sin. And then I would necessarily be lost and damned. But Christ does bear the sin—not only mine and yours or that of any other individual, or only of one kingdom or country, but the sin of the entire world. And you, too, are a part of the world.
John's memory has been cherished, to be sure. In the papacy many murals depict St. John. Pictures of him and of the Lamb were carved in wood and stone or fashioned in gold and silver. Once annually his day was celebrated.131 His fingers were painted pointing to the Lamb. But all of this was external and never took possession of the heart. No one understood the true significance of the painting and the figure.
The papists are still blind, foolish, and absurd. They have paintings and carvings and sculptures of St.
John, and they prize portrait and statue; but their doctrine and their life run counter to all this. For they call upon St. Francis or Benedict, St. Catherine or Barbara, and other saints for aid. Is this not blindness? Were we not foolish and mad? Not only did we have the doctrine informing us that this is the Lamb which bears the sin of the world, but we also viewed the picture of St. John pointing his finger at Christ and carrying
Christ on his left arm.132 We celebrated great festivals commemorating all this. And yet our vision was faulty; we did not understand its meaning, nor did we know why John was showing us the Lamb.
This is the basis of all Christian doctrine. Whoever believes it, is a Christian; whoever does not, is no Christian, and will get what he has coming to him. The statement is clear enough: "This is the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world." Moreover, this text is the Word of God, not our word. Nor is it our invention that the Lamb was sacrificed by God and that, in obedience to the Father, this Lamb took upon Himself the sin of the whole world. But the world refuses to believe this; it does not want to concede the honor to this dear Lamb that our salvation depends entirely on His bearing our sin. The world insists on playing a role in this too. But the more it aspires to do in atonement for sin, the worse it fares. For there is no atoner but this Lamb; God recognizes no other. Would it not be reasonable and right to take these words into our hearts that we might become aware of our sin?
Now note here that the Law of Moses, indeed, apprises you of your sin and tells you how you should obey God and man. It also informs me that I am hostile to God, that I blaspheme Him, and that I do not regulate my life properly according to the precepts of the Ten Commandments. In brief, the Law shows me what I am; it reveals sin and burdens me with it. This is its proper function. Then I become frightened and would like to be rid of it. But the Law says: "I cannot aid you in this." Then we run to the saints, and we invoke the assistance of the Virgin Mary,133 saying: "Intercede for me before your Son; show Him your breasts!" Another calls on St. Christopher, although he never existed on this earth.134 Another hies himself to St. Barbara for her intercession. Others enter monastic orders, thereby aspiring to becoming holy themselves and their own saviors. Indeed, each one of us beholds his sins and promises to mend his sinful life from day to day, saying: "O Christ, grant me a respite and stay the time of my death, and I shall become pious and atone for my sin!" But is this not a hideous and terrible blindness? Sin is at your throat; it drives you and lies heavy on you. Reason knows of no other counsel and advice. As soon as reason sees that it has sinned, it declares: "I will reform and become pious!" But now St. John intervenes and declares that the entire world is polluted with sin. He shows us through the Law that we are saddled with this sin, and that we must not let it rest where the Law has deposited it, namely, in our bosom. For if sin remains there, you are damned and doomed. At the same time you are too feeble to remove it; you cannot overcome sin.
- 76 In view of this, St. John, by his testimony or sermon, shows us Another upon whom God the Father has laid our sins, namely, Christ the Lord. The Law lays them upon me, but God takes them from me and lays them upon this Lamb. There they fit very well, far better than on me. God wishes to say to us: "I see how the sin oppresses you. You would have to collapse under its heavy burden. But I shall relieve and rid you of the load—when the Law convicts you of, and condemns you for, your sin—and from sheer mercy I shall place the weight of your sin on this Lamb, which will bear them."
May you ever cherish and treasure this thought. Christ is made a servant of sin, yea, a bearer of sin, and the lowliest and most despised person. He destroys all sin by Himself and says: "I came not to be served but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). There is no greater bondage than that of sin; and there is no greater service than that displayed by the Son of God, who becomes the servant of all, no matter how poor, wretched, or despised they may be, and bears their sins. It would be spectacular and amazing, prompting all the world to open ears and eyes, mouth and nose in uncomprehending wonderment, if some king's son were to appear in a beggar's home to nurse him in his illness, wash off his filth, and do everything else the beggar would have to do. Would this not be profound humility? Any spectator or any beneficiary of this honor would feel impelled to admit that he had seen or experienced something unusual and extraordinary, something magnificent. But what is a king or an emperor compared with the Son of God? Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the filth of sin which is ours by nature, stinking a hundred thousand times worse and looking infinitely more repulsive to God than any foul matter found in a hospital? And yet the love of the Son of God for us is of such magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us, the more He cleanses us, relieving us of all our misery and of the burden of all our sins and placing them upon His own back. All the holiness of the monks stinks in comparison with this service of Christ, the fact that the beloved Lamb, the great Man, yes, the Son of the Exalted Majesty, descends from heaven to serve me.
Such benefactions of God might well provoke us to love and to laud God and to celebrate this service in song and sermon and speech. It should also induce us to die willingly and to remain cheerful in all suffering. For how amazing it is that the Son of God becomes my servant, that He humbles Himself so, that He cumbers Himself with my misery and sin, yes, with the sin and the death of the entire world! He says to me: "You are no longer a sinner, but I am. I am your substitute. You have not sinned, but I have.
The entire world is in sin. However, you are not in sin; but I am. All your sins are to rest on Me and not on you." No one can comprehend this. In yonder life our eyes will feast forever on this love of God. And who would not gladly die for Christ's sake? The Son of Man performs the basest and filthiest work. He does not don some beggars torn garment or old trousers, nor does He wash us as a mother washes a child; but He bears our sin, death, and hell, our misery of body and soul. Whenever the devil declares: "You are a sinner!" Christ interposes: "I will reverse the order; I will be a sinner, and you are to go scotfree." Who can thank our God enough for this mercy?
Whoever can confidently believe that the sins of the world, also his own, were laid on Christ's shoulders will not easily be deceived and deluded by the schismatic spirits, who are in the habit of quoting us verses that deal with good works and alms and give the impression that good work wipe out sins and acquire salvation. A Christian can refute any passages which the factious spirits may adduce about good works. This cardinal text still remains intact. It reads that I cannot bear my sin or render satisfaction for it, but that God has chosen a sacrifice which was slaughtered, roasted on the cross, and eaten. Upon this
Lamb all sins were laid. A Christian will not permit himself to be cut adrift from this, nor will he be led away from a proper understanding of the Gospel. Let them teach or preach what they choose in the world.
He will adhere to the plain and true faith and clear words, namely: "If I had been able to earn anything for myself, then it would not have been necessary for God's Son to die for me." John declares that it is solely the Lamb that bears the sin of the whole world; otherwise it would surely not be done at all. I, too, will find refuge in Him. You may do whatever you please!
The Law, to be sure, can command to do this and that; it can also prescribe rules of conduct for life. It says: "Do not covet your neighbors wife, his goods, his honor; do not kill; do not commit adultery, etc.; give alms." And it is laudable and good to comply with these Commandments. By doing so we abstain from outward sin in the world. But it is futile to try to expunge sin before God through the Law. The one thing that is effective in this respect is spoken of here: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" And in Is. 53:6 we read: "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And again (Is.
53:8): "The Lord will strike Him for the transgression of my people." Everything centers in Christ.
- 77 Therefore a Christian must adhere to this verse with simplicity of heart and not let anyone rob him of it.
Then he will be aware of the blindness of all heathen, of the papists, and of the godless, who themselves want to render satisfaction with pilgrimages and with good works. They make much of these and console themselves with purgatory. But they are blind. For Holy Scripture declares that the sin of the world does not lie on the world, or St. John's sin on St. John, or St. Peter's on Peter; for they are unable to bear it. The sin of the world lies on Christ, the Lamb of God. He steps forth and becomes a vile sinner, yea, sin itself
(2 Cor. 5:21), just as if He Himself had committed all the sin of the world from its beginning to its end.
This is to be the Lamb's office, mission, and function.
And now if Holy Scripture contains verses which seem to intimate that one should atone for sin through good works, you should apply these to the inferior realm of domestic affairs or of temporal government; enjoin them upon fathers and mothers, and do not use them in an attempt to prove that good works could present satisfaction for your sins before God. Good works leave sins unborne and unpaid; the Lamb bears them all. Therefore ask yourself if it was not just of God to be angry with us and to punish us because we had strayed into the ranks of the pope's and the Turk's schismatic spirits. For the Lamb Itself preaches to us: "Behold, how I bear your sins!" However, no one will accept it. If we believed and accepted it, no one would be damned. What more is the Lamb to do? He says: "You are all condemned, but I will take your sins upon Myself. I have become the whole world. I have incorporated all people since
Adam into My person." Thus He wants to give us righteousness in exchange for the sins we have received from Adam. And I should reply: "I will believe that my dear, dear Lord,135 the Lamb of God, has taken all sins upon Himself." Still the world will not believe and accept this. If it did, no one would be lost.
We learn that we have all been hurled into sin by the devil and that the Lamb alone extricates us.
Refusal to believe this is not Christ's fault; it is mine. If I do not believe this, I am doomed. It is for me to say simply that the Lamb of God has borne the sin of the world. I have been earnestly commanded to believe and to confess this, and then also to die in this faith.
You may say: "Who knows whether Christ also bore my sin? I have no doubt that He bore the sin of St. Peter, St. Paul, and other saints; these were pious people. Oh, that I were like St. Peter or St. Paul!"
Don't you hear what St. John says in our text: "This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"? And you cannot deny that you are also part of this world, for you were born of man and woman.
You are not a cow or a pig. It follows that your sins must be included, as well as the sins of St. Peter or St.
Paul. And just as you are unable to expiate your sins, so they have been unable to expiate theirs. There are no exceptions here. Therefore do not yield to your own thoughts, but cling to the words which guarantee you and all believers forgiveness of sin through the Lamb. Don't you hear? There is nothing missing from the Lamb. He bears all the sins of the world from its inception; this implies that He also bears yours, and offers you grace.
If someone does not partake of and enjoy such grace and mercy, he has none to blame but himself and his refusal to believe and accept it. He says to himself: "This does not pertain to you, but only to St. Peter and St. Paul. I must become a monk, invoke the saints, and go on pilgrimages." Go to the devil if you refuse to believe these words! For if you are in the world and your sins form a part of the sins of the world, then the text applies to you. All that the words "sin," "world," and "the sin of the world from its beginning until its end" denote—all this rests solely on the Lamb of God. And since you are an integral part of this world and remain in this world, the benefits mentioned in the text will, of course, also accrue to you.
It is extremely important that we know where our sins have been disposed of. The Law deposits them on our conscience and shoves them into our bosom. But God takes them from us and places them on the shoulders of the Lamb. If sin rested on me and on the world, we would be lost; for it is too strong and burdensome. God says: "I know that your sin is unbearable for you; therefore behold, I will lay it upon My
Lamb and relieve you of it. Believe this! If you do, you are delivered of sin." There are only two abodes for sin: it either resides with you, weighing you down; or it lies on Christ, the Lamb of God. If it is loaded on your back, you are lost; but if it rests on Christ, you are free and saved. Now make your choice!
