John 3:16-21.
Thus God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in him is not judged, but he who does not believe has already been judged, for he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their works were evil. He that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be punished. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest; for they are done in God.
(1) This gospel is one of the most glorious sermons that can be found in the whole New Testament, so that it would be good if it could be written on the heart in letters of gold; and every Christian should know such a text by heart at least, and recite it to his heart once every day: so that such words would become familiar to us and we would learn them the better. For it is such words that can make a sad heart cheerful and a dead man alive again, if only one could hold fast to them by faith. But since it is impossible to fathom such glorious preaching with words, let us earnestly beseech God that He may declare such words in our hearts by His Spirit more clearly than we can speak them, and make them so light and bright that we may feel comfort and joy from them, amen.
The sum of such a glorious and comforting sermon is this: that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that we men should not die an eternal death, but have eternal life. As if Christ, our dear Lord, wanted to say: "Listen, man, I want to present to you an unheard-of, strange painting, where the giver, the taker, the gift, the fruit and the benefit of the gift are so great that you cannot imagine it with your thoughts.
*) Held at home in 1534, in the presence of some citizens of Leipzig who had been expelled from there because they did not want to take Holy Communion under One Form.
can reach out, let alone talk out, with words.
(3) For first of all, look at the Giver: you do not hear it said of emperors, kings, or other people who are great in the world; but you hear it said of God Himself, who is incomprehensible and almighty, who created all things together by His word and sustains all things, who is everything, and against whom all creatures, heaven and earth, and what is in them, are as grains of sand. He is the giver, and may well be called a great giver, so that when one hears that God gives something, we should consider all emperors and kings with their gifts and persons to be nothing at all, and our hearts should swell and blow out so much for the sake of such a giver that everything that can be conceived should be considered small and nothing in comparison. For what can be called or conceived greater or more glorious than God, the Almighty Himself?
4 The same God, who is infinite and ineffable, gives in a way that is beyond measure. For that which he gives, he gives not as a reward earned out of merit nor out of equity, but, as the words say, out of love. Is therefore such a giver who gives from the heart and from causeless and divine love, as he says: "God has loved the world."
Now there is no greater virtue among all than love, as we see: What one loves, one stakes life and limb on.
and gladly and willingly dares all that one has. Patience, chastity, temperance etc. are also fine virtues; but they are nowhere equal to love, which is the one that includes all the other virtues in itself and brings them with it. So he who is pious and just does wrong to no one and gives to each his own; but where love is, man gives himself entirely to each other, and is willing and cheerful for everything for which he is needed. So Christ also says here that our Lord God gives us, not out of patience, nor right, nor merit, but out of the highest virtue, love. Our hearts should grow and all sadness should disappear if we were to take such causeless love of the divine heart into our eyes and believe with all our hearts that God is the highest and greatest giver and that such giving flows from the highest virtue.
(6) Giving in this way, if it comes from true love, also makes the gift more delicious and greater; as one is wont to say: It comes from a dear hand, if one knows that one means one with heart. Again, where one doubts the heart, one does not pay much attention to the gift. So, if a man had only one eye or one foot, and if he knew that it had been done out of divine and fatherly love, he would prefer such an eye or foot to a hundred eyes or feet.
Now Christ says in clear words that God loves us. Therefore, according to such love, we should esteem all his gifts worthy, high and glorious, but especially that which has been instituted by him for our blessedness and strengthening of our faith, as holy baptism, the reverend sacrament of the body and blood of Christ etc. For though these things do not appear in the sight of the world, yet they should be to us as the kingdom of heaven, and make us joyful and of good cheer, because they are ordained for our good out of the Father's love. Therefore Christ not only teaches us that his Father wants to give us something, but also tells us in what way he wants to give, namely, out of fatherly and divine love.
