Preached on the third (?) Christmas Day (27. Der.) Anno 1542. (?) 1541. (?)
Francisci Scharschmied's letter of Luther's interpretation of Joh. 1, 1-14. to the council of Weida.
To the honorable and wise gentlemen, mayor and council of the city of Weida, my favorable lords, grace and peace from God the Father, through Christ our Lord, together with the wish of a blessed new year.
Honorable and wise gentlemen! I copied this sermon on the true divinity and humanity of Christ, along with other sermons, some years ago from the books of Ick. George Rörer, my favorable lord himself, which he and others have taken from the mouth of D. Martini Lutheri, for which he has had special gift and grace from God, and in which he has been very diligent; as can be clearly seen from his written books, so that he, along with the honorable lords, D. Casparo Crucigero, and M. Vit. Casparo Crucigero, and M. Vito Theodorico blessed, he served Christianity much; so that we have, praise and thanks to God, through their diligence, a whole church and house postill of Luther's sermons; without other useful writings, which are made in print during their lives. Which treasure we hold in high esteem, and thank God for it, and should keep it in use and practice with constant reading, and improve ourselves from it.
Luther, the holy man of God, preached this sermon at Christmas in Wittenberg in the parish church, in honor of the Lord Christ and for the comfort of the church, in which he interpreted the words of John: "In the beginning was the Word" 2c. very beautifully and briefly, that the newborn infant Jesus, born in Bethlehem and lying in the manger, was not only the Son of Mary, but also the Son of the eternal Father, the true God and the Son of God.
The sermon is based on the idea that man is inseparable in one person, which is the main article of our Christian faith, our highest comfort and treasure, and on which our salvation depends. For this reason, at the request of Christian persons who have read this sermon, and who have sincerely pleased them, I have all the more willingly allowed myself to be persuaded to rewrite it and put it into print. I have therefore dedicated it to E. W., as my favorable lord, for the blessed New Year, first of all, that E. W. may read it, along with other Christians, and from it strengthen the faith, which is that Jesus Christ, Son of God and Mary, true God and Man in One Person, is our Savior and true, powerful Redeemer.
On the other hand, also for the sake of the heretics, who challenged this blessed and comforting main article of faith, and very well sharpened it. Cerinthus, among other heretics, taught from the devil against God's word that Christ was not truly God. This is an exceedingly damning and harmful error. For if Christ is not true God, then we are eternally lost and damned, and thus are not at all saved from Christ's death, Easter and Pentecost.
As diabolical and harmful as this error is, as comforting and salutary is the teaching that Christ is the true, natural, essential God, born of the Father in eternity. If this therefore stands firm and remains true, as it is true according to the Scriptures, then we Christians of our Lord Christ's holy conception, birth, suffering, death, bloodshed, resurrection and Pentecost are improved, and are then, through all these things, bettered.
*This sermon, which Luther held on the third day of Christmas 1542 (more likely 1541, according to the custom of that time to begin the new year with Christmas) in the parish church of Wittenberg, was copied by Georg Rörer. Franz Scharschmied in Halle copied it from his writings and had it printed in 1562, with a note to the council in Weida. In the collections, first in the Eisleben one, vol. II, p. 438; then in the Altenburg one, vol. VI, p. 1179; in these two editions without Scharschmied's dedication and inserted in the interpretation of the first chapter of John after the eighth sermon. Quite the same in the Erlanger, vol. 46, p. 31; the remark made there, "This sermon is missing in Walch," is corrected in vol. 48, p. 410. Further, in the Halle volume with the dedication, p. 451, and in the Leipzig edition, the sermon, vol. IX, p. 536, the dedication in the supplement, p. 17. - In the Eisleben edition, this sermon has the superscription: "Another sermon on these words: Im Anfang war das Wort 2c., gethan am Tage natalis Domini, nach Mittage, Anno 1542", but this indication is not probable to us, because the text is the pericope of the third feast day, not of the first. Scharschmied says: "zu Weihnachten", not: am Weihnachtstage. - We reproduce the text according to Walch, taking into account the variants given in the 48th volume, p. 410, of the Erlangen edition.
the true faith in him, partaker, free and rid of sins, death, devil, hell and eternal damnation, and therefore righteous and eternally blessed. This is what Christian hearts should remember, against the heresy of Cerinthi, who deprived the divinity of Christ, so that they can then comfort and rejoice in the true divinity of Christ and thank him for his salvation.