According to the Law, to be sure, sin should remain on you; but by grace sin was cast on Christ, the Lamb.
Lacking this grace, we should be doomed in an accounting with God.
These are clear, plain, and powerful words, strengthened by that splendid and beautiful portrait of St.
John pointing to the Lamb with his finger. I was always fond of such pictures; for instance, the one on which the Paschal Lamb is depicted carrying a little banner, or the picture of the crucifixion.136 But in the - 78 papacy we never understood their true significance. This is the message they really wanted to convey:
"Behold, man! According to Law and justice, your sins should rest on you. But the Lamb which I exhibit here bears your sins by grace. This sin has been placed on the Lamb. Now you are holy, righteous, and free of sin; you have been saved for the sake of the Lamb. Therefore you have to know that you are not bearing your own sin. For then you would be lost; the Law would condemn and execute you. But behold,
God has delivered you from your sins and has placed them on the Lamb. And thus you are saved, not for your own sake but for His."137
30. This is He of whom I said: After me comes a man who ranks before me, for He was before me.
31. I myself did not know Him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to The last time we dealt with an excellent sermon by the beloved St. John in which he pointed to Christ the Lord, saying: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." This is the chief article of our Christian doctrine; on it our faith is founded. It is necessary that we know this Lamb well—
His person, His function, and His office. We must know that He is the bearer of sin, not only of ours but of that of the entire world. These are, to be sure, brief words; but they are terse and comprehensive, including almost everything recorded about Christ's deeds for us, as for example, His birth, His suffering, death, and resurrection. The fact that St. John calls Him the Lamb of God implies that He was sent by God and not chosen by man.
Now another testimony of Christ's divinity is added; for John declares that Christ existed before him and that he, John, did not know Him. Indeed, he knew of Christ's existence; the command to proclaim the presence of Christ to the people had come to John in the desert. But he was not really aware of His true character until God Himself revealed Him by means of the unusual and beautiful sign, when the heaven opened, when the Father's voice was heard, and the Holy Spirit hovered overhead. In the beginning of John's Gospel you heard the evangelist describe John the Baptist as a witness to the Lamb, testifying that He is very God and God's Son, but also true man, because God had become man. Later on the Lamb let
Himself be slaughtered and sacrificed for us; He bore the sins of the whole world. This sermon and testimony of John regarding the Lamb that bears the sin of the world is to endure until the end of the world.
32. And John bore witness: I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and It remained on Him.
33. I myself did not know Him; but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
34. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
The evangelist constantly emphasizes that John was a witness whose entire sermon was a testimony revolving solely about Christ, the Son of God, and affirming that He is very God and very man, offered for us. John had preached and testified that after him would come one who had been before him, and that this one would be God. He had declared that he had not seen Him or known Him: "I myself did not know
Him." His testimony had also preceded the information given him regarding Christ: "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit" (John 1:33). Thus John bore witness to Christ simply and plainly before he knew Him. And now God came and gave an external sign to confirm John the Baptist's preaching. The evangelist records here that in addition to the oral witness of John the Baptist, "Make straight the way of the Lord!" (John 1:23), God provided a visible manifestation and revelation which corroborated his ministry: John saw the Spirit in the form of a dove over Christ. This episode is narrated by both Matthew and Luke in greater detail (Matt. 3:17; Luke 3:22). John confines himself to the testimony of the Baptist, to his words, to what he saw and what happened at the time.
Luke and Matthew report that when Christ emerged from the Jordan after His Baptism, the heaven opened above Him, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a bodily form, and John heard a voice from heaven saying: "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him."138 This is also the sum and substance of St. John the Evangelist's words: "I have seen the heaven open and the Holy Spirit descending and remaining over Him." Self-evidently this happened after the Baptism. But the other words heard by John, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain," were very likely addressed to him in the desert; for Luke reports that "the Word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias" (Luke 3:2).
Luke does not divulge the content of that Word; John, however, does reveal it, namely, that he was to go forth and preach Baptism for repentance and for the forgiveness of sin: "As a token of this, you will see the Holy Spirit coming over Christ, so that you may know that it is He upon whom the Holy Spirit will
- 79 descend. When you see the sign, then you may be assured that it is He whose forerunner you are to be and for whom you are to prepare the way." This was the command issued to John: to baptize with water for repentance and for the forgiveness of sin, which was to be accorded all men through Christ. At the same time he was given the promise of a visible sign for the identification of Christ. St. John received this command in the wilderness; it is succinctly condensed by Luke in the words: "The Word of the Lord came to John" (Luke 3:2). Relative to this, John the Baptist remarks in the text: "I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and It remained on Him." It did not flutter away; It remained poised over Him.
All this happened and was recorded to confirm the testimony and sermon of John the Baptist, not only for his own sake but also for that of others, who heard his sermons and who would later witness the great miracles and signs that accompanied Christ's preaching. This testimony of John should be sufficient for all. We do not wish to enlarge further on this text. In our sermons on St. Matthew we discoursed on this repeatedly and adequately.139 It would be tiring to repeat it here.
But now behold how glorious a thing Baptism is, also how sublime a spectacle Christ's Baptism presented. The heavens opened, the Father's voice was heard, and the Holy Spirit descended, not as a phantom but in the form and figure of a natural dove. Nor was the Father's voice an illusion when He pronounced these words from heaven: "This is My beloved Son; with Him I am well pleased." These were real, natural, human words. And this dove, in the form of which the Holy Spirit was seen, was real and natural. Nevertheless, it was the Holy Spirit. All this was done in honor and praise of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism; for this is not a human institution but something sublime and holy. Eminent personages are involved in it: the Father, who bestows and who speaks here; the Son, who receives and is baptized; the Holy Spirit, who hovers above and reveals Himself in the form of a dove. And the celestial choir of all the angels is present; these skip and dance for joy over this act. Furthermore, the entire heaven stands ajar. If Baptism were a human act and institution, such scenes would not be enacted here.
One must be on one's guard against the Anabaptists and the schismatic spirits, who speak sneeringly of Baptism and aver that it is mere water and of benefit to no one. They gaze at this sacred act as a cow stares at a new door. For they behold a poor preacher standing there, or, in an emergency, a woman who baptizes. They take offense at this and say: "Well, what can Baptism accomplish?" They also claim that whoever does not believe is not baptized. Thus they slander and blaspheme the most venerable Sacrament, and that merely because they do not see farther than a horse or a cow; they see only the water. The thing they take note of is that the persons, the preacher or the midwives, are lowly people who dip water with their hands and sprinkle it over the infant. A sow or a cow can see that much. They are befuddled.
Consequently, they blaspheme about Baptism.
But it is recorded here that all three persons of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, together with all the elect angels, were present at Christ's Baptism, although invisibly; and heaven was open for the occasion. In fact, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit still attend our Baptism today. Otherwise few people witnessed Christ's Baptism, and it passed without any fanfare. John the Baptist's hand, which performed the Baptism, was there; nevertheless, the heavenly hosts of the angels were also present.
Since Baptism is a divine act in which God Himself participates and since it is attended by the three exalted Persons of the Godhead, it must be prized and honored. One must agree that Baptism was not invented by any man but was instituted by God. It is not plain water but has God's Word in it and with it; and this transforms such water into a soul bath and into a bath of rejuvenation. Furthermore, we must maintain that a Baptism is a proper and valid Baptism even if the person baptized is unbelieving and ungodly. For is it conceivable that God would be faithless because of my faithlessness? (Rom. 3:3). Those impious knaves surely don't know themselves whether the people whom they rebaptize really believe. We do know that our little children believe; for regarding them we have a trustworthy declaration of Christ:
"Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14).
They cannot adduce such a statement for those whom they rebaptize. Furthermore, they have no more inside information than we have about the heart; they cannot peer into anyone's heart either.
We have also stated often that the Ten Commandments will endure and that they are true despite the fact that you violate them and do not conduct your life in accordance with them.140 For the Ten
Commandments are not nullified by your disobedience to your parents or by your lying, murdering, or whoring. They remain God's Commandments. In the Second Commandment we are told not to swear; but your swearing will not undo this Commandment, for abuse does not annul the Law of God.
- 80 Or let us say that a Jew came to be baptized for the sake of a christening present, for some other reason, or from some motive of self-interest known only to him. This would not invalidate the Baptism; the Baptism administered to him would still be valid. Therefore one must not say that the Baptism was rendered of no value by the Jew's abuse of it. Likewise, God's Commandment and order remain in force when I say: "Honor your father and your mother!" even if you go and do the opposite. Thus Baptism, too, remains valid and correct, even if it could be proved that a child or an adult did not believe when baptized.
For Baptism is not our work; and whether I believe or disbelieve, it remains good and valid in itself.
However, this is also true: If I believe, it benefits me; on the other hand, if I do not believe, Baptism will not redound to my good in all eternity. For Christ says: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). For this is God's Word. Therefore it will endure.
Furthermore, we are to know that God is actively at work in Baptism without regard to my work or yours. For the Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are present in Baptism. The Son has rendered satisfaction with His body. The Holy Spirit has manifested Himself in the form of a dove; but when He makes Himself visible in the form of a dove, He is not blended with a natural dove as the Son is fused with our humanity. The Father is heard in the voice. And now whoever is baptized and believes is saved; however, anyone who disbelieves does not thereby nullify Baptism.
St. John the Baptist wants to declare: "This I have seen, and this I proclaim to you, that at Christ's Baptism the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were witnesses. Now will you believe that He is the Messiah? You have also heard my testimony dating back to the time before I had seen Christ; but now I add that in this heavenly revelation I beheld the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And such testimony is given that you might know that another Baptism will follow the one I administer, namely, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Hitherto I have baptized with water, but someone will appear on the scene who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
This text has given rise to many disputations concerning the difference between the Baptism of John and that of Christ.141 You remember that the Law of Moses prescribed much baptizing. The Jews bathed, washed, and baptized ad infinitum. They cleansed themselves excessively much. Whenever a woman gave birth to a son, she was considered impure for several weeks and then was obliged to cleanse herself with water for about six weeks. But if she bore a girl, the time of her impurity was doubled and lasted twelve weeks (Lev. 12:2–5). Furthermore, when the Jews touched a corpse, they were enjoined to bathe themselves lest they remain impure (Lev. 22:4–6). We, however, possess a different bath and mode of purification, which does not wash primarily the body but the soul. Therefore Paul terms Baptism "the washing of water with the Word" (Eph. 5:26), with which we are cleansed, leaving neither spot nor wrinkle (Eph. 5:27). And in Titus 3:5 he calls it "a washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy
Spirit." He calls it a washing and a cleansing. Thus John also employed this term. He testified and proclaimed that they were washed and baptized, and he added that they should repent and prepare themselves for the real Baptism of Christ, which vouchsafed them forgiveness of sin; "for I," John wishes to say, "do not bestow forgiveness of sin on anyone."