8 But in the same way, as we have heard so far, that the giver and the heart of the giver
great and unspeakable: so the gift or present is also unspeakable. For here you hear that God, out of such love, does not give a florin, a horse, a cow, an eye, a kingdom, the heavens with the sun and stars, nor the whole creature; but He gives His only begotten Son, who is as great as He Himself.
(9) Such a gift should make fire and light in our hearts, so that we will never cease to dance and jump for joy. For as the Giver, God Himself, and His heartfelt love are infinite and inexpressible, so also is the gift that He gives His Son. For there he gives himself with all that he has; as Paul says to the Romans Cap. 8, 32: Because God has given us his Son, he has given us everything with him, be it devil, sin, death, hell, heaven, righteousness, life; everything must be ours, because the Son, as a gift, is ours, in whom all things are together.
(10) Therefore, if we believe aright, and receive and accept this precious gift by faith, all creatures, whether good or bad, life or death, heaven or hell, must be for our good; as St. Paul says in another place, "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, whether Cephas or the world, whether life or death, whether things present or things to come, all things are yours; but you are Christ's; but Christ is God's," 1 Cor. 3:21-23. 3, 21-23. For if we want to look at and consider such a gift, we must confess that it is a gift above all things in heaven and earth, whereas all the treasures of the whole world are like a poppy seed compared to a golden mountain. But there is the grievous unbelief (as Christ himself afterwards complains) and the great and dreadful darkness, that we hear of such a noble gift and treasure, and yet do not believe; and such comforting words rush past our ears, and yet the heart does not realize them. Where there is a fine purchase of a house or castle, one runs after it so earnestly, as if our life were set on temporal goods. But here, where it is preached that God gave His Son to the world out of pure love,
We are so lax and lazy that it is a sin and a shame. Who is it, then, that we regard such a gift and present so lightly, and that we do not take such words to heart, and constantly remember them, and let them be our highest joy and comfort? No one does it, but the wretched devil, who so blinds our hearts that we let such a glorious sermon pass by, and in the meantime worry ourselves with other temporal worries.
That is why I said at the beginning that we should get up and go down with these words every day, so that we might form it a little in our hearts and also thank God at times for such unspeakable benefits. For it is all in the highest, the giver, the heart, and the gift, which is given to us out of pure love, not out of merit, and so given that it should remain a gift, and not be called borrowed, lent, or paid for, since one gives nothing for it, and does nothing more than hold out one's hand and accept such treasure willingly and gladly. But let it be lamented to God that there are not hearts and hands that accept such a gift as it is offered to us, that it should be and remain ours until eternal life.
(12) But what is the name of the people of whom it is said that nothing can be given in return for thanks? If there were a poor beggar, who had neither clothes nor clothes, and could not help being hungry, and a great prince, out of mercy, gave him a castle with a large annual income, and appointed him lord, saying, "I will give you all this for nothing;" and the beggar turned his back on him, and said, "He would not: would not all the world cry out against the beggar, and say, "They never saw a more mad man; he should not be a man, but a beast? That is what one would do in front of the world. But now the world is not offered a castle or a principality, but God's Son Himself. And God says and says that one should only accept his gift and keep it as one's own. But those who do not want to have it and turn their backs on God are we ourselves. Now count what a great and horrible sin unbelief is. For it is ever not human that one should
should resist a gift and do not want to have it.
(13) Therefore, one can see how the whole world is mad and foolish, because it does not rejoice in such gifts, and only lacks that it does not grasp and take what is offered to it. If it were a florin or a new skirt, one would grab it with both fists and be happy. But because it is God's Son Himself, everyone acts as if he does not need it.
That is why the taker here is also painted with a name and is called the world. This is a terrible taker, especially if one wants to count it against the gift. For where does the world deserve such love and gift from God, which is the devil's bride and God's enemy, and the greatest blasphemer? For after the devil, God has no greater enemy than the world. Still, it says here: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son."
