John 8:46-59.
Which of 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. Are you more than our father Abraham, who 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.
In this Gospel, God does not present humble and tenderhearted people, but His most bitter and venomous enemies, who sought His life with all their diligence. Now let us see how Christ relates to them, so that we may learn to relate to them when they do so and seek us at home. This is what our opponents always do, that they do two things to us: first, that they reproach our life; and if they cannot reproach that, they reproach the word and the doctrine. Let every man be sure that he will hear this. This they have charged all the prophets and Christ with, and they will do it to all Christians until the end of the world. Now then, that we should suffer patiently, because it was so with Christ, who was blameless and blameless; why then should we not suffer?
2) Now one must keep himself, as Christ did here, who lives in such a way that they give him his life.
*The first printing, which we follow, appeared in Wittenberg in 1523. It is also included in the "XIII Predigten" of 1523. - Cf. Leipz. A. XII, 453; Erl. A. 17, 13. d. Red.
He cannot reprove, and he also protects the word, especially that his teaching is irreproachable and unconquerable. In this he has shown a fine example of love, that he thus guides them kindly with promise and threat. Thus an evangelist must also hold that his life is innocent and his teaching irreproachable, so that the people may be brought to faith through his good life and praise God; otherwise they will say, "Yes, he teaches in this way, and yet does not do it himself; it must not be right. Behold, it brings harm to the gospel. As they do now, saying, We live not well; so we may say, Punish me one from my sins. No.
3 But it is much more harmful when the word and teaching is unwise and unwholesome; it poisons the whole multitude. Life does not cause so much trouble as false teaching. For life does the most harm to the one who leads it. This also happens here. Christ has such a life in himself that he could not be punished, and his teaching is also blameless. Therefore
he will convince them with their reason, so that the common man can conclude that they do not want to believe only because of their stubbornness and heart, and thus says: "Well then, who of you will punish me for any sin? As if he should say, If any man rise up, and be able to bring anything against me, and convince me of any sin, I will be unjust. "If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me" and my right wholesome teaching? And decide for yourselves what is the fault that they do not believe: "He who is of God hears God's word; but you are not of God, therefore you do not hear His word."
4 The saying is much too high for us simple ones, but this is what he wants especially, that no human reason, no power, no strength serves the word of God. It falls into the ears, but to bring it into the heart must come down from above. There the nature of the word is finely expressed: it never comes without great benefit or harm; it goes forth like a thunderclap; it either raises up or strikes down. It either seeks the poor shattered consciences, or makes them; and does both. And this summa is: The word is heard by all who are of God, that is, -to feel the word in the heart and to close it in the heart, divine power must do, human power must go down here.
When the word falls from a heart that hears it, it thinks: Oh, dear God, if it is not in my hands, and I am not able to do anything with my strength, then do it according to your gracious divine will. Behold, this will be a fine, gentle, bent, serene soul, which places it solely with God and despairs in itself, considers itself to be nothing and seeks and finds everything especially with God. Behold, the very soul that has thus melted and softened God's Word is of God and hears His Word. The others, when they hear it, go away hardened; I can do nothing about it. Those who want it are hardened and hardened by the word; they are not of God.
(6) Therefore the word is like the sun: good things, as, wax and butter, soften and melt them; evil things,
as, dung, makes them hard as stone. So, the word of God, when it falls on good people, melts and makes them gentle and calm, so that when they hear that they are nothing, they fall and say: Oh God, I cannot help myself, it is not in my power, do it according to your divine will. If a soul is right out of a heartfelt reason that it is nothing, it is of God, then it will continue to help. But the wicked are even hardened by it, so that they go away hardened and blinded. We see that also here: The more he tells them, the more they are hardened and poisoned; so that they close, and want to judge in short, God give, whether convinced or not, blame everything both life and doctrine, and call him a Samaritan; they considered the Jews as poured out boys. So also here: Yea, what sayest thou much of sin; thou art a knave through and through, as much is thine, and thy doings are not human, but devilish. I mean that they are obdurate. So it must go.