On the other hand, Manichaeus, the heretic, taught that Christ was not truly man. This is also a lie against God's word. For Christ is a true man, born of the Virgin Mary, who had body and soul and members like another man, but without sin, who ate, drank, lived among the people, was seen and heard, as John says: "He dwelt among us, we have seen Him", John 1:14, 1 John 4:14.
With such blasphemous lies and errors, both parts have done murderous damage to Christianity, thereby deceiving many people, so that, according to them, some have denied the divinity, others the humanity of Christ, and have torn apart the two natures in Christ, namely divine and human, which are inseparable. This happened to them because they did not perceive God's word, which God had preached to them, diligently listened to it, despised it, did not pay attention to the teacher's sermon, nor did they test the spirits as to whether they were of God or of the devil, as St. John commands them to do in the 1st Epistle, Cap. 4, 1. 4, 1. For this they have been safe, have not prayed nor watched against the devil and false teachers.
Because the devil, the old serpent, according to his nature, neither rests nor celebrates, we must always worry that he will bring these errors back onto the track through the shrewd minds, from the doom of God, because of the contempt and great satiety and weariness of the holy Gospel; as he would have gladly done long ago, where God would not have resisted him. Therefore, it is of great importance to all Christians that they should understand the sayings of the divine word, which speak of the eternal Godhead.
and true humanity of Christ, diligently read and take, and in addition take these and other sermons, which explain such articles, so that, where these errors arise again (from which the dear God graciously protects His Church), they know and can defend themselves with the Holy Scriptures against the heretics and false teachings.
Not only should they diligently read, meditate and believe God's Word for the sake of the two heretics, but also for the sake of all heretics, of whom there are now many at the end of the world who pervert God's Word in many ways, so that they resist them, do not follow them, nor give credence to their heresy and error. And it is certain that any Christian who learns and studies his catechism well will easily be able to judge all false teachers. And if he sticks to it, he will never be deceived by any heretic, whatever his name may be.
But if they do not accept God's word, do not learn nor know their holy catechism, become secure in the holy gospel, despise and neglect it, do not pray diligently, then it is easy and soon happens that they are deceived and seduced by false teachers, as happened to our forefathers, and unfortunately happens to many in our time.
May the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ help and grant with grace that E. E. W. may continue to love God's Word, to diligently hear and learn it, and may E. E. W., along with all true preachers and lovers of the Holy Gospel, be constantly kept in the pure doctrine of the Augsburg Confession and the correct use of the Holy Sacraments until the end, and may E. E. W. be blessed through his true faith in his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. E. W. through the true faith in his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord; and protect E. E. W. together with your faithful pastors and Christian congregation from all false doctrines, sects and cults, Amen. Date at Halle, on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Anno 1562.
E. E. W.
most obedient
Franciscus coulter smith.
You have often heard that the dear child Jesus is both God and man in one person. This is what the evangelist teaches in this gospel. The blind, foolish (should say, clever) reason, climbs up to heaven, and wants to know what God is, what he thinks, intends and does. I will tell you soon, says St. John, if you would only believe it, and I will tell you.
the most secret counsel that God has in the depths of His heart. But this is it, if you want to know it: "In the beginning was the Word". There you have it. Yes, you say, who understands this outrageous and unusual speech? Dear, you also ask a high and incomprehensible thing. If thou art so simple and unintelligent, do thou thus unto him: When thou hearest the word "Word," then understand "Son. When you hear the
know that the evangelist calls "the Word" the Son, read the text thus: In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with G,Ott, and the Son was GOD, the same was in the beginning with GOD. All things were made through Him (the Son), and without Him nothing was made.
2 Do you now understand what the evangelist calls "the Word"? Take it thus, and mark it, and thou shalt not fail; for at the end he himself makes it thus, "The Word was made flesh." That is: The Son of God became a human son, the eternal Son of the Father became a temporal son, the unapproachable one became an initial son. But you must understand this so that you do not make two sons out of God's Son and Mary's Son. There are not two sons, the eternal, unapproachable one, and the temporal and initial one; but one must be. He has two births, one eternal, from the Father; the other temporal, from the Virgin; and yet is only the only Son, born from the Father eternally and from Mary temporally; she has not brought another Son into the world, but whom the Father brought from eternity. There are two births: another from the Father, another from the Mother, and yet it is an only Son. Whom Mary calls her true, natural Son, the Father also calls his true, natural Son. These are strange sayings! Yes, indeed, strange.
