John 8:46-59.
Jesus said to the Jews, "Who among you can accuse me of sin? But if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the word of God. Therefore you do not hear, for you are not of God. Then the Jews answered and said unto him, Say we not rightly that thou art a Samaritan, and hast the devil? Jesus answered: I have no devil, but I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me. I seek not mine honor: but there is one that seeketh it, and judgeth it. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If any man keep my word, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast the devil. Abraham died, and the prophets, and thou sayest, If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art thou more than our father Abraham, which died? and the prophets died. What do you make of yourself? Jesus answered, "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. But it is my Father that honoureth me, whom ye say is your God: and ye know him not, but I know him. And if I should say that I know him not, I should be a liar, as ye are. But I know him, and keep his word. Abraham, your father, was glad to see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out into the temple, passing through the midst of them.
This gospel teaches how the more they are taught and gently provoked, the more foolish they become. For Christ here kindly demands of them the reason why they do not believe, because they cannot reprove either his life or his teaching. The life is innocent; for he defies and says, "Who among you can accuse me of sin?" The doctrine also; for he saith, "So
I tell you the truth" etc. So he does as he teaches.
(2) And every preacher shall prove the two things: first, an innocent life, that he may defy, and that no man may have cause to blaspheme the doctrine; and secondly, blameless doctrine, that he may deceive none that follow him; and so be right on both sides, with the good life, against the
Enemies who look at life rather than doctrine and despise doctrine for the sake of life; with doctrine with friends who look at doctrine rather than life and also bear life for the sake of doctrine.
(3) For this is true, that there is no life so good as to be without sin in the sight of God. Therefore, it is enough that he be blameless before men. But the teaching must be so good and pure that it stands not only before men, but also before God. Therefore every pious preacher may well say, "Who among you can reprove me? Among you, I say, who are men; but before God I am a sinner. Moses also did this, Deut. 16:15, when he boasted that he had never taken anything nor done anything wrong; Samuel also, 1 Sam. 12:3, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who boasted of their innocence before the people, to shut the mouths of the blasphemers. But Christ does not speak of doctrine in this way, saying not, "Who among you can reprove my doctrine?" but, "If I tell you the truth," for one must be sure that the doctrine is right and true in the sight of God, taking no account of how it is held by men.
4 Therefore the Jews have no cause for their unbelief, except that they are not the children of God; therefore he also passes judgment on them, saying, "He who is of God hears the word of God; therefore you do not hear, for you are not of God," which is nothing else, but you are of the devil.
The Jews could not stand this, because they wanted to be God's children and people; therefore they rage and desecrate both his life and teaching: the teaching, when they say: "You have the devil", that is, you speak from the devil and your teaching is the devil's lie; the life, when they say: "You are a Samaritan"; that is worse with the Jews than all other vices. So Christ teaches us here how we and his word must fare: both life and doctrine must be condemned and defiled, and that by the noblest, cleverest and greatest on earth. The evil trees are known by their fruit, how they are so bitter, poisonous, impatient, wicked and mad under good appearances.
are to be condemned and judged if one meets them right and rejects their thing with God's word.
What does Christ do here? He leaves life in disgrace, keeps silent and suffers that they call him a Samaritan; but he defends the doctrine. For the doctrine is not ours, but God's; he shall suffer nothing, patience ceases; but I shall give all that I have, and suffer all that they do, that the glory of God and his word suffer not. For my going down does not do much harm, but if I let God's word go down and remain silent, I do harm to God and to all the world. Though I cannot bind their mouths, nor hinder their blasphemies, yet shall I not hold my peace, nor let them be justified, as I do over my good life, that they may be justified; though they wrong me, yet it remaineth right in the sight of God. So Christ apologizes here and says: "I have no devil", that is, my teaching is not the devil's lies; "but I honor my Father", that is, I preach in my teaching the grace of God, through which he is to be praised, loved and honored by the faithful. For an evangelical preaching ministry is nothing but an honor to God, Ps. 19, 2: "The heavens declare God's glory" etc. "But you do me dishonor," that is, you call me a devil's liar, who dishonors and disgraces God.
