First sermon.*)
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) Preach nothing but Jesus Christ and faith in him. This is scopus generalis, the general content of this gospel. But if you want to have it closer, then make the scopum and content de libertate christiana, of Christian freedom, and you will get away with it. This is its specialis scopus, its actual and thorough content. For Christ abolishes everything here: Law, sin, death, God's wrath, plus all trust in human justice, wisdom, and holiness. He takes so much in one heap and removes it purely. For because he says: "Whoever believes in the Son shall not perish, but have eternal life", it follows that the believer has sin, death, and the law,
s) In the house gehaltm 1532, while Dr. Pommer preached.
Devil, law, human justice and merit must be purely abolished and completely gone. So I could not speak if I were to tear myself apart right away.
2. lex perdit nos, peccata perdunt nos, diabolus et ira Dei devorant nos: The law kills us, sins kill us, the devil and God's wrath devour and devour us, God is a consuming fire, Deut. 4:24. Here Christ abolishes all this, saying, "He that believeth on the Son shall not perish, but have everlasting life." The law shall not kill him, neither shall sin; the devil and God's wrath shall not devour him. The fire that Moses saw in the bush, Ex. 3, shall be purely extinguished, and there shall be vain Christian liberty. For not to be lost, but to have the eternal
To have life is such a great thing that no human heart can comprehend it. Now I have given the dialecticam. Whoever can, let him now give the artificium rhetoricum. I have sketched it briefly. Whoever can, now paint it the right living color. But let us hear what a rhetor and master of speech Christ is. He speaks thus:
So, God loved the world.
3 There already goes the grandiloquentia. They are short, simple words, but they are real grandia et tragica verba, vain centner words and great pieces of work. God should be angry and destroy and kill the world, as His most foretold, murderous enemy. He should have left the world to the hellish fire: so he loves the world, so also that there is no greater nor higher lover of the world than he. These are verba grandia, high, excellent words; for no higher lover can be in heaven and earth than God. So also no higher affectus can be, by which God can pour Himself out completely against the world, than love. Nor can there be a more shameful villain nor a more unworthy enemy to whom such love is applied than the world. Therefore, they are vain, glorious, high centner words.
That a god should be, and should love the world, and grant it something good, is above all our reason, sense, understanding and art. I wish the world the hellish fire, and especially I would do that if I were God, who knows the world inside out and knows what the world is. I would do that, but what does God do? Instead of His wrath, which the world well deserves, He loves the world, and in an exuberant and incomprehensible way, He gives His only Son to the world, His worst enemies. I am not such a rhetor and master of oratory that I could achieve this artificium (this art) and sufficiently express these magnificas figuras (magnificent combinations of words).
If it had been more than enough, God would have offered the world a good morning. So he goes to and loves the world, the shameful fruit. That is
omnium odibilissimum et maxime inamabile objectum, the most hostile and unholy counter-image. And this is also the world in truth: a stable full of evil, shameful people, who abuse all creatures of God in the most shameful way, blaspheme God and put all plagues on Him. God loves these same shameful people. This is a love above all love. It must truly be a pious God, and His love must be a great, incomprehensible fire, much greater than the fire that Moses saw in the bush, yes, much greater than the hellish fire. Who would now despair because God is so minded against the world? It is too high and beyond my art, I cannot amplify it nor give it as abundantly as it is in fact and truth. Follow on:
That he gave his one son.
6. "Gave", understand, to death; that is also vain grandiloquentia. Donum est inaestimabile, the greatness of the gift no one can inquire; so modus donandi is also inaestimabilis, the way of giving that God gives so high a gift, His unified Son, to death, no one can inquire either. If God had ever wanted to love the world and give His only Son, He could have given Him in another way. For He undoubtedly has more ways to give His only Son: would not have given Him to death. But he gave him in this way, namely, in death, and thereby wanted to praise his love for us, Rom. 5, 8. They are all grandia.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(7) He takes away, as I have said, sin, death, the last judgment, etc., and caps, plates, carthorses, man, woman, and all distinction of persons, and will bind us without distinction, all of them, none excepted, to the man only, who is called Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. Now this saying is often found in John, as if the Holy Spirit alone could preach the only Son of God and Mary, and if the poor man, the Holy Spirit, knew nothing else. This is very ridiculous in front of the
The wise and the intelligent of this world. As the poet says: Ridetur chorda, qui semper oberrat eadem: A lute-striker, who always strikes only one little song, is laughed at. So also the world of the Holy Spirit laughs, as a lute-player who can only play on one string. But such highly wise masters, who can teach the Holy Spirit how to speak, govern themselves, do not need God and the Holy Spirit. But there it is, there it is. Whoever believes in God has eternal life. If others do what they want, they are still lost, and neither Moses nor the law helps here; indeed, Moses and the law kill man and do not give life, but death. Therefore, it is all up to the Son, who brings eternal life. He who has the Son of God has eternal life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. For the Son must please God, and God cannot be hostile to the Son. Where the Son is, He looks and is pleased with him. Therefore, in short, it should be the son alone before God, and nothing else. It is a fine text; amplify it and give it more abundantly, I cannot achieve it.
