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1. While the Lord is still speaking to the Father, and praying for
His disciples, He says: "I have given them Thy saying; and the
world hath hated them." That hatred they had not yet experienced in
those sufferings of their own, which afterwards overtook them; but He
speaks thus in His usual way, foretelling the future in words of the
past tense. And then, subjoining the reason of their being hated by
the world, He says, "Because they are not of the world, even as I
am not of the world." This was conferred on them by regeneration;
for by generation they were of the world, as He had already said to
them, "I have chosen you out of the world." It was therefore a
gracious privilege bestowed upon them, that they, like Himself,
should not be of the world, through the deliverance which He was
giving them from the world. He, however, was never of the world;
for even in respect of His servant-form He was born of that Holy
Spirit of whom they were born again. For if on that account they were
no more of the world, because born again of the Holy Spirit; on the
same account He was never of the world, because born of the Holy
Spirit.
2. "I pray not," He adds, "that thou shouldest take them out of
the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." For
they still accounted it necessary to be in the world, although they
were no longer of it. Then He repeats the same statement: "They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them
in the truth." For are they kept from the evil, as He had
previously prayed that they might be. But it may be inquired how they
were no more of the world, if they were not yet sanctified in the
truth; or, if they already were, why He requests that they should be
so. Is it not because even those who are sanctified still continue to
make progress in the same sanctification, and grow in holiness; and do
not so without the aid of God's grace, but by His sanctifying of
their progress, even as He sanctified their outset? And hence the
apostle likewise says: "He who hath begun a good work in you, will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." The heirs therefore of
the New Testament are sanctified in that truth which was adumbrated in
the purifications of the Old Testament; and when they are sanctified
in the truth, they are in other words sanctified in Christ, who said
in truth "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." As also
when He said, "The truth shall make you free," in explanation of
His words, He added soon after, "If the Son shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed;" in order to show that what He had
previously called the truth, He a minute afterwards denominates the
Son. And what else did He mean by the words before us, "Sanctify
them in the truth," but, Sanctify them in me?
3. Finally, He proceeds, and doing so fails not to suggest the
same with increasing clearness: "Thy speech (sermo) is truth."
What else did He mean than "I am the truth"? For the Greek
Gospel has loUos, which is also the word that is found in the passage
where it is said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God." And that Word at least we know
to be the only begotten Son of God, which "was made flesh, and
dwelt among us." Hence also there might have been put here as it
actually has been put in certain copies "Thy Word is truth;" just
as in some copies that other passage is written, "In the beginning
was the speech." But in the Greek without any variation it is louos
in both cases. The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth, that
is, in His own Word, in His Only begotten, His own heirs and
His (the Son's) co-heirs.
4. But now He still goes on to speak of the apostles, for He
proceeds to add, "As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have
I also sent them into the world." Whom did He so send but His
apostles? For even the very name of apostles, which is a Greek
word, signifies in Latin nothing more than, those that are sent.
God, therefore, sent His Son, not in sinful flesh, but in the
likeness of sinful flesh; and His Son sent those who, born
themselves in sinful flesh, were sanctified by Him from the defilement
of sin.
5. But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. has become Head of the Church, they
are His members; therefore He says in the words that follow, "And
for their sakes I sanctify myself." For what means He by the
words, "And for their sakes I sanctify myself," but I sanctify
them in myself, since they also are [part of] myself? For those of
whom He so speaks are, as I have said, His members; and the head
and body are one Christ, as the apostle teaches when he says of the
seed of Abraham, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
seed," after having said before, "He saith not, And to seeds, as
in many, but as in one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." If,
then, the seed of Abraham is Christ, what else is declared to those
to whom he says, "Then are ye Abraham's seed," but then are ye
Christ? Of the same character is what this very apostle said in
another place: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up
that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." He
said not, of my afflictions, but "of Christ's;" for he was a
member of Christ, and in his persecutions, such as it behoved Christ
to suffer in the whole of His body, he also was filling up his own
share of His afflictions. And to be assured of the certainty of this
in the present passage, give heed to what follows. For after saying,
"And for their sakes I sanctify myself," to let us understand that
He thereby meant that He would sanctify them in Himself, He
immediately added, "That they also may be sanctified in the truth."
And what else is this but in me, in accordance with the fact that the
truth is that Word in the beginning which is God? In whom also the
Son of man was Himself sanctified from the beginning of His
creation, when the Word was made flesh, for the Word and the man
became one person. Then accordingly He sanctified Himself in
Himself, that is, Himself the man in Himself the Word; for the
Word and the man is one Christ, who sanctifies the manhood in the
Word. But in behalf of His members He says, "And for their sakes
I," that is, that the benefit may be also theirs, for they too are
[included in the] I, just as it benefited me in myself, because I
am man apart from them " I sanctify myself," that is, I sanctify
them as if it were my own self in me, since in me they also are I.
"That they also may be sanctified in the truth." For what else mean
the words "they also," but ["they"] in the same way as I; "in
the truth," and that "truth" am I? After this He now begins to
speak not only of the apostles, but also of the rest of His members,
which we shall treat of, as grace may be granted us, in another
discourse.
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