John points out the difference between Christ's Baptism and his own when he says: "I baptize with water, I do not confer the Holy Spirit. Thus I do not forgive sin. But the aim and end of my preaching is to lead men to repentance and to prepare them for the advent of the Lord, who is to bestow the forgiveness of sin on them." John points to Christ. He does not forgive sins, but he says: "After me will come one whose
Baptism will not only serve the purpose of repentance but will carry with it the remission of sin." Thus John bore witness to Christ, and thus he was the forerunner of Christ the Lord. His Baptism pointed to the Holy Spirit, whom Christ was to bring and bestow. John's Baptism directed men to the future forgiveness of sin, which was very close at hand. It was not yet present. Nor was John empowered to confer it; therefore he baptized for repentance and a future forgiveness of sin. As if he were to say: "On this message and testimony I baptize you with water in order that you may prepare for the Christ, who is soon to appear, and that you may repent."
We also read about this in Acts 19:4: "John baptized, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him." This means: "John preached that you may be baptized and repents and thus acquire the forgiveness of sin which Christ brings you; he, John, does not bestow this forgiveness." Thus also Christ takes these very words from the lips of John the Baptist, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" and makes them apply to the present time, since He who dispenses forgiveness of sin is already at hand
(Matt. 3:2). As if He were to say: "As John prophesied of Me, so it will be. In Me you will have forgiveness of sin; all of you who believe in Me will not be put to shame but will surely be saved. This is certain, as John said." John was a preacher of the forgiveness of sin, which followed quickly through Christ the Lord. Everybody in the world should be directed to this sermon of John.
Accordingly, this is the difference between the Baptism of Christ and that of John: John neither gives nor brings forgiveness of sin; he only points people to Him who does bestow it. In John's Baptism forgiveness is promised; in Christ's Baptism it is given. Thus John's Baptism is no longer valid now.
Therefore if someone were to say: "I baptize you with John the Baptist's Baptism for the remission of sins," that would not be a valid Baptism. For his Baptism was solely a prelude, as it were, and a preparation for the forgiveness of sin. John preceded Christ; Christ followed him. No, we must say with plain words: "All your sins are remitted by reason of the presence of Christ. Therefore I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This means that I remit all your sins, cleansing you of them right now. I do not send you on to anyone else, as John did." John, however, had to say: "Prepare yourselves to receive Him who will confer the Holy Spirit in Baptism and bring you the remission of sin."
In two respects the Baptism of John was different from that of Christ. In the first place, John admonished all to repentance and to preparation for the coming Christ. In the second place, he told his hearers to wait for the forgiveness of sin, which would be brought by one who was yet to come. His
Baptism bore the promise Of a future forgiveness of sin through Christ. Repentance precedes forgiveness, as is evident from John's words (Matt. 3:7): "Repent, you brood of vipers! You are knaves and miscreants; neither hide nor hair is good on you. Therefore let me inform you that you are not living under God's grace and mercy, but that you are sinners, and that your sin cannot be remitted without this grace and mercy." John was to announce: "You are sinners, though you may be the holiest of Pharisees." This same and learn that they stand in need of forgiveness. For even though we have attained remission of sin, we still have the old Adam hanging around our necks and therefore sin daily. Sin has not yet been purged from our nature; neither is the devil dead, who provokes our flesh and blood to every evil. This makes the preaching and the practicing of repentance imperative on earth until the old Adam is dead and man ceases to sin.
At this point it will be necessary to differentiate between forgiven sins and unforgivable sins, for there is a wide and distinct difference between them. Unforgivable sin is sin that is not only apparent but also leads to damnation. Forgivable sins are such as are forgiven and not imputed to one. Even though they are not taken away immediately, still they will not harm; the guilt has been removed. God will not punish them with eternal death. The serpents head has been crushed (Gen. 3:15) even though its body still remains, coils, and rages, and man still must contend with it and make ready to resist it daily. Therefore it is necessary to repent, to torture oneself, to castigate oneself, and to mend one's ways in order to subdue sin and one day to be relieved of it entirely. These sins then are not condemnable, because, for Christ's sake, they are not reckoned against the believers for eternal death.
Thus sin is not completely removed in this life, but yonder it is not only forgiven but also completely eliminated and done away with. Therefore St. Paul declares concerning the present life in 1 Cor. 5:7:
"Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be fresh dough." How does that agree? If I am a fresh sweet dough, I no longer have any old leaven. Why, then, does St. Paul tell me to cleanse myself of the old leaven? Is St. Paul foolish and stupid? Doesn't he know what he is saying? Well, we are a new dough by means of the remission of sin. God accepts us as His children. But though we have become a new dough through God's ineffable mercy and by virtue of the forgiveness of sin, nevertheless an old dough still surely adheres to us; for we still have flesh and blood, against which we must incessantly strive and which we must constantly purify. In Gal. 5:17 it is said: "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for those are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would." My beloved, what do those words mean? If we are spirit, we are no longer flesh; and vice versa. This impresses us as if Paul did not know what he was saying. He also refers to this subject in Rom. 7:5–6: "While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the Law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."
But in this life it cannot be otherwise; we shall not be sheer spirit, as we should be. But yonder, in that life, on the Last Day, body and soul will perform the will of the Spirit perfectly; that is, there I shall love
- 82 God above all, with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my powers (Mark 12:30). For then I shall be sheer spirit. I shall gladly perform God's will, conform my will to God's Word, and be like the dear angels, merciful, kind, and peaceable. Here on earth I fain would love God with all my heart; but the bag I carry about my neck, my flesh and blood, pulls me down and hinders me. For the flesh is opposed to the Spirit in this life; it vexes me if someone grieves me. Therefore it behooves me to sweep out the old leaven, to mortify the flesh, and to resist the sin that still bestirs itself within me. I am neither all flesh nor all spirit. The world is all flesh, but the angels are all spirit. As the Galatians were told (Gal. 5:17), the Christians possess something of each. The spirit has the forgiveness of sin and lives by the righteousness which Christ imputes to us in its purity without payment on our part, but the flesh is committed to death because of sin. It constantly rebels against Christ. We cannot eradicate sin from our nature; as long as we live, we shall be busy sweeping it out.
In German we speak of a sin as "removed"142 when we have the forgiveness of sin through Christ, even though this sin has not been entirely conquered. We must, however, contend against sin in our body again and again. Therefore it is necessary that we become conversant with the art of cleansing ourselves, so that we resist flesh and blood and sin. And since we are spirit, possessing the hope of forgiveness and dwelling under the shelter of grace, we are a fresh dough, able to fight against sin. It is certain that I have remission of sin; this I have attained. And still I continue to cleanse and purge myself of sin. Thus there is no contradiction when we say that our sins are forgiven in the sight of God if we believe in Christ, but that the dirt still clings to us while we dwell on this earth. And this sin must be purged out.
Christ, of course, accepts John's Baptism of water, but He adds the fire. That is, He imparts the Holy Spirit, who kindles His virtues in us. And thus our Baptism in Christ, in which He gives us remission of sin, baptizing us with the Holy Spirit and with forgiveness, remains and continues to be effective. We receive the forgiveness from the Lamb, who bears the sin of the world. But on account of the old Adam we are also baptized for repentance. We must constantly repent; we must constantly mortify our flesh.
That is, we must continually mend our evil ways and be cleansed and at the same time always hope for that forgiveness of sin which we now have. When we are baptized and believe in Christ, we do all this.
For our Baptism is not, as John's was, one that points to Him who is to bring forgiveness of sin; but our Baptism is Christ's Baptism, which has already brought forgiveness. Christ wants to say: "I baptize and call you to repentance. But at the same time I coffer on you the spiritual fire, that is, the Holy Spirit, so that you live under the forgiveness of sin, repenting daily and purging and cleansing the evil flesh, which strives against the Spirit."
The difference between the Baptism of Christ and that of John is that John's points to Christ, who baptizes with fire, that is, with the Holy Spirit. And even though a knave may disbelieve this, it is nonetheless true, and Baptism is valid. Even if you do not believe that Jesus Christ died for you, what does it matter? The words which I hear are still true and are not changed into lie and deceit by my unbelief.
Likewise, when you are baptized, you are validly and truly baptized regardless of your belief or unbelief.
Or if you receive the absolution from a preacher or a Christian brother, you may rest assured that your sins are remitted even though it was Judas or someone else who absolved you; for absolution is, for all that,
God's Word and a divine office. Such doctrine bears frequent repetition in the face of the allegation of knaves and schismatic spirits that Baptism and the Gospel become valid only through man's acceptance and belief. And the devil always plagues us by blinding us to a proper differentiation between the work of God and the work of man. The Anabaptists aver that Baptism is proper and valid only if the baptized person believes. But remember that the Gospel and Baptism would be correct and true even if no person gave them credence; for both of these are not my work but God's. This is unknown to the pope and to his disciples, as well as to the Anabaptists.
Thus we have seen from this text what a glorious thing Baptism is and that we are to esteem it highly.
For John hears the voice of the Father proclaiming the Son; the Son, in human form, is standing in the Jordan; the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. Consequently, exalted Persons are in attendance.
From this you may gather that Baptism is not the work of man but of God, the Heavenly Father, whose voice is heard from above, saying: "This is My beloved Son." It is also the work of God the Holy Spirit, who hovers over the scene in the form of a dove; and also the work of God the Son, who accepts the Baptism of John on His person. And we have the same glorious company at our own Baptism, which means that it is not the work of man but solely of God, the sublime Majesty, of the three Persons in the Godhead, who are one in essence, power, and majesty.
- 83 This we must know about the glory of our own Baptism that we may have a proper regard for it and that Christ may be recognized as the Savior of the world. To insure this, we have not only the testimony of St. John's message but also the confirmation from the Holy Trinity.143
35. The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples.
36. And he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said: Behold, the Lamb of God!
37. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
The last time we heard John the Baptist testify that he had seen the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Christ the Lord in the form of a dove, and that he had been told that the One upon whom the Holy Ghost would descend would be He. All this he saw and reported. But we have discoursed amply on this subject, also on the glory of Baptism. We have emphasized that it must not be viewed as plain water which any cow or horse might drink but that the dear Trinity, together with all His beloved angels, is present. It is a divine and heavenly water in which God Himself is at work, cleansing us from sin, saving us from eternal death, and giving us life eternal. This is the way true and pious Christians view Baptism, and no one can take it away from them.
Next we come to the calling of the apostles. One may wonder why John the Evangelist uses so many words to enlarge on this minor episode, why he describes it so fully. One sermon does not suffice us for an adequate discussion of this subject. In Matt. 4:18 ff. we read that while Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew. "And He said to them: 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James and John. To these He also said: 'Follow Me!' They, too, forsook their father and followed Him." Thus Matthew relates the calling of these apostles. According to his report, St. Peter and Andrew were the first to be called to the apostolate; later John and James were called. But here the record is the reverse; it states that Andrew, who had been a disciple of John, followed Jesus and became His first apostle. We read of no other disciple of John who joined Jesus. Now the apostles follow in this order:
Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael. Nathanael was the fourth in order, but he was really not an apostle. This may give the impression that Matthew and John contradicted each other, for Matthew's record of the calling of four apostles does not coincide with John's.