3 The evangelist does not speak badly, the son, but "the word", although it would be right. But he had to speak like this. For at that time heretics arose who denied that the Son of Mary was the Son of God; therefore he calls the Son the Word, who was in the beginning, before all creatures were created, and says, "In the beginning was the Word," that is, when all creatures, heaven and earth, and that which is in them, began to be, which were before nothing. But apart from the creature nothing can be but the Creator. For everything that exists is either the Creator or his creature. So here the text makes a huge distinction between "the Word" and the creature. "The Word" is not among the heap of those who have begun, but has already been in its essence. That is why the evangelist hurls against Cerinthum, and others who followed him, that "their doctrine" was already in existence.
false, and a blasphemous error and lie would be against the Son of God, of whom they said that he was not the Son of God, but a pure human being. There would be a whole sermon to be preached on why the evangelist calls the Son of God the Word; but it is too ludicrous for this time, as the text has been treated many times before.
(4) Ye simple ones take heed when ye hear, In the beginning was the Word, that ye may know that it is so much said: In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son himself was God, and was with God in the beginning. So also: "The word became flesh", is so much: The eternal son became a temporal son, not two; and are nevertheless (as said) two different births. Therefore, in Luke 2, v. 11, the angel calls the virgin Son, who lay in the manger, the Savior, when he says to the shepherds, "Unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." He is our Savior, not the angel's; but the angels confess with us that he is also their Lord and God, and 1) also worship him.
5 But briefly you should know that the evangelist calls the Son of God "the Word" against the heretics, he does this for the sake of Moses, who follows St. John, who also speaks in the same way as St. John, when he says: "Since there was no light, but only darkness, nor any other creature, God said: "Let there be light" [Gen. 1, 3], that is, God let a word go, which was a perfect word, and the word through which all things were created. Thus he smuggles against the heretics, that the word was before in the beginning, and yet the person who spoke was not; therefore the word had to be with the speaker, not with the creature, which was not yet created, but was besides, above and before the creature with God.
According to this you want to say: Are there two Gods? No. "The Word is with God", but a distinct person. So St. John strengthens and affirms our faith that we are certain that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons; but not three distinct Gods, but One is GOD. Therefore we pray Chri-
1) "and" is missing in the Erlanger.
They have the advantage over all Jews, pagans and Turks that we alone know God rightly and truly. They look only at the creature and not at the Master. Therefore, Jews and Turks boast that they are the true people of God, because they worship only One God; they blaspheme and revile us Christians as idolaters and senseless fools who worship three gods. It is not true, they speak such things to our backs among their disciples, do not know what they say, are blind men and blind leaders. We say and confess better than they that there is no more than One God, who, reckoning against the creature, created all things.
(7) Further, we say that we Christians are not satisfied with how the Creator is to be reckoned and held in relation to the creature; but we know and teach from Scripture what God is in Himself, even that He has His divine nature in Himself. There we confess that the one and only Lord, King, God and Creator, through His Son, has thus portrayed Himself and made Himself known, that in the Godhead it stands thus, that the word is spoken by the Father, and the Holy Spirit (as they say) consents to it; that there is a third, and yet in itself only one; to be reckoned against the creature. Therefore Augustine and other ancient teachers say: Opera Trinitatis ab extra sunt indivisa; that is: The works of the Holy Trinity are from the outside undivided; the Father, Son, 1) Holy Spirit, are one creator, not three, against the creature. Jews, pagans, Turks come so far.
(8) We are not to look at God only from the outside in His works, but He also wants to be known for what He is on the inside. Within is one being, and three persons, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit; not three gods. For this reason, we worship only One God.
How does it work? It is unspeakable. The dear angels cannot marvel enough at it for joy; it is put into words and preached to us. When we have discarded the black, nasty, filthy, stinking maggot sack, we want to see it with the dear angels, our eternal
1) Erlanger: and.