Write this piece also in your heart. And because you have heard what God is, and the gift that He gives out of pure love, listen also and learn what the world is, namely: a great multitude of people who believe nothing at all, who speak lies against God in His word, who blaspheme, revile and persecute God's name and word; then those who disobey their father and mother, murderers, adulterers, traitors, thieves and scoundrels, and so on, as we see and experience every day, that the world is full of unfaithfulness and blasphemy. To the same dear bride, the golden daughter, that is, to the greatest enemy of God and blasphemer, God gives His Son out of pure love.
(16) This part also makes the gifts great, so that our Lord God does not take offense at our being such bad boys, but swallows up in one bite all vice and sin, so that the world reviles his name and word and lives in all disobedience to him. For because the Giver is so great, and the gift so noble, vice should cheaply drive him back. But God overcomes Himself and puts aside all the sins of the first and second table and does not want to know them; yes, for the sake of such sin, for the sake of such sorrow and misery, in which we poor sinners have to live.
If we are stuck in a place where we would have to perish forever without God's help, He will show us such love and grace.
(17) Should one not then love such a gracious God again from the heart and provide for all good things to Him, who forgives sin and does not repay the wicked, ungrateful world with all sins, which are innumerable? For since every man's own sins are innumerable, who would count the sins of the whole world? And yet it says here that God wants to give and forgive everything to the world. For where God's love goes, there must actually be forgiveness of sin as well. We should open our hearts and continue to think about such love, because God can give so much to the world, which is His natural enemy, that He gives Himself to it; that there is nothing else to wait for or hope for, but pure grace and kindness, whatever happens in this temporal life, for better or for worse, that one nevertheless adheres to this love and gives oneself everything good to God for Christ's sake.
(18) From such thoughts a heart should become joyful and of good cheer, as I and all Christians must confess that we have lived in all kinds of abominations and idolatries in the papacy and have defiled ourselves with many sins. God did not punish this ungodly life according to our merit, but let His love shine forth, and revealed the Son, whom He gave to the world before, again through the Gospel, so that we might hear this glorious sermon again and understand that God is not angry with the world, but loves it because He gives it His Son. But God have mercy on us for being so ungrateful and for not feeling such joy in ourselves. For if we could think of it rightly and were not so cold, our hearts should be so overflowing with joy that we should not only gladly serve God, but also gladly suffer everything for His sake, and yet laugh at it, because we have such a treasure from Him. But thanks be to our unbelief, which prevents such joy, and looks for other joy in the world, in the devil's name, which is all in vain and lost. So far we have told these four pieces in brevity, who is the giver,
and the gift, and how, and to whom it is given. Such four pieces are not possible to be sufficiently explained in words.
19 Now follows the end of what God means by such a gift. Namely, that it is not given for us to eat, drink, clothe and nourish ourselves with; much less that it should be a poison or other harm to us; as we also teach about baptism and the sacrament of the altar, that it should all be considered beneficial and useful: but it should serve and be given "so that all who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life.
20. Here you hear that it is not that we should have great money or goods, honor, power, or even the whole world here for a little while and be lords over it; for if we had all this, we would still be under the devil's power: but that we should be free from sin, death and hell and be eternally undestroyed. This is what this gift, that is, God's Son, given to us out of pure love, is supposed to work and accomplish, in that he has crushed the devil's head, stripped him and taken away all his power, murdered sin, devoured death eternally and extinguished hell to the ground, so that now and forever they cannot rule over us, cannot frighten us, strangle us and condemn us. Let this be a rich, glorious, yes, unspeakable gift, for which praise and honor shall follow the great, merciful Giver forever, Amen.