St. Peter's correct name, his Christian name, was Simon. The name Simon, the son of John, was given to him at the time of his circumcision; for the Jews commonly named the children for the father. But Christ later conferred another name on him, namely, the Aramaic name Cephas, for which the Greek is πέτρα, the German Fels. The word implies the solidity of a rock on which an edifice can be constructed firmly. And the word πέτρος is neither Latin nor German; it is Greek. It signifies that Peter is to be a hard rock. In view of this, Christ says (John 1:42): "Now you are called Simon, but henceforth your name shall be Rock, or Peter."
But now how do we bring these two reports of Matthew and John into accord? We proceed in the following way: When Christ was baptized by John, He did not have any disciples as yet and now began to preach. He did not behave in an unusual manner; but He was unpretentious, mingled congenially with the people, and associated freely with all. Thus one after the other gradually came to Him and rallied about Him, today one, tomorrow another. John the Evangelist narrates here that after Christ's Baptism Andrew came, others later; thus one after the other found his way to Him, sought His companionship, and eagerly listened to what He said. And these, as you see here, He received in a friendly way. He could adapt himself to the people so that they loved and followed Him.
Thus John's theme is not the calling of the apostles into office; it is their congenial association with Christ. He wishes to tell us that they joined Him because of His friendly attitude toward the people. Then
John the Baptist's disciples were also motivated by their masters testimony and message about Christ.
They heard and saw Christ, learned to know Him, and became personally acquainted with Him. However, these did not immediately become Christ's disciples, nor did Christ call them into office at this time. After they had formed a friendship with Christ, they left Him and returned home. But later, when Christ came to the Sea of Galilee on His wanderings, He called them into the apostolate. At the time when they saw
Christ on the banks of the Jordan, they did not suppose that one day they would become His disciples.
With these words the evangelist points out that Christ the Lord had an unusual way of attracting people and of associating with them. Later, when Christ came to the Sea of Galilee, performing miracles like the transformation of water into wine and becoming known to all, He found these four men. Then He commenced to call them into office. Here John does not discuss this theme of calling but dwells on the - 84 friendly intercourse of these men with Jesus. He tells us how companionable Christ was, how He made friends with everybody, so that the people gladly associated with Him, while Matthew confines himself to the calling of the apostles and ignores their earlier association with Christ, which is related by John. Here in John, Philip brings Nathanael to Christ, who addresses him in a very friendly manner and is more intimate with him than with the apostles. Christ calls him by name although He had never seen him before; and He pays him a fine compliment (John 1:47). All this reflects the amicable disposition of Christ toward the people prior to His calling of the four.
"The next day," not the very next day but another day, John was accompanied by two of his disciples.
He had more than two disciples, but the others were absent at the time. These disciples had seen Christ before, at Christ's Baptism and when John had pointed to Christ, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God!" This is the meaning he now wants to convey: "Once before I told you that this is the Lamb of God. And now behold, here He is!" At the previous meeting John had added the words "who takes away the sin of the world." With the words of our text John, in conformity with his office, directed his disciples to Christ.
Yielding Him pre-eminence, he declared: "He is the Master; He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire." When John's disciples, plain and pious men, heard John say: "This man is the Lamb and the true
Master!" they believed him and were induced to follow Christ to the place where He was staying.
As they did so, Christ turned around and asked: "What do you seek?" They replied: "Where are You staying?" (John 1:38). And they sojourned with Him that day. It seems to me that they pursued an excellent way of gathering information from Christ. From His own lips they want to hear the testimony which John had borne of Him. To this end they want to be in His company, see Him, hear Him, converse and associate with Him. However, we note that Christ does not call them at this time. Nor do they spend the entire day in His company. They came to Him "about the tenth hour," or, as we would say, at four o'clock in the afternoon. That much time they spent with Christ. The happenings and the conversation have not been transmitted to us. The evangelist merely wants to show how amiably Christ treated them, thereby explaining how Christ drew the people to Himself until finally twelve apostles and seventy-two disciples rallied about Him. He did not initiate His kingdom with violence, with blustering, with open assault, in the fashion of a mighty emperor, as the Jews had imagined; but He was affable and mingled cordially with the people. He did not make His entry with worldly pomp, with steed, armor, spear, and gun; no, He was friendly and gentle. He received all who came to Him, chatted with them, and excluded no one from His company. This is reflected in Is. 42:2–3, where the prophet declares that "He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench."
Thus Andrew, one of John's disciples, was the first to come to Christ and make His acquaintance.
After this he departed and conversed with his brother Simon. The gist of his words might have been: "Do you want to hear some wonderful news? John, our master, preached about this man, telling us that He is the Lamb of God and the Messiah." Without a doubt John had often preached on Christ at great length.
Andrew had given John's words credence, and now he came to his brother and said: "We have found the Messiah," the very man to whom John has pointed and declared that He was the Messiah. Thus Andrew became the first preacher and witness to the Messiahship of Christ. This is the message that he relayed to his brother Peter upon meeting him: that he had found Him of whom the Law of Moses and the prophets had written. This took place at Bethsaida, whence Peter and Andrew, animated by the conviction that they have found the Messiah foretold by the prophets, set out to come to Christ.
Now when Andrew led Peter to Christ, saying: "This is Christ!" the Lord graciously confirmed the words of Andrew as He demonstrated His omniscience. Christ had never seen Peter before, nor had He known his parents or friends. Still He addresses him with the words: "So you are Simon, the son of John?
You shall be called Cephas." These are friendly and companionable words, such as good friends might utter at table. Nothing is said here about St. Peter's calling or ordination into the apostolate. All we are told is that a new name is assigned to him. Originally he was called Simon; now he shall be known as Cephas. Just as if Christ wanted to say: "I know you very well. Your name is Simon, but henceforth you shall be known throughout the world as Peter." Thus the first meeting between Christ and Peter came to pass; in it Christ showed forth His divinity, manifesting that despite His human form He was also very
God. And when Christ accosted Peter so affably, when He knew his name and conferred a second one, Peter probably felt the urge to say: "Say, Andrew, those are prophetic words and divine thoughts!" The words of Christ evoked a high regard in Peter.
- 85 At this time we must say a little about the meaning of the word "Cephas." For in the papacy we were such stupid and vulgar asses that we did not understand this text or know what the word "Cephas" means.
It is a Hebrew word. In Greek it is πέτρα, in the Latin, rupes, a rock or cliff on which one can erect a castle, a mountain rock. But the asses in the papacy and in canon law alleged that the word Cephas was derived from the Greek word κεφαλή, which means head.144 And from this they inferred that Peter was to be the head and overlord of the other apostles. On the basis of this text they elevated the pope to the headship of the church as the successor and heir of St. Peter. And these stupid and wretched people also recorded in their decretals that Christ here said to Peter: "You are the head; therefore the pope is also the head." They are arrogant enough to embody this in their canons and disseminate it all over the world as an article of faith.145
But the text does not use the word κεφαλή, but Cephas. This is the new name that Christ gives Peter; He calls him a rock. Why? We have the answer in Matt. 16:18: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church." These words contain no command to Peter, nor do they invest him with any office; they merely give him an additional name. He is told that he shall be called Rock. In circumcision he was named Simon, but in the future he is to be known as Cephas. When Christ says: "On this rock I will build My church," He refers to Himself. Therefore this text does not uphold the claim which they so annoyingly and vauntingly spread all over the earth: that the pope is the head of all Christendom. That is a despicable papistic lie. For Christ does not issue an order to Peter; He merely gives him another name.
And now the third disciple, Philip, is added to the group. Where he found Christ, I do not know; but very likely it was not far from Bethsaida, as these three were citizens of that town. At that place, in the center of the country, the Jordan forms a rather large lake, from which it flows forth again into the Dead
Sea, where Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed and on the shores of which Christ performed many great miracles and deeds. In this region, where the Jordan emerges from the lake and takes its course toward the Dead Sea, John baptized. It seems credible that these three disciples approached Christ not far from their native Bethsaida, for Christ often preached and worked miracles here. In the Gospel Christ utters this anguished complaint over Bethsaida and Chorazin, saying (Matt. 11:21–23): "Woe to you, Capernaum,
My city, My bishopric, where I have My parish church. You will perish and be hurled into the abyss of hell!" All these cities are situated around the sea; furthermore, Andrew, Simon Peter, and Philip are fellow townsmen. Therefore the evangelist John states that the three made the acquaintance of Christ in this order: first Andrew, then Simon Peter, and finally Philip.
The fourth is Nathanael, who is praised and lauded above the other three, although he himself did not become an apostle. In this way God wanted to show that although Christ did train great apostles, He does not want their greatness to become a cause for strutting and flaunting. God is not interested in the apostolic rank as such, nor does He regard the person. He is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Only those are high in His regard who believe and make their life conform to their Christian belief, whether they are renowned or unknown, whether they are bigwigs or small fry.146 Differences of rank and position in human society are entirely in agreement with God's will; but any ungodly incumbent of ever so honorable a position will not find his position a help in the attainment of salvation. A believing cobbler will be saved just as well as a believing king or a great emperor. Judas was an apostle, and the highest and foremost at that, ruling the others; and yet he went to the devil. Balaam was an important man, a veritable abbot among the prophets; and yet he was lost (Num. 24:l ff.). Thus we see that rank and social position do not save. To be a father or a mother is a good and an honorable estate; but if father and mother do not believe, God cares nothing about them.
Although Christ did not call Nathanael into the apostolate, He conversed in a very friendly tone with him. He was only Christ's good friend; and yet we do not read anywhere that Christ chatted in so friendly a manner with Peter or the other apostles, or, for that matter, even with John the Baptist. These words surely give evidence of a warm friendship: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile" (John 1:47).
Also: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Nathanael is neither a prophet nor an apostle; still he enters the circle of Christ's friends as highly regarded as the other three who became acquainted with Christ before him.
45. Philip found Nathanael.
Just as Andrew had said to his brother Simon: "We have found the Messiah!" so Philip here tells Nathanael: "We have found someone who comes from Nazareth, Jesus by name, who is the Messiah, of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets have written." And to identify Him as a true king and lord he
- 86 calls Him "Joseph's son." These are good, simple-minded folk. It is surprising that they conceived the thought and understood that this Jesus was the Messiah, devoid of all external glory though He was. And here we must recall the concept which the Jews of that day had of the Messiah. Their idea of the Messiah was comparable to our present one of an emperor, king, or other bigwig. The Jews supposed that the Messiah would be the sovereign of the world. In reality, He was to become the Savior of the world.