We will have joy and bliss in it, and mock the Jews, pagans, and Turks again, who now consider us to be lumps, as they neither know nor understand that there is only One God. But they are wonderfully pointed, astonished at their high wisdom and understanding, that they confess and worship only One God; yes, the wretched devil in hell. The pagans have caught it by natural reason that only One God is seen and noticed, as Paul tells the Romans in Chapter 1, v. 20, by the works that God does in the world, which he has so wisely created that the sun has its course, also the earth its certain time, when one should plow, sow and reap 2c. But we Christians are said to be such blind, coarse fools, who do not understand that only One God is to be honored and worshipped, who created heaven and earth.
(10) This Jewish, pagan, Turkish faith and knowledge does not do it, God is not satisfied with being called Creator of heaven and earth. The Jews praised God, who had led them out of Egypt into the Promised Land; and to Christ they said John 8:41: "We have one Father, God. On this the Lord Christ says, v. 42, 43, 44: "If God were your Father, you would love Me; but you neither know Me nor My Father; indeed, you are of the Father, the devil." And in the 16th chapter of John, v. 2, 3, he says to his disciples: "They will put you under ban and kill you, thinking that they are doing God a service. But it is all because they know not my Father, nor me." So the Turks and the Gentiles boast much about God's right knowledge and faith, but speak of it like a blind man of color, yes, as furious, senseless people, blinded and hardened by the devil.
In short, God wants to be known according to His word, in which He has revealed His divine nature and will. The world (says St. Paul 1 Cor. 1, 21) did not know God in His wisdom, through its wisdom; therefore it pleased God well to make blessed those who believe in it through foolish preaching. And to Romans in chapter 1, v. 20. 21, St. Paul says that the Gentiles have seen by the works of creation that one
But they have not praised him as a god, nor thought of him as a god.
(12) Therefore God has poured out His divine nature and indicated through the gospel that He has a Son; as He Himself cries out from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; him you shall hear" [Marc. 9:7]. As if he wanted to say: Take him as your Lord and God, honor and worship him; or 1) you shall not have me as your God, if you still boast one thing so high and glorious, that I am your God, whom you all rightly recognize and worship. For "he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent him," John 5:23. "He that hath not the Son of God hath not life," 1 John 5:12. Item: "He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath no God; he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son," 2 John 9, V. 9. The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has sufficiently revealed His divine will to us, John 1:18, and has instituted and established the ministry of preaching, baptism, and the sacrament, and confirmed and confirmed them with miraculous signs. Summa: He wants to be recognized, honored and worshipped in the Son alone; whoever does it differently or recognizes it, does not honor and worship God, but the devil.
Therefore, no one can truly know God, nor speak of His divine nature and will, except us Christians. In his time he will find Turks, pagans, Jews, papists and all unbelievers who despise Christ and his word 2c. For their sake, though they be many, he will not reject the Son and the Holy Spirit. He that hath not the Son hath not the Father. He that despiseth the Son despiseth] the Father also: for his divine nature, glory, and power are in the Son. This he has revealed and made clear enough, having given him Mary, the virgin of the lineage of David, as his mother; as can be clearly seen in the Scriptures. This is how the Holy Spirit begat Christ and transfigured him. This is how he, the Lord himself, preached, performed miraculous signs, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind.
1) Erlanger: but.
He took the sin of the world upon himself, bore it, made amends by his suffering and death, and by his glorious victory and resurrection redeemed all who believe in him from the power of the devil, making them righteous and blessed. He has also left his word, baptism, sacrament, and key behind him for the comfort and salvation of his Christianity, and still leads sinners through them to righteousness from death to life without interruption. The Father has ordained him for such an office. Whoever therefore does not honor or worship the Son, and does not recognize him with the apostle Thomas as his Lord and God, is lost and eternally damned.
(14) All this was not done secretly in a corner, or only in the Jewish country; but the gospel of Christ, that he is the only begotten Son of God and the Savior of the world, was spread throughout the world by the preaching of the apostles and their descendants. Through them, driven by the Holy Spirit, written in scriptures (as praise to God before his eyes), confirmed also with signs and wonders; therefore he will remain well before the Jews, the Gentiles, the Turks and the Papists.