The words are so bad and simple, and yet so powerful; indeed, they are greater than heaven and earth, and cannot be reached at all. For to take away in one word all that is not the Son, whom God gave to the world out of love: let this be a feat of a true orator. They are excellent, high words, and it is astonishing that these high words should lie there on paper, since one runs over them as if it were mud in the street. One writes of Virgilio, how he had at one time the poet Ennium in his hand; and when he was asked what he was doing, he answered: He was reading gold out of the Ennii dung. So this would also be called: Aurum Christi in stercore, aut nobilissimam margaritam in stercore: Our Lord Christ's gold in the dung, or a precious pearl in the dung. Who could pick up such gold from the paper, from the poor letters and simple words!
9. "All who believe in the Son," says
he, "shall have eternal life." That means quite a gift. But it is a miserable plague that one should not grasp such a thing. This is because the gift and the present are too great, and our hearts are too full and cannot grasp such a gift. But this happens with a lesser gift and present. If it is a principality or kingdom, one disputes and says: "It will be a lie; should he give me a kingdom? Well, he will not do it. If this happens with lesser gifts, it happens much more here with this exuberant gift of God; then we first of all dispute with ourselves and say: Well, should God give me heaven? He will not. For we think that we are worth no more than about twenty florins; and measuring God by a man, we think: A principality, a kingdom, cannot be given away as soon as. Since no man can easily give me a kingdom, how can God give me heaven?
Therefore, this gift of God surpasses all the gifts of men. What is a man with his gifts, even if he gives a principality or kingdom, to count against God, who gives His only Son and with the Son gives eternal life? A man does not have this temporal, perishable life to give; let alone that he could give eternal, imperishable life. But God gives His only Son, and with the Son eternal life. By this you can see and recognize what God has in mind. Because He gives us the Son, He does not want to afflict or frighten us, much less strangle us, but to give us life, and with it eternal life. As St. Paul also says, Rom. 8:32: "Who also spared not his own Son, but gave him for us all; how shall he not with him give us all things?" Hold this temporal life against all other gifts on the face of the whole earth, and consider how far it outweighs all other things that a man needs for this life. Do you also think that this life is as good as a hundred thousand florins? I think so. Or do you think there is anyone who would give his life for the sake of the kingdom of France? I think so,
no; yes, if it were the whole world. Now the same good is given here by God, which is better than all the goods of this world, namely, life, and in addition eternal life with the highest security. For he who has eternal life must not fear sin, death or hell. The same good is given by God, so certain that it shall not be lacking. That is what it means to be given, and that is what it means to be a gift and a gift.
(11) How hopeless people and desperate traitors we have been in the papacy, teaching that life is given to men through a lousy cap and a shabby plate, as if we could not come to life by grace and for nothing, but had to earn it by our works. But here it says that we cannot come to life by ourselves and our works, nor earn it by our works; but God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. That is, given by grace and love for nothing. Who was able to make God give His only Son? No one. His great love made him do it. It is grandia verba,*) if it were true, says D. Jeron(ymus). O who could lead this saying against the examples of the wrath of God, which come to us when we are in terror and temptation!
(12) But with this he does not deny that God's wrath, law, death, hell and eternal damnation exist. For because he says of eternal life, he gives to understand that there is eternal death. This, I think, is called an antithesis, when these two, eternal life and eternal death, are held against each other. Such antithesis he himself declares, since he speaks:
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 will not be judged, but he who does not believe has already been judged.
Moses is already there, and the world is already judged. Here the question is not how you fall into the well, but how you get out of it.
come out of the well again. And indicates cause and speaks:
For he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
These are vain thunderbolts. Do not believe in the son, that's what you do. If you do not believe in the Son, whether you are a monk or a nun, a Carthusian or a barefoot, you are already judged. I love this text very much.
(15) He says clearly, "He does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. For the name is what God wants, and the name is what matters to Him. The name of the only begotten Son of God is everything. The piece belongs to faith. For this is why it is called the name of the only begotten Son of God, that the only begotten Son of God is preached in the Word and through the Word as our gift and offering. The only begotten Son, whom God gave to the world out of love, is not seen, but only heard. His name goes into the whole world through the Word. He does not want to be visibly present with us, but is to be heard in the Word alone. In that world the name and the word will cease, and we shall see the only begotten Son of God; as it is written, 1 John 3:2: "We know that when it shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." But in this world we do not see Him, but must hear Him in the Word. The same word that is preached of him, that shall do. This is to be remembered against the Anabaptists and the enthusiasts who despise the word.