(7) Why does he not say thus? I honor my Father, and ye dishonor him; but saith, Ye dishonor me"? By this he secretly shows that the Father's honor and his honor are the same and one thing, as he is One God with the Father; but besides this, if our preaching ministry, which glorifies God, is to be honored justly, it must suffer disgrace. Let us do the same against our rulers and priests: if they attack our life, let us suffer it and do love for hate, good for evil; but if they attack the doctrine, then God's honor is attacked, then let love and patience come to an end and not be silent, but also say: I honor my Father, then you dishonor me; but I do not ask that you dishonor me, for I do not seek my honor either. But beware nevertheless, there is one that seeketh it, and judgeth it; that is, the Father shall judge it of you.
and judge you and not let you go unpunished. Not only does he seek his honor, but also mine, because I seek his honor, as he says 1 Sam. 2:30: "They that honor me shall be honored." And this is our comfort, that we may rejoice: though all the world dishonors and disgraces us, we are sure that God demands our honor, and therefore will punish, judge and avenge; he who could only believe and endure it, he will surely come.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever.
(8) Then he is even corrupt in that he not only defends his doctrine rightly and well, which they gave to the devil, but also ascribes such power that it is a mighty empress over the devil, death and sin, to give and preserve eternal life. See how divine wisdom and human reason collide. How can a man understand that a bodily, oral word should redeem from death eternally? But let blindness depart, we want to act the beautiful saying. He does not speak here of the word of the law, but of the gospel, which is a speech of Christ, who died for our sins etc. For God could not have distributed Christ to the world in any other way; He had to put Him into words, and thus spread Him out and present Him to everyone; otherwise Christ would have remained for Himself alone and unknown to us; thus He would have died for Himself alone. But because the word presents Christ to us, it presents him to us who overcame death, sin and the devil. Therefore whoever grasps and holds it grasps and holds Christ, and so through the word he has eternal release from death. For this reason it is a word of life, and is true whoever keeps it, that he will not see death forever.
(9) And from this it may well be understood what he means by "keeping," that it is not said of keeping, as one keeps the law with works; for such a word of Christ must be kept in the heart with faith, and not with the fist or with works; as the Jews here understand it, and rage horribly against Christ, that Abraham and the prophets died, knowing nothing that
There is "to hold", "to die" or "to live". And it is not for nothing that it is called "to hold"; for it is a matter of struggling and fighting when sin bites, death presses, hell penetrates; then it is called to hold fast to the word and not to let oneself be divided from it. Now therefore, as Christ answered the Jews, praising his doctrine, saying, Ye say that my word is of the devil, and would press it into hell; I say again, that it hath divine power in it, and exalt it above all heavens and creatures.
(10) How is it then that death is not seen nor tasted, when Abraham and all the prophets died, who had the word of God, as the Jews say? Here we must pay attention to the words of Christ, who makes a distinction that death is a different thing than seeing or tasting death. We must all go to death and die there; but a Christian does not taste or see death, that is, he does not feel it, is not so frightened by it, and goes into it gently and quietly, as if he were asleep and yet did not die. But an ungodly man feels it, and is eternally terrified of it. So that one may taste death, may well mean the power and might, or bitterness of death, yes, it is eternal death and hell. This difference is made by the word of God. A Christian has it and holds to it in death; therefore he does not see death, but life and Christ in the Word; therefore he does not feel death. But the wicked does not have the word, therefore he does not see life, but only death; so he must also feel it, which is bitter and eternal death.
(11) Christ means that whoever clings to his word will not feel or see death in the midst of death, as he also says John 11:25: "He who believes in me lives, though he die, for I am the life," etc.; that is, he does not feel death. Now we see what a great thing it is for a Christian who is already eternally redeemed from death and may never die. For his death or dying looks outwardly like the death of the wicked, but inwardly there is such a difference as between heaven and earth. For the Christian sleeps in death and thereby enters into life, but the
The wicked depart from life and feel death forever; for we see how some tremble, doubt and despair, and become foolish and mad in the anguish of death. That is why death is called a sleep in the Scriptures. For just as he who falls asleep does not know what will happen to him, and when he wakes up in the morning he comes unawares; so we shall rise suddenly at the last day, not knowing how we came to death and through death.