15 Many of the Roman emperors, while they were still powerful, wanted to exterminate Christ, his word and church, and began to do so with great earnestness, rumbling horribly among them, so that in one day in the Roman Empire many thousands of Christians were killed: Many thousands of Christians were murdered. But he remained before them all, keeping his word, that for and for there were some who had to teach, spread and confess it, and on the other hand one tyrant after the other always went down and went to the devil. So now the pope is also eaten up by the gospel, like the Jews with their kingdom and priesthood at the time of the apostles. The Turk, too, has for a long time done great harm to the Christians, persecuted and murdered them, destroyed the Church of Christ in many countries and kingdoms, and destroyed his word; nevertheless, they have been and still are Christians under him. Has he also succeeded, by God's decree, in punishing the sin and ingratitude of his people. But before he should suppress the Son of God, so that he would not be Lord and God, before he would have to destroy heaven and earth.
Earth invade. Therefore both, the pope with his henchman, and the Turk, may well lay themselves against Christ, and be subject to his word and church; but it will certainly happen to them, as it did to the Jews and the Romans. When the hour comes, the Lord who dwells in heaven will speak to them in his wrath, and will terrify them with his fury, Ps. 2:5, 6, because he has appointed the Son as King, and has given him the kingdom, that he should be the 1) Lord over all, and wants all men to honor and worship him, to recognize him as their God, Creator and Savior. Those who do so have in God a gracious Father, and they shall be His sons and heirs, and have His only begotten Son for their patron against the devil and all his scales. But if not, then he has given the son who sits at his right hand an iron scepter, so that he should smash his enemies, smash them like a pot, and put them at the footstool of his feet [Ps. 2, 9], as he did to the Jews, Romans, Egyptians, Asiatics, Greeks 2c. and other kingdoms and monarchies.
(16) So it is done inwardly in the divine essence that the Father has a Son, begotten of him in eternity, and yet at the same time is the Son of Mary; thus, born of her in time, he is true God and man in one person. If you want to argue and be clever, you would neither know nor understand anything about it without God's word, but believe much more wavily. But because of your unbelief, the Son is neither greater nor lesser; he has remained safe from all tyrants' power and sharp minds, who have set themselves against him, his word and church; but they have perished and gone to the devil.
17 Therefore, if the Turk strikes us all dead, let us believe in Christ our Savior and the Lord and Creator of all creatures, and defy him, saying, "Turk, if you will not laugh, be angry. But I will strike you dead. What more do you want? I will destroy the name of your Christ and the gospel. Thou shalt not do so; and by this very thing, that thou hast done this
1) "the" is missing in the Erlanger.
you have struck him on the eye who says, "He who touches you touches the apple of my eye; whom you call your God and Creator of heaven and earth and praise, and say that you worship him; he will find you well. I take comfort in the fact that I have a Lord who is true God and man; I will call upon him and confess him as long as I can move my tongue; he will bring me back to life if you strike me dead, and push you into the abyss of hell.
Therefore God is not satisfied with this honor, nor is he satisfied that he is God, Creator of all creatures, as Jews, pagans, Turks and papists praise and extol him; this is the ancient wisdom. But through the gospel he proclaims to all the world: "Receive my Son, who is also the Son of Mary and lies in the manger, believe in him, recognize and confess him as your Lord and Savior, honor and worship him as you do me; whoever does not honor him, truly does not honor me. This then is the new wisdom and faith of all Christians, by which they are saved. Whoever honors God in any other way, is lying and blaspheming Him. Mark this well and take it into your heart.
V.14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, a glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father.
(19) I have often said that the evangelist speaks of the deity of the Lord when he calls him the Word who was in the beginning, not made, but when all things were made, he was already there, and so that through him, as the Creator, heaven and earth and all that is in them were made, proves that our Lord Christ is truly God with the Father for ever and ever. No evangelist puts this article, that Christ is true God and man, so powerfully as St. John, for he lived the longest, and still in his time the blasphemous heresies arose, since it was pretended that Christ was not God, which were not yet in St. Peter's and Paul's time. So. St. John experienced the first heretic, Cerinthum, and was caused to cry out against him.
ben. For this reason, he suffered much more than the other apostles.
20 Now he says here that the very same word of which he said above, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God," has also become flesh, that is, man. I have often admonished you to learn to understand this article correctly, for it is well sharpened by the heretics, and also admonished you not to let the two natures in Christ be separated. For so the holy evangelist wants to say here: The Word has become a right, natural man, has taken body and soul, as I and you have, to himself; but because he is also true God, the person, who is also man, must and can have no sin in him. Therefore, do not let the two natures, God and man, be separated in Christ, but remain together, as the text clearly says: "The Word became flesh"; does not say: The Godhead became another person, and another person became mankind.
