1537. (?)
Joh. 1, 16.
From His fullness we have all taken grace for grace.
1 De adventu Christi in carnem adhuc versamur. For we have enough to do to teach who Jesus Christ is. One always wants to forget about Jesus and lead other teachings and thoughts. Therefore John testifies here of Christ, and says: "All that we have, we have only in fullness, gratiam pro gratia, etc.". For no one has ever become more devout through laws; there is nothing here but the wrath and punishment of God. Therefore it has been nothing but hypocrisis in all those who have submitted to fulfill the law with their powers. So here is an antithesis legis and Christi, sicut noctis et diei; primum facit iram et mendacium, secundum gratiam et veritatem.
V. 18. No one has ever seen God etc.
Whoever sees God must die, and whoever does not see God must also die. Is the other Span. 1) Solutio iste textus: Unigenitus filius ipse enarravit
Summa hujus:
That we may know what we have in Jesus Christ. What John speaks here is a cold speech; he baptizes with water; Christ alone judges it with fire and Spiritu Sancto. John and all preachers have nothing more to do than to open their mouths. He shall then command God to fetch whom he will.
V. 16. mercy for mercy.
This is where we are most concerned; if we lose this text, we have already lost heaven and God's grace.
1) i.e. dispute, discord.
John says: I am here because of him. I am not worth anything with all my holy life, from him we must receive something good. Here John could not revile them more highly than with these words, when he says: "Whoever does not receive grace and light from Christ here has nothing at all. Here he throws all the Jews' glory to the ground. They have nothing that belongs to God. So when we say it, they call us heretics. But who can help it? It must be preached, as John says here, we have nothing at all from God, we must first tap it from this barrel of grace, Christ. All Jews and Popes are anti-Christian, who think that they want to find something good in them besides Christ, so that they say and lie: We must also do enough per actuali peccato.
4 John says here: He has nothing but from above. So blessed are those who come here with their empty soul and desire to be filled by Christ; to them Christ gives enough and also keeps enough, Ephes. 1, 3: Qui benedixit nos benedictione spirituali in coelestibus. It casts out from its fullness all that I, John, and all the saints have. Jerem. 31, 25: Omnem animam esurientem implens. This is the noblest treasure on earth, that we can say: Here is a fullness, I am vain. 2) He wants to give enough, he does not stand here for himself, but we are to draw and take from him.
So Christ says Joh. 4, 14. and 7, 38.: Ego habeo fontem; the more one takes from me, the more I have. [John 6:68: Domine apud te est fons vitae. [Dominus in altis habitat et humilia respicit. When I am in trouble, I have fallen, I begin to despair, I hear a speech that God has provided an abundance; but I respect myself, I am in a state of
2) i.e. void, empty.
*This sermon belongs to the already several times mentioned (cf. the note Col. 843) twenty-one sermons, which D. Caspar Güttel bequeathed to the St. Andreas Church in Eisleben. It is found in the Halle part, p. 399; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 607, and in the Erlanger, I.Aufl., vol. 18, p. 70; 2nd ed., vol. 19, p. 364. We give the text according to Walch's old edition, comparing the Erlanger.
so low that I am not worthy, God will look at me. So we are all minded, God be from us, when we are in misfortune. Therefore, the Spiritus Sanctus must drive such sayings into the heart, and make the [hearts] warm, so that (we believe that) 1) God wants to help us. After that, when the storm is over, I say: Fie on me, that I have not trusted in the pious God, who has stood by me so faithfully. On the other hand, a defiant heart follows that we speak: Now henceforth I will never again despair of God's grace. This is the school of Christians, which lasts as long as we live. But the defiance lasts hardly so long, until the chickens fly out at vespers, then another misfortune comes, that we must again spit at ourselves, and say: Ah, I unbelieving man; it is, after all, God's way, qui in altis habitat, et humilia respicit.