7 Now see how sweetly he answers them, what he overlooks them and what he does not overlook them. He answers, "I have no devil," my doctrine is not devilish and lies; "I honor my heavenly Father, and you have done me dishonor." Behold, when they call him a knave, he is silent, not harsh; but, "I honor my heavenly Father," etc. If I am, I am. "There is one who will judge" who I am. So shall we do, not fighting our freedom, though we be innocent; but not forsaking innocence, nor consenting thereto, lest our evil cry cast off the faith of some of the simple. One must not completely disdain rumor; as Augustine says, that we should have a right conscience toward God, toward men a good rumor. But doctrine should not be dampened in any way, but the more and more it is raised, the higher and higher it is lifted up, as Christ does here, putting one's neck on the line, life and limb, honor and goods.
8 So, since they here gave Christ's teaching to the devil, he denies it, and raises it up again so high that he swears, "Truly, for-
If any man keep my word, he shall never see death for ever. This is the summa of the whole gospel; therefore we must see what it will be, and how to keep it, and how not to see death; for there is much power in the promise, and the whole summa is that confidence in the Lord Christ alone strangles death, hell, and the devil. Well then, what are the promises of Christ our Savior? For this is his word, there is his life, righteousness and salvation. Whoever clings to it, it also makes him alive, righteous and holy. Let us expand on this a little.
9. Adam, when he fell, was already dead before God, his conscience was scattered and shattered, so that God alone considered him a strict judge. The weak conscience was already dead; indeed, he would not have taken the walk in the thorn bush if God had not made him alive again with His living Word and raised him up. But God spoke to the serpent Gen. 3:15: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and the woman's seed. And the seed of the woman shall bruise thy head": when Adam heard that the serpent, who had caused the calamity, death, sin and hell, was now in the midst of it, that his head should be bruised, he gained courage and became joyful. Yes, his heart was also finely crushed before, when he thought: "My God still wants to be merciful to me, wants to let a child be born, who shall crush and trample on the head of the serpent, the devil, hell and all his power; then Adam wiped up and gained a fine life, this happy conscience and courage, and is thus preserved by the word, and preached this to all his descendants until Abraham's time. They kept it and built on the word, thus being preserved from the devil, death and hell.
(10) This continued until the time of Abraham, when all the world thought how there should be a child born, but knew not whence. Then God gave Abraham an easy saying and made the promise a little clearer to him, saying Gen. 22:18:
"In thy seed shall all nations be given. Then God spoke of a tribe from which the child would spring, which was the same as the previous promise, except that it was more pure. Abraham kept this promise and continued to rely on it until the time of David. Then the promise came more easily. God said to him in 2 Sam. 7:12: "Of the fruit of your womb I will appoint a king who shall reign forever. This lasted until the time of Mary. Then the angel came and said Luc. 1, 28. 32.: "Hail Mary, full of grace, you shall give birth to the Most High, who will sit on the throne of David. Behold, the word of God has received them all, pointing to Mary's child. He shall bruise the head of the serpent. All the saints have built on it, as David said: In peace I will rest and sleep, I will lie down in the grave as on a port: for thou hast set me in a strong hope. This has now come. In the child they have now all been saved. So we also must be blessed in him until the end of the world.
Now, in the New Testament the promises are poured out like cloudbursts, Joh. 14, 6: "I am the life and the way" etc.; Joh. 8, 51: "He who keeps my word" etc.; Matth. 26, 26: "This is my body, which is given for you." The Word has preserved all the saints and must preserve us all. This is from the Word.
Now let us say about the attitude. Behold, there must be a strong faith. One must cling to it not with the hands but with the heart, so that we will surely provide ourselves to God, that he has taken away death, the devil and hell. That is why he says, "He who keeps my word will keep it." It will take effort, but cling strongly to the word; for the devil is completely hostile to the word, seeking with all his wiles to take it from us, and thrusts against us violence, sword etc. And especially when death comes, he keeps us from sin, death etc. Then we must close our eyes and look only at his word, which sounds like this: "He who keeps my word" etc. This must be put into the heart. Christ cannot be put in bodily; therefore one must cling to the word; thus
Then the word surrounds us, so that we fall asleep in it and do not know how. Even though we see death and hell, that it opens its jaws so wide and has no bottom, we do not have to look at anything, but just strike the word of God before our eyes. That is then alive, goes through hell,
Death and everything, which then leads us through so finely that we ourselves do not know how we will get through. So that this is the summa: Whoever believes in Christ will go through hell, sin and death, and will be blessed and alive in the end. By this God keeps us, amen.