21) So then, God's Son and Mary's Son is One Son, not two; Christ is God and man, and is only One Christ, not two; One Person, not two; God is man, man is God in One Person, undivided; God's Child and man's Child is One Child. And there is great power in this article; for if this person is divided, we are lost 2c.
(22) In saying, "The Word was made flesh," he excludes the Father and the Holy Spirit, and keeps only the Son, saying, "The Word which was in the beginning was made flesh, not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son of Mary, neither is the Holy Spirit. These words we have not set down nor carried in the gospel; but they have thus remained from the beginning of the church of Christ. If you now ask reason why the Son and not the Father became man, it will of course not be able to tell you, indeed it will become a fool about it. Therefore hear what the Holy Spirit says to you through St. John: the Word became man and suffered, and not the Father 2c. How this happens, you shall believe, and neither know nor understand, but save until that blessed day of our redemption.
Reason, when it wants to measure and grasp this article with its prudence, thinks: In the Godhead there is one indivisible being; how then can the middle person alone become man and not all three? I would be as wise as any heretic, if I wanted to master these words: "The word became flesh", to my liking. It means believed; not seen, measured, or grasped. In the Godhead there are three persons, the Son is the Word that was in the beginning; the same Word or saying, not the speaker, became man; therefore we do not let the other two persons mix into mankind.
And dwelt among us.
(24) The same person, namely, God's saying, or God's Son, when he became man, did not soon go to heaven or hide in a desert, but dwelt among us. This does not mean a spiritual dwelling, as Christ says Joh. 14, 23: "We will come to him and make our home with him"; but a neighborly, civil dwelling. He went in and out, so that he was seen walking and sitting in the streets, talking with the people, sailing on the water; not in a secret, spiritual way, but visibly among us. Just as when I am in the house, I am doing something, reading, writing, praying, eating, drinking, watching, sleeping, going out and coming in like my neighbor. He was brought up in Nazareth under Joseph and Mary, helped his father in his work when he grew up, and later, in the thirtieth year of his age, began to preach and to perform miraculous signs, choosing twelve apostles and seventy other disciples and sending them out to preach. This is what the evangelist means when he says, "And dwelt among us."
Take heed to the word of the evangelist. He does not want to separate the natures in the person, if he is true God and man, of which he said: "In the beginning was the Word. And 1 John 1:1: "The Word of life, which was from the beginning." And soon after he says: "The word was in the beginning.
Flesh." The same word (he says) we have not only seen, but with our bodily eyes we have only very well looked at it in the head, and we have also touched it with our hands. If the same word has been (as you say) before no eye has been created, how then do you say that you have seen it? Do you not hear that he wants the persons to be undivided, so that Mary not only gave birth to a pure human being, but also to the true, natural Son of God at the same time. When she saw her natural son, she also saw the true Son of God, the Lord over all. Although her eyes do not reach the Godhead, they do reach the person in whom two natures, divine and human, are inseparably united. As when I see a man covered or veiled with a garment, I see nothing but the garment; yet the man is essentially and presently there. Item, you give another a bag full of florins; you see the bag alone, and not the florins, and yet the florins are in it. It is much more the case here, since God and man are one person.
Origen compares this union of divine and human nature to a glowing iron. As fire heats the iron ([he uses this simile] 1), and mixes itself into the whole iron: so the eternal Word has taken on human nature, and filled it completely with divine light and life, and human nature is thus completely united with the Word, as an iron is fired through with heat and hammers.
And dwelt among us.
27 That is, he became our brother, acting like another man. Therefore, whoever touched him, as St. John in the Lord's Supper, touched God's Son. So St. John was in God's arms; the apostles and others who heard him preach heard God's voice. These and other texts are written to strengthen our faith that the two natures in Christ shall not be separated. The man JEsus is not alone, but he is
1) We added this addition and put the round brackets to make sense.
also the Word or the Son of God, who became man and dwelt among us. So that you can say rightly and truly: The Son of God lies in the cradle, and lies in the womb of the mother, lies in bed, walks on the earth, fetches the mother water, shavings, bread, fish 2c. After that, when he grew up and was a boy, he carried the axe to Joseph. I say this in so many words to admonish you, that you may well understand and imagine this article, for the sake of those who cut up this person. The Jews crucified not only the man Christ, but the true God and man; for he is One Person in two natures.