6. mode, how God fills, and how we draw grace from him. When he says, Gratiam pro gratia, he strikes to the ground all Judaism with all their works. If it is grace, it is not works and law; for they cannot suffer with one another. What do we deserve from God? He owes us hell, and nothing else. Stipendium peccati mors, Rom. 6, 23. Death shall cut off our head. Now if God gives you heaven, it is nothing but grace. The Lord's goods are not for those who deserve them, but for those to whom the Lord grants them. Thus God says, Rom. 9, 15. 2 Mos. 33, 19: Miserebor cui volo. And it is with him that he makes vasa gloriae or ignominiae out of them.
For mercy.
7 But it is not enough of the grace that God has. What good would it do me if God were favorable to me, and no one knew it but the angels in heaven? Qui in sinu Patris est, he has interpreted it, as he comes forth, preaches, helps everyone; like Is. 60. There we learn how God is gracious to us, gives grace for grace. This is now the certain sign that assures us that God is gracious to us, for the sake of the dear Son, who opens the Father's heart to us. The Gospel
1) These insertions are made by us.
was heard from him, preached before God's face, before the foundation of the world was laid. But all this would not have been useful to us, that Christ hung on the cross from eternity before God, if it had not been revealed to us by word and by an outward sign. This sign is Christ, whom he places in the womb of the poor maiden and makes her suckle his breasts. In the end, his whole life is nothing, but that he helps and heals whoever desires it. Pauperes evangelizantur [Matth. 11, 5].
This great grace happens to us for the sake of the dear Son, to whom God is so favorable. Whoever clings to Christ will be helped, as Magdalene, Martha, Matthew, Zachaeo, Latroni. 2) Nor does he leave it at the word, but often casts his Son, Christ, into hell, so that he must raise a clamor that the devil is his mighty one. So Christ does, and confirms the testament of God our Father. Who will doubt this blood? God says: We shall draw it from His Son; otherwise we will find no help and no comfort.
Now come two Gratia et veritas per Jesum Christum exorta est. Must the eternal Son of God do it and die? If I thought that God had given a holy law, whoever keeps it shall be saved. This is what John says: "There is nothing wrong with the law. It only causes wrath. If a man is to be pious and do good, it must be by the grace of Christ alone. There is no grace and truth in the law, but only lies and wrath.
(10) The law is like the Rhine, a great flowing water that cannot be resisted; they [namely, great rivers] have the afterflow. If someone wants to prevent it from flowing, and make a large weir and dam it up, it will not help; if he dams it up for a day or three, it will finally break the dam and do more damage to vineyards, fields and meadows than otherwise. So nature is poisonous, it can do no good. God wants to defend it with the dam of the law. Thus nature speaks: I can do nothing else, but love me, propter me ipsum. The dam is:
2) i.e. the thief on the cross.
"You shall love God with all your heart" etc. There stands the weir, and stops me. But because nature can do nothing but love itself, it turns and ponders until it overthrows God and His law. So nature starts to become an enemy of God, who can do nothing but strike and threaten. So it goes its way, despising God. Lex propter transgressionem data. My heart does not become more pious, it tears down the weir. Rom. 2, 21: Qui dicis, non furandum, furaris.
(11) It is of no use to be outwardly pious and to have inwardly unwillingness in the heart. If we are to be helped, it must be through the grace and truth of this Jesus Christ. Christ has these two titles and glory.
For if I know that God is gracious to me for Christ's sake, then I must confess that this is the righteous service of God; for there one finds rest in conscience, by all works one does not find a good conscience. Then follows truth, that is, a good, pious, merry heart, that we only trust and believe God in all things; for this truth is nothing else than that we say in good German, believe, trust God from the heart. God cannot lie, that is actio; if it comes to us that we feel it, so be it, God cannot deceive, that is passio. It goes out from God, and that is actio, and goes into us with truth, that is passio. Habak. 2, 4: Justus ex fide vivit.