The name of the only begotten Son of God is the factotum. When one hears the name of Jesus Christ, all that is unbelieving and ungodly in heaven and on earth shall be terrified; and again, all that believes shall leap, skip and be glad. As St. Paul also says Phil. 2:10: "In the name of JEsu shall all their knees bow, which are in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth." When one speaks "Jesus," he has struck the world dead, and the devil must flee a hundred miles away. Now comes the querela and lamentation:
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.
(17) Is this not a great plague? The world would not be condemned for its sin, and Moses would have to leave it in peace; but this condemns the world, that it does not want to be loved by God. Egg, you desperate whore, you cursed world, let the devil love you. This is the judgment, he says, that the world will not let itself be given, will not let itself be loved, will not let itself be honored, will not have eternal life. Is it not a great pity that we have such goods, and yet should despise them so shamefully? Yes, not only despise, but also respect and love the antithesis, namely, death and hell. If one did this out of error and ignorance, it would still be tolerable; but that one, in contempt of the faith, the gospel, the only begotten Son and the heavenly Father, should love error, lies and darkness, and defend them against the truth and against the light: that is too much.
18 Therefore Christ wants to say here: I am not lacking, nor is my heavenly Father lacking, but the people who do not want to accept this treasure are lacking. Fie on the world! I am surprised that God did not strike with thunder and lightning soon after the ascension of Christ, and that even today the last day remains so long outside. The world is not judged because it did not keep what God commanded through Moses; but this is the judgment, that it does not want to have the Son, yes, that it wants to persecute and destroy the Son. Fie on the Jews, that they will not suffer the Son! Therefore they are also disturbed and cast out. So one had to louse the caps of the despisers and persecutors of the only begotten Son. Fie also to us Gentiles that we are such hopeless people and do not believe these high, excellent words!
19 So this much is said: No sin is more in the world than unbelief. Other sins in the world are Mr. Simon's sin, as when my hands and leniches
shits in the corner, it is laughed at, as if it were well done. So also faith makes our filth not stink before God. Summa Summarum, not believing in the only begotten Son is the only sin in the world, for which the world is judged. For God loved the world, gave the world His only Son, sent the world light, and all sins shall be forgiven, only if one believes in the Son.
20 Let that be a grandiloquentiam for me. I am surprised that he can talk so badly and silly about such great things. In singulis verbis tanta est majestas, simplicitas, perspicuitas, gravitas, veritas, voluptas, et omnia, quae possunt tradi in rhetorica, sunt in hoc textu in summo gradu. Illum textum ego valde amo: I love the text out of measure. So one should amplify the text and abundantly cross out that it is the text alone in this world, and that there is nothing else in this world, yes, that even our life is nothing against this text. The negatives, that is, the no, are deliciously good. "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved." For this is the rhetorica, and art of speaking, that one expounds and explains himself per amplificationem et antithesin.*) So, he gives eternal life, and not eternal death. So Christ is here also a right rhetor and master of speech. Ad majorem confirmationem non solum affirmativam, sed etiam negativam ponit: That it may sound the stronger, he not only sets the yes: "Thus God loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"; but also sets the no: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." This is the right rhetorica, as when I say, Omnis homo currit, nullus homo currit.**) For universalem negativam†) I mean simpliciter antithesin in oppositionibus. ††) If
*) By extension and contrast.
**) Man runs, no man runs.
†) a general negation.
††) Opposing opposites.
If I preach a sermon, I make an antithesis, as Christ here makes an antithesis: Those who believe in the Son will have eternal life and not hell. For where one is to teach rightly, one must take a subject sive affirmativum, sive negativum, and expound and explain it by antithesis.
21. Christ makes it good for us who are afraid and fearful of God, saying: "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. As if to say: Do not be afraid, God will not strike you on the head with a club; God's Son did not come to judge you and put you to death, but came to make you blessed. Of this Erasmus understands nothing at all. For when he comes to the question: Why Christ was sent, since (as he considers it) one finds such fine, if not better and more perfect teaching among the Gentiles than in Christ, he answers: Christ came so that he might better and more perfectly keep what he taught than the others have kept. About the redemption that Christ came,
to make the world blessed, he says nothing at all. That is called blindness.
He who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds will not be punished.
(22) Those who love darkness and hate the light are those who build on their own righteousness, wisdom and holiness; they do not come to the light, because they do not want to be punished. Therefore this is spoken against the most holy. The publicans and harlots do not do this, but the most high and holy do.
But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest: for they are done in God.
(23) He who knows that he has taught and preached rightly does not hate the light, but comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God. May our dear God grant us His grace, that we may believe and die happily, and so be saved, amen.