When Philip the apostle desired of the Lord that he should show him and the other apostles the Father (perhaps he had thoughts of the Father, that he was an old man with a beard as gray as ice, as Daniel 7:9), the Lord Christ answered and said [John 14:9], "So long have I been with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father." Thus says St. John: "The Lord has not dwelt among us alone, but has become so near to us that we have even seen him in the flesh. He, as it is written, had a black, brownish beard and brown eyes; we also felt him with our hands; therefore he was not a ghost.
(29) If this article remains pure and unadulterated, we can build firmly on it and recognize what a glorious, inexpressible treasure the Father has given us; otherwise we stand in the very danger in which 2) Arius, the heretic, who deprived Christ of divinity, and Manichaeus, who deprived him of humanity, stood. Where it comes to that, this treasure is already lost; whether one cries for a long time: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us" [Is. 9, 6.], item: "He gave himself for our sin" 2c. [Galat. 1, 4.], they are nevertheless tiresome 3) shells, or bowls; the weight is there, where one loses the Godhead in the person of Christ, and
2) Erlanger: "is", whereas "gestanden" is missing at the end of this sentence.
3) Maybe: "single"?
then only one creature is given for our sin; and then the devil is powerful over us, and we must die in our sins and perish eternally. But if the shell is full, and this kernel is still in the shell, that God's Son gave Himself for our sin; item, laid down His life in payment for us, and shed His blood, which is God's blood, for us, then the weight is so strong that it crushes and crushes the serpent's head, destroys sin, strangles death, tears out hell and breaks it. But if the shell alone remains, we are not made better by his death or resurrection; indeed, if all the angels died for us, we would not be helped by it. The Word (that is, the true Son of God), who was in the beginning, must do it himself; he is the weight that tramples down sin and death and devours them eternally, to whom the devil and hell are a poison and pestilence.
(30) Therefore he was made man, and did not soon disappear or fly into heaven, but dwelt among us as another man, having hands and fingers and all kinds of limbs, like me and you. He spit in the eyes of the blind man, and put his hand upon him, even upon his eyes, and made him see, Marc. 8, 23. Item John, 9 Cap. v. 6, he spit upon the ground, and made a dung of the spittle, and put the dung upon the eye of him that was born blind, so that he was a true man, who used all manner of means to preserve this life, as another man; only that he was without sin. For the person is true God and man at the same time. This is our Christian faith, the highest comfort and treasure.
And we saw his glory.
(31) Behold, how powerfully he presents and imagines this article to us. We have seen," he says, "not only that he is a true man who has dwelt among us, but we have also known that he is true God, for he has raised the dead. He made lepers clean with one word. So that his deeds were divine, and his glory, which he displayed through such miraculous works, was the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
(32) This then is the fruit which we believers have, that the Son of God became man. He is not a sinner, as we, who were conceived in sins, were born, and are children of wrath by nature; for which cause there is in us nothing but lies and falsehood. But this could not have happened in Christ, that he had any sin; for he was the only begotten Son of God, wholly pure, innocent, holy. And even though he took on human nature, he was still pure at the same moment, conceived by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin. This is what the holy evangelist means2) when he says, "Full of grace and truth." And afterwards, v. 16: "We have all received of His fullness." That is, grace and truth are so abundant in his person that all believers enjoy and are made partakers of his grace and truth.
(33) Therefore let us take care that we keep both the core and the shell, that is, his divinity and humanity. For if he alone is a pure man, we are not improved by Easter and Pentecost; that is, he has not made us righteous and saved by his resurrection, nor sent the Holy Spirit to purify the heart, that it may be full of grace and true. Therefore we must take the feast of the birth of Christ as a basis, so that we may know what kind of person Jesus Christ is, namely, that he is the one who was in the beginning, through whom all things were made, and soon promised to Adam that the seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head; therefore he had to be born in time of a woman's image, from the tribe and blood of Ade, Abraha and David.
(34) There are three persons of the eternal, divine being, but the middle person, the Son, became a man. If you believe this, you will understand what kind of person hung on the cross on Good Friday, who was given to death for our sins and raised again for our righteousness, who makes us blessed in baptism and sacrament.
1) Erlanger: "but in Christo could not".
2) Erlanger: nennet.