21. Whoever could blow out his heart would have reason enough to do so, since we hear here from the mouth of the Lord Christ Himself that He has given us the gift that hell is closed, and that instead of a stupid, despondent heart we shall have a secure, joyful heart; yes, which is even more, that eternal life shall be and remain ours, and death shall never be seen, but shall be joy: Through this certain confidence, that we have a gracious God in heaven, who loves us, and out of pure love giveth his Son, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
22. these are ever words we use in this
We cannot learn or comprehend them sufficiently in our lives. Therefore, a Christian should pray daily that God would press these words into the heart through His Holy Spirit and set them on fire in it; then we would become true theologians who speak rightly of Christ and judge all other teachings, and could willingly suffer everything God sends over such faith. But because this does not happen, and we hear such preaching badly with our ears, but do not take it to heart, so that it could properly clothe and bear fruit, we remain as far away this year as we were last year, today as yesterday, that it is a shame and a disgrace that we are so blind with our seeing eyes and deaf with our hearing ears. And no doubt the damned will miserably lament and cry out at the last day that they have had such comforting words preached into the air in vain and have not accepted them.
(23) But let us see further what is the manner of taking such a gift, what is the bag or box in which this precious and noble treasure is to be placed and closed. For this is of great importance. Christ indicates the same with the word, when he says: "So that all who believe in him will not perish.
(24) This is a clear and bright testimony that faith alone, that is, confidence in God's grace and mercy through Christ, is the right bag or sack that we should hold out and receive and grasp such a gift in. For just as God gives such treasure through love and mercy, so we receive it and can receive it through faith alone. There is no work or merit that makes one run to a monastery and do this or that. For our works do not belong to such a great treasure. But it is necessary to hold up our hands through faith, and as God becomes a giver through love, so we become takers through faith in Christ; that is, that we believe, as we hear here, that God is gracious and merciful, and demonstrates such mercy and love toward us by allowing his only begotten Son to become man, and by casting upon him all our sins; as John the Baptist says from the prophet Isaiah, "This is the way we are to take it.
is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world"; that we should still our hearts against sin and evil conscience on the basis of such a gift and love of God, because God does not exercise wrath or displeasure, but only love and grace towards us for the sake of His Son Christ Jesus. Whoever believes this is certainly blessed. For this gift is ever so great that it devours death and sin and all misfortune. For as a great fire is to a drop of water, so all the sins of the world are to be counted against Christ. As soon as they touch Christ and accept this treasure by faith, they are swallowed up and eaten up, like a straw in a great fire.
For here you hear it from Christ Himself: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He speaks:' "who believe in him"; does not speak: who do this or that work and thereby want to reconcile themselves to God. Faith alone shall and must contain such treasure. Therefore let our adversaries cry out against this doctrine as they will, for it is said, "They that believe on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Let it remain so; otherwise you will master the Lord Christ in his word and prove him false.
These are comforting words of grace and life. God grant only grace to be rightly grasped with the heart. For whoever has grasped them, neither the devil nor sin nor death will be able to frighten him, but he will have to be joyful and say: I am undaunted, for I have God's Son, whom God has given me out of love; and there is God's word, the holy gospel, which testifies to this. But your word, O Lord, and your Son Jesus will not deceive me; in them I trust and rely. But if I am not yet strong enough in faith, give me grace to believe more firmly; for otherwise I can do nothing for such a great gift and love. So that everyone may learn the longer the more to take comfort in this gift, for it must be believed, as you have heard from Christ himself. But the firmer the faith is, the more joy, pleasure and
One is certain in one's heart that one will gladly do and suffer everything that one knows God demands and wants. But all because God is gracious and wants to show us love.
(27) Yes, you say, if I were as pious and holy as Peter, Paul, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, I would gladly believe and take comfort in such a gift, for they are holy and such a gift is undoubtedly meant for them; but how could I, a poor sinner, be certain that I should accept the gift, since I have offended God in so many ways and so often? Such thoughts do not remain outside, if during such a sermon the heart looks right at itself and thinks of its mistreatment. Be careful not to go outside the word of God and dwell on such thoughts too long, but soon turn back to the word and judge according to it. For such thoughts are nothing but true unbelief, which wants to draw us away from such gifts and comforting preaching.