Therefore it is a wonder that they called this beggar, this particular person, their Messiah. This was not prompted by any villainy on their part, but probably they had learned from Holy Writ that it had always been God's practice to exalt the poor and the humble and to change shepherds into kings. Thus David had been a shepherd, guarding his father's sheep (1 Sam. 17:34). Saul had been a muleteer (1 Sam. 9:3 ff.), a mill hand, as it were. And there are other kings who rose from the dust and the dirt. Because of their courageous and manly bearing swineherds were elevated to leadership and became emperors in the Roman Empire too.147 Thus the men in our text thought: "Well, God can change a beggar into a king as easily as He can change a king into a beggar." These facts had often been heard in sermons by these good people. Furthermore, these poor folk were so eagerly yearning for the Messiah and Savior because in Him they sought the king who would liberate them from the Roman yoke. Therefore they were so fond of hearing about their king. They thought: "After all, who knows? Our God has often disposed it thus and changed a shepherd and poor beggar into a king. Is it not possible that this man, too, is the King, the But their belief was inspired especially by John the Baptist's report of such glorious things about Christ, things which they did not relate to His divinity. No, they thought that the son of Joseph would one day sally forth spectacularly, as David and Solomon had done, and place Himself over kings and Roman emperors. They placed the Messiah on as high a pedestal as we do an emperor today. Messiah means "the anointed one." The kings' heads were anointed with balsam and precious perfumes, as the three ecclesiastical electors today anoint and bedaub the emperor's back.148 And now these good fellows wished
Christ, the Anointed, to be the foremost king in heaven and on earth and to liberate them from Roman bondage. With such thoughts in mind they exclaimed: "We have found the Messiah!" They meant to say:
"Until now we have lived under the yoke of the Romans. But God be praised! Now our Horn of salvation has come, who will manifest Himself as a true Judge (Luke 1:69)." But Nathanael proves himself a silly old sheep when he says: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" He wished to imply that if it came from Jerusalem or some other large city of Judea, all this might be credible.149
Our last sermon related how, after His Baptism, Christ amicably drew the disciples into His sphere, acquainted them with Himself, and associated with them in a very friendly spirit before inviting them to become His apostles. We heard about His meeting the four: Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael. We saw
Him wander about along the banks of the Jordan and through humble towns and market places, and select from the entire nation of Israel those who pleased Him and whom He considered best qualified for service in His kingdom. He studiously avoided the city of Jerusalem with its royal throne, the residence of the mightiest, richest, and wisest. He refrained from calling the high priests and rulers into His ranks. He gave the nation's sovereign the cold shoulder, and He did not invite men of distinction. He journeyed through the wilderness, through hamlets and market towns, and selected the poorest and the most wretched beggars He could find, such as poor fishermen and good, simple, uncouth bumpkins. It almost seems as though He felt unable to administer His kingdom unless He surrounded Himself with such simple folk.
The great aristocrats He left behind in Jerusalem, although everybody assumed that the Messiah someday would associate with the bigwigs in Jerusalem, with the sages and the scholars. But Christ did the very opposite; He pursued His own plan and initiated His kingdom with such absurd simplicity as certainly to offend all wise men.
Christ's only reason for such action was to prevent the exalted, the mighty, the clever, and the powerful people from thinking that they alone have access to the kingdom of Christ and that they may trample the others underfoot. He wanted to establish a kingdom and initiated His kingdom with such absurd simplicity as was certain as a kingdom of grace, and in which nothing but God's grace would have currency, no matter how good and valuable it might be otherwise. He wanted to drive home the truth that such a kingdom was not based on reason and human wisdom either. Thus the kingdom was constructed, and thus it is sustained to this day. Christ is not greatly impressed by great kings or powerful lords, by the rich of this world, or by royal lineage and great pomp, which otherwise carry weight in the world. If He had chosen only distinguished, learned, and saintly men as His apostles, no one could persuade the world
- 87 to believe that the poor also belong to the kingdom of God. Everyone would insist that only the saints and the rich were eligible for membership. Even now, when Christ accepts the lowliest and chooses those whom the world rejects as foolish and unfit—as St. Paul declares (1 Cor. 1:27): "God chose what is weak" when He established His kingdom through none but beggars, clumsy louts, and lowly people, namely the apostles—even now it is hard to grasp that Christ's kingdom is also for the poor. He wants to be honored as one who is motivated by grace and not by our golden hair or some other virtue of which we may boast or be proud.
But we find that the world benefits and learns little from this action of Christ; for the great, the mighty, the distinguished, and the saintly still presume to call themselves "the church" and to pose as the church.
This evil evidently will not die, that such people persist in boasting of their money and goods, their honor and power. What do you suppose would have happened if the Lord had surrounded Himself with nothing but these bigwigs? But do not construe this to mean that the kingdom of Christ rejects the mighty and the rich and that they are barred from citizenship in this realm, or that Christ has no room for those of them who lead a pious, honorable, and virtuous life. No, it means that what Christ cannot abide is if I assume that His kingdom is built on my wisdom and riches and that it cannot stand firm and endure without the protection, counsel, and service of kings, princes, and lords. Christ can very well dispense with all this. He wants it clearly and definitely understood that all who seek entry into His kingdom must seek it by nothing but grace. Christ has regard for no one because of his pile of guldens, his beauty, his wisdom, his golden hair, or because he wears a garment embroidered in gold or silver, or a gray coat.150 No, it is grace alone that counts. His is to be a kingdom of grace, belonging to those who are wretched and poor, whether they be men or women, rich or poor.
This is why Christ wandered through the little hamlets and villages and selected the beggars, ignoring the residents of Jerusalem and the mighty and the learned. If He had chosen these, they would have excluded all but the distinguished and the great from the ranks of Christianity; although they can see here that God chooses the lowly first, they would have taken the kingdom of Christ by force (Matt. 11:12) and monopolized it.
You have often heard that this notion is still imbedded in the Jewish mind today, that the Messiah will have nothing to do with anyone except rich lords and princes, that He will array them in gold-embroidered garments, place crowns on their heads, and exclude every poor man and beggar from His kingdom, saying: "God, too, is hostile to anyone who is poor and despised."
The Turks reason similarly. Since all their undertakings prosper, they conclude at once that they are God's people, that God is their friend and gracious to them. For fortune, success, and victory attend them against all their enemies; and they vanquish all whom they attack, also those who glory in the Christian name. You cannot dispel such a terrible illusion, which is ignorant of the judgment of God and blusters and brags that God is on their side. Therefore the Turks massacre so wantonly, and all this under the pretense that God is their ally.
The pope and his cardinals and bishops have the same belief. They claim to be the true people of God.
Why? They have the upper hand and are in possession of all they want. Therefore—so they think—God is their God and Lord. They say: "How can God do otherwise than favor us? We are the wisest, the most learned, and the holiest." But, my dear fellow, you are falling far short of that mark. You are still a long way off. But why do I confine this to the great and the mighty? Any village bumpkin who gets a hundred thalers will become incredibly conceited and imagine that God is more gracious to him than to someone else. But God may give you a whole mountain of silver and gold and still east you into the hellish fire, as we see so often.
Christ launches His kingdom in such a humble and insignificant manner to indicate that He prizes the poor beggars and fishermen, His apostles, as highly as those who are highly respected by the world. He
Himself rides into Jerusalem in poverty on a borrowed ass; He does not have as much as a hairbreadth of this earth that He could call His own and on which He could lay His head (Matt. 8:20). He was such a poor guest on this earth that He had to die in the air on the cross.151 Here, therefore, Christ chooses as His apostles the poorest and lowliest He can find: Andrew, Peter, Philip, John, and others with whom everyone would have been loath to have any contact at all.152 He is not motivated by any contempt for social position or by any rejection or condemnation of talents or by any hostility to people because of these talents. But God does not want me to think that He is gracious to me because of these and many other gifts, and that such gifts make me a child of God and grant me eternal salvation.
- 88 No, that is not the meaning. God does not bestow these gifts for us to seek salvation through them but for us to utilize them in the fear of God and for our own and our neighbor's benefit in this life. This is the purpose our power, wealth, and wisdom are to serve. To become a child of God takes more than silver and gold, wisdom and might; it takes "the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world." The world, with its innate pride, misuses these gifts and goods. In his spiritual conceit a man thinks that God is gracious to him because of his wealth, or that he is a child of God in view of his wisdom, his cleverness, or his ascetic life, as the monks believe. Now Christ comes along and shows that He wants to select as His disciples the beggars, ignoramuses, and fools. It might even be the poor harlot Mary Magdalene, or the murderer and knave Paul, or the malefactor on the cross. He wants it apparent to all that no one acquires God's mercy because of his gifts, such as riches, wisdom, and power. And why should we be so conceited as to suppose that God might favor us on account of these gifts? Does not God throw them up for scrambles153 to the ungodly and to the godly, perhaps even more generously to the ungodly than to His Christians? Thus He also lets His sun shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain fall equally on a rogue's field and on that of a godly person (Matt. 5:45). And whoever imagines that he will be saved on the basis of his grits will deceive himself.
Therefore Christ leaves the great throng in Jerusalem behind and ignores the bigwigs in the large cities, the wise, learned, and holy people who dwell about the temple and want to serve God day and night. These He called later, but not in the beginning, when He established His kingdom. No, He goes to the beggars, and in Bethsaida He chooses the poorest and the lowliest as apostles. Those whom others would have shunned He accepts with kindness, and thereby He precludes anyone's boasting: "Lo, I have this or that gift; therefore I am God's child and belong to Christ." It is such a common custom to be boastful about God's gifts, as the proverb reads: "The louse grows haughty when it gets into the dandruff."
With reference to the ambition of the ungodly, Ps. 144:12–18 sings: "May our sons in their youth be like plants full-grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; may our garners be full!" Therefore they imagine they are in Paradise; and if fortune smiles on them for a while, they interpret this to mean that God surely must be their best friend. But far from it, dear fellow! This we learn from Ps.
17:13–14, where David prays: "Arise, O Lord! Confront them, overthrow them! Deliver my life from the wicked by Thy sword, from men by Thy hand, O Lord, from men whose portion in life is of the world!
May their belly be filled with what Thou hast stored up for them; may their children have more than enough; may they leave something over for their babes!" And in Ps. 49:11: "Their homes endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they have great honor on earth. This activity of theirs is plain insanity, and their descendants do not praise them with their mouths." The man who has his heart's desire is called blessed by the people. Thus Ps. 144:15 declares: "Happy the people to whom such blessings fall!
Happy the people whose God is the Lord!"
Now it is true that these gifts of God, such as strength and health, are essential. There must be rich and learned people. In the world differences in rank and position are necessary; one must be the ruler, another the subject. We need wise and clever men. But God is absolutely resolved not to tolerate boastfulness about these gifts before Him. That is what they all do—the Jews, the Turks, the pope and the bishops, all the burghers and the peasants, as well as the nobility. Because of their riches and their gifts they lay claim to a heaven of their own, and they suppose that God has to be gracious to them. But He will surely disappoint them! Even if you owned the whole world and were endowed with all sorts of physical talents and gifts, all this will not contribute toward your salvation; for Christ's kingdom is built solely on grace.