012 Let us also take another example. When the children of Israel went out of Egypt and came to the Red Sea, they were free and felt no death, but only life; but when Pharaoh the king came behind them with all his might, they were in the midst of death, there was no life before their eyes. For before them they had the sea, through which they could not pass, behind them king Pharaoh, on both sides high mountains, and they were caught in death everywhere and decided that they also said to Moses, Ex 14:11: "Were there not graves enough in Egypt" etc., so they had even considered themselves out of life. Then Moses came and brought God's word, which comforted them in the midst of death and kept them alive, saying v. 13: "Stand still and do not fear, for you shall see what great victory God will give you, that you shall never see these Egyptians again." They clung to this word and held fast; thereby life was seen in death, because they believed the word that it would so come to pass, and thereupon they went into the midst of the Red Sea, which stood on either side as two walls. And it came to pass that there was life and safety in the sea, where before there was death and danger. For they would never have been so bold as to go into the sea if it had been divided a hundred times, unless God's word had been there to comfort them and promise them life. Thus man overcomes death through the word of life, if he clings to it and believes, and thus goes to his death.
(13) So also Christ says here against the Jews, that Abraham and the prophets are still alive, and never died, but have life in the midst of death; but they lie, and
sleep in death. "For Abraham," saith he, "hath seen my day, and hath rejoiced." So also the prophets have seen him. Where and when did he see him? Not with bodily eyes, as the Jews understand it, but with the face of faith in his heart, that is, he recognized Christ when it was said to him Gen. 22:18: "Through your seed shall all the Gentiles be blessed." Then he saw and understood that Christ, born of his seed through a pure virgin (so that he would not be cursed with Adam's children, but remain blessed), should suffer for all the world, and preach the same, and thus shower blessings on all the world etc. This is also the day of Christ, that is, the time of the gospel, which is the light of that day shining from Christ as from the Sun of righteousness, shining and shining into all the world, which is a spiritual day, but going out in the bodily time of Christ, as Abraham saw. But the Jews did not understand any of this before their carnal mind, therefore they reproached him as a liar.
(14) Therefore Christ continues, and sets forth the reason and cause why his word, and not another's, gives life, saying, "It is because he was before Abraham, that is, that he is the true and only God. For if the person who sacrificed himself for us were not God, it would not help or count for anything in the sight of God that he was born of a virgin and died a thousand deaths. But this brings blessing and victory over all sin and death, that the seed of Abraham is also true God, who gives himself for us. That is why Christ does not speak here of his human nature, which was seen and felt; for then it could well be grasped that he was not fifty years old, and had not been before Abraham. But with which nature he was before Abraham so long before, he was also before all creatures and before the whole world. Even though he was a man before Abraham according to his spiritual nature, that is, in the word and knowledge of faith he was in the saints, for they all knew and believed that Christ, God and man, should suffer for us; as Heb. 13:8 says: "Christ yesterday and today, and forever-".
and in the Revelation of John Cap. 13, 8: "The Lamb of God, which was slain from the foundation of the world. But here he speaks of the divine essence most of all.
(15) But here reason is atrocious, and wants to become mad that man should be God; it cannot rhyme this together. And this is the article in which the Jews are still fighting today and cannot stop throwing stones and blaspheming. But Christ again does not cease to hide from them and to go out of their temple, so that they may neither see him nor find him.
in the Scriptures, in which they act daily. And this story is not a little frightening to all who are presumptuous in the Scriptures and do not walk humbly. For it is still the case today that many read and study the Scriptures, but they cannot find Christ; he has hidden himself and gone to the temple. And how many are those who say with their mouths that God is man, and yet are without spirit in their hearts, who will prove at the time of the meeting that they have never meant it seriously. Let that be enough of it.