Now nothing else can be used to ward off unbelief, except the word of God. The same is preached to us by our dear Lord Christ himself, so that we have no reason to doubt such preaching and word, and says: His Father in heaven, the true eternal God, so loved the world that he gave it his only begotten Son. Now you and all men must confess that the world is not called Mary, Peter and Paul; but the world is called the whole human race in one heap, through and through. Do you now believe that you are a man? Or if thou canst not believe nor know this, take hold of thine own bosom or nose, whether thou be not more flesh and blood than other men. Why do you want to exclude yourself from this little word "world", because Christ says in clear, clear words that God did not give His Son only to the holy virgins Mary, nor to St. Peter, nor to St. Paul, but to the world, so that everything should be accepted, which is only called the children of men. Now if I did not want to accept him, as if I had no part in him, and you had no part in him, I would not be able to accept him.
If you would not accept him either, it would have to follow that these words of Christ are not true, since he says he was given to the world.
Therefore, from such words you should conclude the contradiction that this gift belongs to you as well as to St. Peter and St. Paul, because you are a man as well as to them, and a part of the world. Lest you give the lie to God in His word and think: Who knows whether I am also among those to whom this Son is given and eternal life is promised? For this means that our Lord God has made a liar. Therefore, if such thoughts occur to you, put the cross in front of you as if the devil himself were there, so that such thoughts do not deceive you, and say: "Why do I ask that I am not Peter or Paul? if God had wanted to give such treasure to those who were worthy of it, he would have given it to the angels, who are pure and undefiled spirits, or to the sun and moon, which always keep their certain course according to God's order. But here it says: He gave it to the world, which is worthy, as we have indicated above. Therefore, even though I am neither Peter nor Paul, I still want to be excluded from this gift and have as much of it as David and all the apostles. For what was David? Did he not also sin grossly and grievously? Who have the apostles been? Were they not all sinners and unworthy enough?
Therefore, let no one follow this argument: I am a sinner, am not as holy and pious as St. Peter: therefore I must not accept nor take comfort in this gift. Not at all; but say thus: Be I what I will, yet I must not prove my God false; for I still belong to the world also. Therefore, if I would not accept such a gift, I would be doing this sin above all other sins, that I would be lying to God.
(31) Yes, you say, if God promised me in particular, I would believe it, and I could be sure that it would be true for me. No, dear friend, he is saying in general that this Son and eternal life are promised and given to all the world, so that he may not exclude anyone at all.
exclude themselves. But he who excludes himself will have to answer, as Christ says: "I will not judge them, but their own mouth will judge them, because such a gift is supposed and given to the whole world, that they still do not want to accept it out of their own unbelief, against God's word. However, if one wants to understand it correctly, the sacraments of baptism and of the body and blood of Christ were instituted by our Lord Christ for this very reason, so that each one in particular should appropriate such a gift and consider and use it as his own.
32 Let this be preached in a nutshell in the most simple way from this glorious and beautiful text, which can never be sufficiently learned. For it is the main doctrine on which one should die and be saved, in which Christ is presented to us in the purest and most lovely way, that he is our own, given by the Father out of pure love, which love he has as a gracious God toward the evil, ungrateful world. Then everyone may learn what treasure and comfort we Christians have, what the world and God are, and how we can come to such grace.
come by faith alone; as Christ says, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." For the preaching of good works, which are to follow after such faith through the Holy Spirit, belongs to another place. Here we are dealing only with what we receive from God and how we should take it.
But what a Christian should do, so that he may be a faithful child of God and grateful for such great gifts of eternal life and God's love, Christ does not preach here. Therefore, let us leave it at this: that we may be saved by mercy alone, and receive such grace by faith alone, without any action on our part or merit on our part; that what is necessary for eternal life and the forgiveness of sins is entirely included in the love and mercy of God through Christ. May God grant us His grace, so that we may believe and happily suffer all things and die and become eternally blessed. May our dear God help us all through His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.