The words that Philip addressed to Christ when he came to Him are not recorded. But we can deduce these words from what Philip said to Nathanael, namely, that He had appeared whose coming Moses and all the prophets had foretold, Jesus by name, a son of Joseph of Nazareth. The fact that someone was to come for their redemption still lingered in the memory of the godly people of that day. Then Nathanael replied:
46. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
That these words were not dictated by a spirit of malice is shown by the praise which Christ later bestows on Nathanael when He says that he was a true Israelite devoid of guile. We dare not interpret these words uncharitably. It would have been different had they been spoken to the Lord by a proud
Pharisee, or by Annas, or by Caiaphas. From their lips these words would have been demonic and spiteful, meaning to convey: "What are you saying about this Jesus of Nazareth? Are you stupid and crazy? Don't you see that we are rulers and that we have the authority to interpret Scripture?" That would have been
- 89 venom. For those people despised Christ, and their words were inspired by an arrogant contempt for Him.
They would say: "What do you mean by that? Who, after all, is that Christ?" Words must be understood and interpreted with an ear to the voice of the speaker's heart. Every bell has its own peculiar ring and tone. Thus Nathanael utters these words here as a pious, good, and simple-minded man who believes the sayings of Moses and the prophets. They are free from cunning and wickedness; they were prompted by surprise at the statement that so much good could come from Nazareth. He wants to say: "Who would ever have expected that of Nazareth?" His words betoken his joyful surprise: "Well, my dear friend, is it true that the Messiah was to come from Nazareth?"
A father often calls his son and says: "You rascal! You scoundrel!" From a father's mouth these are precious and choice names. But if they were spoken by anyone else, the son would say: "No, fellow, you are not my father. I will not take this from you!" Such words would be pure poison and would provoke a quarrel or a fight. Thus a mother may also say to a daughter: "You little strumpet! You wench! You jade!"
Those words would contain nothing but delicious sugar and sweet honey. But if spoken by anyone else, they would convey nothing but poison, death, and murder. Likewise, a good friend may use a harsh term to me without destroying our friendship. But if it were said to me by my enemy, I would not put up with it.
Thus Nathanael's words: "Is Christ to come from Nazareth?" also proceed from a good heart. They reflect wonderment, not contempt; for he had hoped that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem and reside in Jerusalem, as all the prophets and all Holy Writ had foretold. In Zech. 9:9 we read: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you!" And the prophet
Isaiah tells us that Jerusalem will be the royal residence of the Messiah, that it will be His own home and castle, that the housefather will have His hearth and kitchen there, yea, will keep house there.154 Nathanael wants to say: "It is not my intention to dispute anything or call it into question, but I am amazed that so much good should come out of Nazareth."
And Philip takes Nathanael's words in good part, knowing that they are spoken sincerely. Therefore he says: "Why should you be so surprised? Come and see." Now Nathanael follows Philip. And when he stands face to face with the Lord, the Lord declares: "An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" This means that he is a simple-minded, believing Israelite. Christ divides the people of Israel, to whom the Messiah was promised, into two classes. He wants to say: "My people are separated into two groups. First of all, there is the entire nation of Israel, all of whom are Israelites indeed; but a number of these are, at the same time, pseudo-Israelites. They pride themselves on being of the lineage and the blood of the patriarch
Israel or Jacob, on being Abraham's children, his flesh and blood. They boast of Abraham. But the majority of these have turned away from Abraham and his promises; they have resorted to the works of the Law and have taken recourse to self-invented and false acts of worship. The others, the true Israelites, are those who share the faith of Abraham. Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah are inhabited by Israelites.
But I find but few genuine Israelites whom I can bring into My kingdom. True Israelites are few and far between. John the Baptist, to be sure, preached and testified much concerning Me. But Annas and Caiaphas, also the other Pharisees, despise his Baptism and message; and Me they regard as a fool possessed of the devil."
There is a ring of half-anger and impatience in the words of the Lord Christ. In Matt. 8:10 He says to the captain: "Not even in Israel have I found such faith!" As if He wanted to say: "Israel lays claim to being the chosen people of God, and yet I find that they are the worst rascals under the sun. Oh, what a vile, accursed, and damnable people when compared with the holy and pious men Abraham and Israel!"
St. Paul treats of this in Rom. 9:4–5155 when he declares: "They possess great liberty, glory, and prerogatives. To them belong the sonship, the covenants, the Law, the worship, and the promises, which the fathers, too, possessed." But all this has been thoroughly corrupted. To be sure, they all boast that they are Israelites and descended from the seed of Abraham; yet they have nothing left but the name. They are not true Israelites. They are merely of the lineage and blood of Abraham, of which they brag, supposing that this makes them the people of God. They pay no heed to the demand to follow Abraham and his promise regarding the Christ, a faith to which Abraham and other God-fearing people adhered. All that matters, they insist, is their descent from Abraham. But Abraham had two wives and two kinds of children: Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac had Jacob and Esau. These children did not all remain loyal to the faith of Abraham. Although they were of the lineage of the patriarchs, Ishmael and Esau clung to idols and practiced idolatry. They followed the heathen idols and did not remain with the promises given to their
- 90 forefathers. Therefore all their vaunting that they were of the blood of the patriarchs profited them nothing at all, because they did not believe in the promise.
According to the eighth chapter of John, Christ argued with the Jews about this question. When they bragged about being Abraham's children, He said: "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what
Abraham did." They answered: "We were not born of fornication." But Christ tells them: "It is true that you are not the offspring of harlots. But you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires and to kill Me" (John 8:39, 41, 44).
Thus Christ wishes to say here: "There are both true and false Israelites, both of whom, to be sure, are descended from the patriarch Israel, but not all of whom retained the promise and the faith of Abraham."
Similarly, we have two classes of Christians today. All of us who were baptized and reborn through Baptism are indeed called Christians, but we do not all remain true to Baptism. Many desert Christ and become false Christians. There is a scarcity of true Christians, and there is also a false and a true Christian
Church. The former boast and claim that they are the true church and the real Christians, just as the Jews said that they were the true Israelites. They glory solely in the title and the name, saying: "After all, we are baptized and bear the Christian name." We must concede this point; but, for all that, they are not the true
Christians. There are two types of Christians. First there are those who merely bear the Christian name and are Christians physically, as the Israelites boasted of being of the physical seed of Abraham. But they do not remain true to Baptism, and they do not cling to the doctrine of forgiveness of sins or to the promise of Christ; but through false doctrines they separate themselves, forsaking Christ and the faith. Thus they are called Christians, as the Jews were Known as Israelites; but they are only nominal Christians. It is idle to say: "I am descended from Abraham; I am baptized and numbered among the Christians." There are two sorts of Israelites and two sorts of Christians. He is a genuine Israelite who has the promise of Abraham and the faith of Abraham. Such a one simply and sincerely believes in the doctrine of the prophets and clings to the promise of Abraham, as Nathanael does here and all Christians still do. When Christians are baptized, they give ear to the Gospel, read Holy Scripture, partake of Holy Communion, and love their neighbor. Such Christians are genuine Christians; they are entitled to the name. But then, too, there are false Christians. They also make use of Baptism and Holy Communion, and are just as conversant with Scripture as the true Christians are. Both they and we possess the divine Word. But they are only outward and nominal Christians. They do not believe; and internally they are full of unbelief, envy, hatred, and vice. They live in adultery, avarice, malice, and in all the sins and vices in which the world is steeped now.
They act like Turks and Tartars.
Christ wants no one to boast of being an Israelite or a Christian, saying: "I am baptized; I am a bishop, a canon, or a preacher." This is not enough. It must be your concern to believe, to conduct yourself as a Christian should, to be upright inwardly in your heart and outwardly in your life, and to be able to take pride in the Lord Christ and in your faith. Otherwise you are a false Christian, just as many Israelites were false. For if the heart does not believe, all is illusion and darkness; your life is not upright. You are a Christian only outwardly, barren of good deeds, envious, spiteful, and coarse. If we were to undertake such a division of Christians now, how many true Christians, do you suppose, would we find? The world is mad and foolish, wild and wicked. It is infested with all sorts of vices, such as fornication, drunkenness, vindictiveness, and other sins. It is no longer considered a sin and a shame to cheat somebody.
Nevertheless, everybody claims to be a good Christian. But take my word for it, you are deceiving none but yourself. God is not fooled or mocked (Gal. 6:7). He knows you in the twinkling of an eye, just as He recognized this Nathanael as a true Israelite or a pious Christian who sincerely believed the prophets. Thus
Christ will also say to you: "Behold, this is a true Christian!" But He casts an angry glance at the false Christians. This is what happened to the men in Jerusalem, whom Christ ignores, adjudging them false
Israelites to be ejected from the kingdom of Christ. But of Nathanael He says: "An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile—no guile in his heart, no guile in his life. He holds to the promise of Abraham and abstains from greed and arrogance." Christ is well pleased to have seen and found a true Israelite who so earnestly awaits the promised Messiah. Christ wants to have such in His kingdom as believe the promise given to Abraham and live accordingly.
48. Nathanael said to Him: How do You know me? Jesus answered him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
This verse contains an expression current in Hebrew. The Jews had the promise that they should dwell securely and peacefully, and that each man would sit under his grapevine or his fig tree.156 Throughout
- 91 their fertile country the Jews had grapevines and fig trees in front of their homes as arbors, just as we see apple or pear trees or large linden trees before the homes of our peasants in the villages. Thus the Promised Land was well dotted with good trees, with fig trees, olive trees, and with grapevines, which were near the homes and under which the people sat. Nathanael was a pious farmer who lived in a village.
He was not rich; for riches and piety do not walk hand in hand, especially not in those days.
Now Christ the Lord wishes to say to Nathanael: "Before Philip came to your home and called you, while you were seated in front of your door in the yard under the shade of your fig tree, I saw you."
Philip's words are not reported in detail; but undoubtedly he must have heard of Christ, which impelled him to run to Nathanael and tell him: "Come and see!" And this was not empty, meaningless human talk when Christ says here: "While you were sitting in the garden or yard and were working at something, also before Philip came to you, I was standing over here and beheld you over there." According to the evangelist, Nathanael was amazed that Christ had seen everything he was doing at home as he sat under the fig tree with wife and children, perhaps conversing about what he had learned from the beloved prophets regarding the coming Messiah. He feels constrained to say: "That is an unusual man!" And he now agrees with Philip, who had informed him: "We have found the Messiah." Nathanael speaks as a true and genuine Israelite when he declares that He who had seen him at home under the fig tree could not be a mere man. Philip probably said to Nathanael: "O Nathanael, now you behold who the Nazarene is." And now Nathanael said:
49. Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
That is to say: "Verily, You must be a prophet! Why don't You wend Your way to Jerusalem? Or is it possible that You are more than a prophet, that You are the Son of God? Since You saw me sitting under the fig tree, You must be more." We cannot determine from these words whether Nathanael believed that Christ was the Son of God by nature; for at the time Christ had not yet been glorified as the Son of God, and He had not yet been proclaimed as such throughout the world by the apostles. I incline to the view that Nathanael simply called Him a "son of God" in the sense in which we term a pious and saintly person a "man of God." I hold this opinion especially since Nathanael also refers to Him as a prophet. Just as if he were to say: "Well, it is possible that this is God; yes, it is God. If You can do this, then very likely You are also capable of still greater things. Now I am convinced that something good can come from Nazareth, and I believe what Philip told me."
"You are the King of Israeli" That is to say: "You are the Messiah." Men who were priests and kings were called "Messiah." One person filled this dual office, particularly before Moses' time; for Moses later changed this, assigning the kingdom to the tribe of Judah and the priesthood to the tribe of Levi. From those days on this arrangement was not observed, especially not in Christendom. In the time of Christ the two offices were again united in one person; for Christ was both, a Prophet as well as a King—yet not a secular but a spiritual King. The word "Messiah" also designates a king and savior, one anointed, not with barber's ointment but with aromatic water and balsam more precious than rose water or lavender water.
To the present day kings are anointed with fragrant substances. Thus Nathanael's words proceed from a good and simple-minded heart: "Now I see that You are the Son of God and the Messiah." These may be the simple and naive words of a child; however, he hits upon the correct name and tide, so appropriate to Christ. And thereby he makes a fine confession regarding the true divinity and humanity of Christ: God's
Son according to His divine nature, the King of Israel according to His human nature. It is tantamount to saying: "You are God's Son, the true Christ of the Children of Israel. All the prophets declared that at His appearance He would be called the Son of God and King of the whole world." This pious man undoubtedly had heard this stated by some prophet or preacher, and now he uses the same terms employed by the prophets. Thereupon Christ the Lord says:
50. Because I said to you: I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.
Christ sees that Nathanael still lacks a perfect understanding of His divinity; therefore He says to him:
"You believe in Me because of this one work and miracle, that I beheld you from this great distance. That prompted you to say that I am the person foretold by the prophets. But, that your faith may grow and increase, you are going to witness greater signs than My seeing you under the fig tree."
51. And He said to him: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
- 92 This is also a peculiar speech. In Gen. 28:10 ff. we read that as Jacob was wandering from his parental home toward Mesopotamia to marry, he arrived at a spot—subsequently the site of Jerusalem and especially of the temple of Solomon, in which Christ was to preach later on. There the holy man lay down; and since he had no pillow, he took a stone and fell asleep, filled with sadness and fear because his brother
Esau was pursuing him. Then God comforted him in a vision, in which He assured him of His divine protective mercy and of the presence of the guardian angels. He beheld the heaven opened and a ladder reaching from the ground into heaven. On top of the ladder was the Lord, our God, and the angels were climbing up and down. Then Jacob heard these words: "I will be your God and will escort-you and bring you home. Be not afraid in your distress; the angels will be with you." Christ applies this story of the dear patriarch to Himself: now the angels will ascend and descend on Him as on a ladder. Christ wants to say:
"Just as Jacob beheld this vision, so you, too, will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man." Thus Nathanael will "see greater things."
Now the question may be raised: When did Nathanael see the heaven opened, and when did he see the angels? There are only two instances in the New Testament telling us that the heaven opened. The first was: when Christ stepped out of the Jordan after His Baptism by John, we read that the heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the Father's voice was heard (Matt. 3:16–17). The second was: as we read in Matt. 17:1 ff., the heaven opened when Moses and Elijah appeared to Christ and three of His disciples on Mt. Tabor. A white cloud overshadowed them, which made their faces and their garments as lustrous as the sun. Only the three apostles saw the heaven opened there; Nathanael was not present, nor was anyone else. Therefore our text must have a special meaning. Christ Himself interprets it. As we see, He refers it to Himself. The evangelist does not mention a ladder but merely says that the angels of God ascended and descended upon the Son of man. Therefore this story must be interpreted spiritually. The vision which the patriarch had on the site where Jerusalem was subsequently built points to Christ. For when Christ became man and entered upon His preaching ministry, then heaven was opened. Beginning with that time, it is open and remains open. It has never again been closed since
Christ's Baptism in the Jordan; and it will never again be closed, hidden though this sight is from the physical eye. When heaven is open and God the Father addresses us, we note this only with our spiritual sight. Before the advent of Christ heaven was closed, and the devil had full sway; but in and through Christ the heaven stands ajar again. Now Christians see heaven opened, always hear God the Heavenly
Father conversing with them, and behold the dear angels continuously ascending and descending upon us.
The Heavenly Father still addresses these words to us: "This is My beloved Son!" He will continue to do so until the Day of Judgment, nor will heaven ever be closed again. When you are baptized, partake of Holy Communion, receive the absolution, or listen to a sermon, heaven is open, and we hear the voice of the Heavenly Father; all these works descend upon us from the open heaven above us. God converses with us, governs us, provides for us; and Christ hovers over us—but invisibly. And even though there were clouds above us as impervious as iron or steel, obstructing our view of heaven, this would not matter. Still we hear God speaking to us from heaven; we call and cry to Him, and He answers us. Heaven is open, as St. Stephen saw it open (Acts 7:55); and we hear God when He addresses us in Baptism, in Holy
Communion, in confession, and in His Word as it proceeds from the mouth of the men who proclaim His message to the people.157
The last time we began to discuss the final part of the first chapter of the Gospel of John, where Christ says to Nathanael: "You believed because I saw you under the fig tree, but henceforth you will see the heaven open." We heard this explanation:158 The true Christian Church is one body with Christ through faith, the bride of Christ, and His very own possession; He is her Bridegroom and Head. And it is the wish of the Groom that through faith in Him the bride partake of all His goods, as, for instance, eternal righteousness, holiness, and blessedness. To make her great and resplendent before God, He adorned and decked her with heavenly wisdom and strength. Wherever the Christian Church is, where God's Word is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are faithfully administered in accordance with the Word of God, where this Word is heard and accepted with a believing heart, and where the articles of our Christian faith are observed unadulterated—there heaven is wide open, never to be closed again. Before Christ's incarnation heaven was closed indeed. But now the Child Jesus was born, and the angels preached their nocturnal sermon about the Child to the shepherds before the town of Bethlehem: "Behold, we bring you good news of a great joy. To you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!" (Luke 2:10 f.); and they sang:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased" (Luke 2:14).
- 93 From that time on heaven is open; and now we, too, have citizenship among the angels, as St. Paul tells the Ephesians (2:19). And he tells the Philippians (3:20): "We are citizens and members of the household with the saints. Our commonwealth is not worldly and earthly, but is in heaven, from which we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." There we find the true city and the true Jerusalem, where we are citizens and members of the same household with the angels, fellow countrymen of those who live and have their being in heaven. The angels look down upon us, and we in turn gaze up at them. Christ wants to say: "You are now celestial citizens; you hold citizenship up there in the heavenly Jerusalem; you are living in the company of the dear angels, who incessantly descend on you and ascend from you. Now heaven and earth have become one. It is just as if you were now in heaven and the angels were serving you, for you are one body with your Lord. The angels wait on you, they converse with you, and you with them, employing the same words and speech. They sing Gloria in excelsis Deo to our Lord God; and you also sing the praise of the great mercy manifested in the fact that you have become God's children and heirs, coheirs with His dear Son, partakers of the Holy Spirit and of all gifts." Surely this does not indicate a closed heaven, but it implies that door and lock have been removed and that heaven is now open permanently. Even if I do not see this with my physical eye, as a cow looks at a door, that does not matter. I can still behold it with my spiritual sight of faith. And I prefer this to seeing it physically. When Christ said to Nathanael: "When you were under the fig tree, I saw you," spiritual sight was involved, which is more reliable than physical sight. I am unable to see Christ face to face with my physical eyes. But even if I could see Him as St.
Stephen did, I would still not be so certain of it as when I behold Him in faith. For there I may open my lips and pray with hearty confidence: "Our Father, who art in heaven." Also: "Dear God, be merciful to me and fulfill my petition for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ." We can pray confidently, just as if God were visible to us. Indeed, to see God spiritually is far more dependable than to see Him with your physical sight. And I would not wish for a different sight either! This is the reason for my preference: The devil is cunning and versed in the black arts and can easily conjure up a phantom before my physical eye to make me think I am seeing something which in reality I do not see. He can delude me into believing that I am beholding a beautiful angel, althought, in fact, it is a coal-black devil. There are many examples to substantiate this. In the Gospel he even made himself God when he tempted Christ in the wilderness and suggested that Christ fall down before him and worship him (Matt. 4:9). But the devil cannot deceive the spiritual sight in this way, for it relies on, and clings to, the Word of God. The Word enables one to see through the devil's designs; it puts up with no hocus-pocus. For the Word is certain. Our physical eyes are much too weak to see those beautiful spirits, the angels. But the sight faith has is so keen that it pierces through the clouds and heaven; yes, it penetrates to the heart of God. This is the sight we want.
Thus we still see the heaven open; indeed, we ourselves live in heaven. Although in a sense all still dwell on this earth, in a spiritual sense our names are recorded among those of the celestial citizens in heaven. There we have our being before God in prayer, in faith, and in the divine Word, likewise in the Sacraments. There we walk in love toward our neighbor; there we grow in the Word and in the knowledge of Christ, and we also increase in all things necessary for eternal life. This is our heavenly life, begun here by faith. Yes, heaven is open for us. We live and have our being in heaven; we dwell there as citizens even though we are still on earth according to our physical body, which must be chastened by the cross and by temporal death.
Thus heaven is open now. The angels ascend and descend, serving the believers in the kingdom of Christ and acting as faithful servants, guardians, and messengers between God and us. In Heb. 1:14 they are called "ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation."
Otherwise Christendom is faring as Christ, its Head, once did. Christians are subject to much suffering and must drink many a cup of woe.159 The devil torments their hearts with many oppressive thoughts, and their own flesh still encumbers them and plagues them. So do bad neighbors. For example, today the Turk is abducting our people in droves, murdering and tormenting them; so does the pope, who is banishing, hanging, burning, beheading, and drowning us. And there are other afflictions. The outlook is surely anything but pleasant. Wherever we turn, we find no prospect of help, nothing but grief and all kinds of persecution. Emperor and king, princes and lords, and all the mighty on earth are occupied exclusively with what deprives us Christians of peace.
In such circumstances our dear Lord wants us to raise our eyes upward and to remember, when we find this world too cramped for us, that we are not dependent on the earthly things, that here we are only guests, as it were, in an inn, that we hold citizenship elsewhere, namely, in heaven. In view of this we can
- 94 resign ourselves to our lot. However, we are to know that we are not forsaken; for at times God also comes to our aid and protects His Christians in a physical way. Thus we enjoy the protection of our territorial prince160 so long as it pleases God. When God no longer wants to protect us, we will suffer and endure whatever He imposes. But we can rest assured that the dear angels surround us and take care that no harm befall us. Indeed, no hair of ours can be touched unless it pleases Him who sits enthroned above, who sends His angels up and down to us to carry our prayer up to Him and to return to us with the message of prayers fulfilled. If the angels did not guard us and ascend and descend upon the body of Christ—that is, upon us—and did not remain with us, our adversaries would long since have devoured us alive. So many plots and crafty tricks and acts of violence of the bishops may already have been foiled by God. For God is still postponing matters that others may also be added to His kingdom and that His Word may be disseminated in many lands. Here are the angels to ward off the bloodhounds and their conspiracies at the courts of cardinals and bishops, who never lack counsel and wisdom, intrigue and power, cunning and all sorts of plots for our extermination. But we hear that the angels are present. And therefore, by the grace of God, we still survive the wrath and the determination of our sworn and mortal enemies. On our side we have the dear angels, who descend from heaven and ascend again, providing for us and watching over us.
This assurance is given us here for our comfort. For if the devil and his scales161 attack us—he is not far away from the children of God; yea, he often stands even before God, all for the purpose of harming us
(Job 1:6)—we are still members of the sort of body to which the angels attend, upon which they descend, and from which they again ascend into heaven. Therefore we enjoy a protection which makes us proof against harm and evil. Or, if we do encounter a misfortune, we know that this does not happen without the foreknowledge and consent of the angels. They are empowered to confound the plans of cardinals and bishops, of kings, princes, and lords. The angels know well in advance when the ungodly plan to inflict grief on the Christians or when some misfortune is to strike them. If the Lord our God is resolved to punish the world, we cannot prevent it; we must participate in the general suffering, just as a neighbor is obliged to share in the loss attendant upon a fire. But even if we should be killed, no evil can really befall us; for thereby we are transferred all the more quickly from our uncertain citizenship to the certain citizenship in heaven, where our names are on file in the records of the angels.
But despite all this we should pray God to preserve the pious Christians in the world in order to insure the transmission of the Word of God and our pure faith to our descendants. For it is a sign of God's great wrath when He permits the pure doctrine to depart and when the children find nothing but error and the adulteration of doctrine. This is a great calamity and a misfortune for consciences. It is our duty to pray faithfully that children yet unborn, the youth, those weak in the faith, those not yet soundly instructed, as well as the older people, be granted a continuing proper understanding of doctrine that they, too, may become citizens with the angels, as are we who believe in Christ. They need to have the angels ascend and descend over them.
Thus we Christians learn for our consolation that the angels ascend and descend and that we are not forsaken by God, for we believe that we are the fellow citizens and companions of the dear angels in heaven. We preach Christ and are happy in the knowledge that He is our Savior, and we sing a Gloria in excelsis Deo to Him. We are witnesses of the wonderful help God gives us and of the presence and assistance of the dear angels, who deliver us from many troubles. We are indebted to the angels for this kindness. They stand guard over us, as we read in Ps. 34:7: "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them." And in Ps. 91:11–12: "For He will give His angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands will they bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone."
We often experience that Christians are so well protected that no devil and no tyrant is mighty and powerful enough to harm them. They are safe until the arrival of the hour fixed by God for every
In our own day the pope was unable to carry out his designs on us. Thank God, we were able to preach here in Wittenberg for many years, though many a crafty and spiteful plot was concocted against us and those who wished our death lacked neither cleverness nor power. They lack the power, however, to oppose a single angel about us. He is so mighty and clever that he can undo and destroy all the schemes of our adversaries. In fact, they cannot harm us before the hour when they are given leave to kill us. And then only this sack of maggots162 is involved. We will not suffer any loss. And in spite of all they will have to let Christendom endure until the end.
- 95 Thus the Jews had to let Christ alone. When they wanted to stone Him in the temple, He hid and walked out from the midst of them (John 8:59). Nor could they harm Him when they tried to hurl Him headlong from a hill (Luke 4:30). They were impotent against Him until His hour, the hour of darkness
(Luke 22:53), when they crucified Him and treated Him so shamefully. But Christ really met with no evil.
Before long He was much more glorious than before, for He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Jews, however, were punished for this. After Christ's death their land was ravished, and their people were slaughtered. Our adversaries, those who are hostile to the Gospel and to us, will someday experience the same fate. After they have rejected the doctrine of the divine Word, such affliction, tribulation, and trouble will come upon our country that people will one day say: "This is where Germany used to be." Therefore we should intercede with God for our progeny, our children's children, that we may transmit the doctrine to them, that the name of God may be hallowed among us, that His kingdom may remain with us, and that we may live in accordance with the will of God.
Thus Jacob's dream of the ladder went into fulfillment. We find the story recorded in Gen. 28:10 ff.
When Jacob, obedient to his father's command, went to Mesopotamia to marry Rachel, he came to the spot where Jerusalem later stood. There he beheld this vision of the ladder that reached from heaven down to earth. God lay on top, and the angels ascended and descended on the ladder to Jacob. When he awoke from the dream, he said: "Surely the Lord is in this place. This is none other than the house of God, this is
Paradise; for here the heaven is open, and here is the gate of heaven."
This is a beautiful picture and illustration. And it all happened for the sake of just one man, namely, that Jacob might be comforted in the hour of danger from his brother, who wanted to kill him. God strengthened him through this dream and vision of the angels. Even though he was journeying into a strange land, fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, God did not want to forsake him but to be with him and also to give him the company of the dear angels. Jacob saw the ladder, yes, he saw God Himself above the ladder—not with open eyes, to be sure, but in a dream. How much more does God now have
His angels encompass all His Christians continuously to guard them! For they are the little flock in which He has His good pleasure (Luke 12:32). For their sakes He also preserved Jacob and all the beloved patriarchs in the Old Testament that they might transmit the promise until the time of Christ, who was to bleed and die for this same little flock.
Jacob was proud to see heaven open and the ladder reaching to heaven with God above it, although he did not behold all this with his physical sight but while asleep, in a vision. Thus we also behold God now.
This is no longer restricted to one of the patriarchs, but is an image of the entire church. Christ says:
"Truly, what Jacob once beheld in his great distress and need, that you now behold in Me. Indeed, you see this not while asleep or in a vision, as Jacob did, but much more definitely and clearly through faith, namely, through the Word of God." That is where we see the heaven opened. As St. Paul says, God dwells in us, and we see the gate of heaven standing open wherever there are Christians in the world.163 For wherever there are Christians, there we find God; and there heaven is open, with no door before it, but standing wide open. There we find the dear angels, who protect us from the devil in our misery and woe.
Thus Christ wants to hold before us the figure and picture of the church in the person of the patriarch Jacob, thereby comforting and strengthening us Christians, as God at that time consoled the patriarch
Jacob. For if we believe in Him and let the Word of God be our comfort, faith says to us: "Lo, heaven is open above us; it is no longer locked." If we cherish God's Word, we shall experience in our hearts the presence of Christ and of the dear angels; and faith will convince us that God surely has His dwelling there. Even if Christians find themselves in a field or in a lonely forest, faith nevertheless makes them the church of Christ; for wherever there are people who permit their hearts to be enlightened by the divine
Word and who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, there God must also be present—and present as our gracious and dear Father. Through Christ we have ready access to the Father. Therefore we say: "Abba, dear Father!" (Rom. 8:15). Without Christ this would be impossible. Formerly God appeared to us as a terrifying jailer and judge, the enemy of sin. But wherever the light of the divine Word shines, there we regard God as our Father and Christ as our Mediator, Bishop, and Teacher, who baptizes and instructs us.
Faith is certain that Christ ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God, His Father, that He sees us and is concerned about us, and that we, in turn, also see Him, and that we will one day enjoy the companionship and the communion of the angels in heaven. In the meantime we may fare poorly as earthly citizens as we face the enmity of the devil, who molests us in his kingdom, the world. What are we to do about this? It does not matter much. We must put up with it if the devil murders us through the pope,
- 96 the Turk, or a pestilence. God will not forsake us, and we will receive an eternal refuge and home in heaven instead. God will preserve His church. This church may be narrow and small, but some Christians will always survive.
The patriarchs and all the prophets provide us with other beautiful accounts about the protection and watch of the angels. According to Gen. 24:1 ff., Abraham dispatched only his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac. And when the servant asked: "Where am I to find the bride?" Abraham answered: "The angel of the Lord will lead you." So confidently could they speak about the angels. The servant did not know the place; nor did he know the name of the prospective bride's father. His only instruction was: "Go to that place. I know neither the name of the man nor that of the bride."
In 2 Kings 6:13 ff. we read of Elisha, who, together with his servant, found himself in the beleaguered city of Dothan. Now when Elisha walked out of the city accompanied by no one but his servant—for Elisha was a poor beggar, as all prophets were, and as pious preachers are to this day—the servant saw the entire city surrounded by an army with horses and chariots. Frightened, the servant cried to his master:
"Alas, what shall we do? How can we defend ourselves?" The prophet replied: "Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." The prophet spoke these words simply and naively, as if he were going to a dance or a party, and as if the enemy consisted of nothing but imaginary men.
Thereupon he fell upon his knees and prayed God to open his servants eyes. With his physical sight Elisha, too, beheld the Syrian army; nevertheless, he was so confident that he merely petitioned God: "O
Lord, I pray Thee, open the servants eyes that he may see." Then the servant beheld that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about them." These were the dear angels, the celestial war lords. The mountain teemed with angels, although one angel would really have sufficed to slay the entire
The prophets, as we see, were well aware that heaven is open and that the angels descend and ascend.
They permitted Elisha to walk unafraid into the very midst of the enemy as he prayed God to strike the Syrians with blindness. This was done, and consequently they failed to recognize him. Then he went to the Syrian host and told them that he would direct them. He led them into the city of Samaria. Then Elisha again asked God to open their eyes, and they found themselves in the middle of the city among their enemies. They had been led solely by the Word. Later, when the king of Israel asked whether he should slay the Syrians, the prophet instructed him: "No, for you did not capture them with the sword. Rather give them food and drink and then send them home." Thus the prophet played a game with the enemy, because he knew that he was well protected by the dear angels, who were strong and powerful enough to face the foe.
And one angel slew 185,000 men in one night when Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35). If this happened in the days of the Old Testament, when heaven was still closed, how much greater are the events that take place in the New Testament, when heaven is permanently open and the angels descend and ascend to protect us against all evil!
It is a great comfort for all Christians to learn from these and other passages of Holy Scripture that they are not forsaken in the cross which they encounter in various forms throughout their lives. For they have the dear angels with them as protectors and guards. Furthermore, God is always present with His gifts, although one angel would really suffice to cope with all the enemies. Thus the Syrians did not dare touch Elisha, nor did they raid the land of Israel any more; for they thought to themselves: "Who wants to fight against such warriors?" How much we could accomplish if we had such allies against the Turks today! All this is recorded to convince us that God and His dear angels are round about us. Wherever faith prevails and the divine Word is treasured, there we find such radiance shining into our hearts that I have a clear vision of God as my Father, of the open heaven, of the angels about me, and of the help that is mine.
Such a precious possession is ours in God's Word and in the Christian faith.
However, it is the way of the world not to care about the Word of God, to ridicule and despise it. For the world does not realize the power and effect of the Word: It opens heaven for the Christians; it assigns us to the company of the angels; and it makes us their fellow citizens, with God the Father as the mayor, the Sovereign Father. Because of our faith, our love, our thoughts, and our prayer we are already in heaven, where someday our eternal praise of God and our hallelujahs will resound. Even now we make a beginning by singing to God constant songs of praise and hallelujahs which indicate what we shall be doing in heaven.