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1. Of what follows of the previous lesson, and has been read
publicly to us today from the holy Gospel, I then deferred speaking,
because I had already said much, and of that liberty into which the
grace of the Saviour calleth us it was needful to treat in no cursory
or negligent way. Of this, by the Lord's help, we purpose speaking
to you today. For those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking
were Jews. in a large measure indeed His enemies, but also in some
measure already become, and yet to be, His friends; for some He saw
there, as we have already said, who should yet believe after His
passion. Looking to these, He had said, "When ye have lifted up
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am ." There also were
those who, when He so spoke. straightway believed. To them He
spoke what we have heard today: "Then said Jesus to those Jews who
believed on Him, If ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples
indeed." By continuing ye shall be so; for as now ye are believers,
by so continuing ye shall be beholders. Hence there follows, "And
ye shall know the truth." The truth is unchangeable. The truth is
bread, which refreshes our minds and fails not; changes the eater,
and is not itself changed into the eater. The truth itself is the
Word of God, God with God, the only-begotten Son. This Truth
was for our sake clothed with flesh, that He might be born of the
Virgin Mary, and the prophecy fulfilled, "Truth has sprung from
the earth." This Truth then, when speaking to the Jews, lay hid
in the flesh. But He lay hid not in order to be denied, but to be
deferred [in His manifestation]; to be deferred, in order to suffer
in the flesh; and to suffer in the flesh, in order that flesh might be
redeemed from sin. And so our Lord Jesus Christ, standing full in
sight as regards the infirmity of flesh, but hid as regards the majesty
of Godhead, said to those who had believed on Him, when He so
spoke, "If ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples
indeed." For he that endureth to the end shall be saved. "And ye
shall know the truth," which now is hid from you, and speaks to you.
"And the truth shall free you." This word, liberabit [shall
free], the Lord hath taken from libertas [freedom]. For liberal
[frees, delivers] is properly nothing else but liberum facit [makes
free]. As salvat [he saves] is nothing else but salvum facit [he
makes safe]; as he heals is nothing else but he makes whole; he
enriches is nothing else but he makes rich; so liberat [he frees] is
nothing else but liberum facil [he makes free]. This is clearer in
the Greek word. For in Latin usage we commonly say that a man is
delivered (liberari), in regard not to liberty, but only to safety,
just as one is said to be delivered from some infirmity. So is it said
customarily, but not properly. But the Lord made such use of this
word in saying, "And the truth shall make you free (liberabit),"
that in the Greek tongue no one could doubt that He spoke of freedom.
2. In short, the Jews also so understood and "answered Him;"
not those who had already believed, but those in that crowd who were
not yet believers. "They answered Him, We are Abraham's seed,
and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be
free?" But the Lord had not said, "Ye shall be free," but,
"The truth shall make you free." That word, however, they,
because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek, understood
as pointing only to freedom, and puffed themselves up as Abraham's
seed, and said, "We are Ahraham's seed, and were never in bondage
to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?" O inflated skin!
such is not magnanimity, but windy swelling.
For even as regards freedom in this life, how was that the truth when
you said, "We were never in bondage to any man"? Was not Joseph
sold? Were not the holy prophets led into captivity? And again, did
not that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard
rulers, not only in gold and silver, but also in clay? If you were
never in bondage to any man, ungrateful people, why is it that God is
continually reminding you that He delivered you from the house of
bondage? Or mean you, perchance, that your fathers were in bondage,
but you who speak were never in bondage to any man?
How then were you now paying tribute to the Romans, out of which also
you formed a trap for the Truth Himself, as if to ensnare Him, when
you said, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?" in order
that, had He said, It is lawful, you might fasten on Him as one
ill-disposed to the liberty of Abraham's seed; and if He said, It
is not lawful, you might slander Him before the kings of the earth,
as forbidding the payment of tribute to such?
Deservedly were you defeated on producing the money, and compelled
yourselves to concur in your own capture. For there it was told you,
"Render to C sar the things that are C sar's, and to God the
things that are God's," after your own reply, that the money-piece
bore the image of C sar. For as C sar looks for his own image on the
coin, so God looks for His in man. Thus, then, did He answer the
Jews. I am moved, brethren, by the hollow pride of men, because
even of that very freedom of theirs, which they understood carnally,
they lied when they said, "We were never in bondage to any man."
3. But to the Lord's own answer, let us give better and more
earnest heed, lest we ourselves be also found bondmen. For "Jesus
answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who
committeth sin is the servant of sin." He is the servant would that
it were of man, and not of sin! Who will not tremble at such words?
The Lord our God grant us, that is, both you and me, that I may
speak in fitting terms of this freedom to be sought, and of that
bondage to be avoided. "Amen, amen [verily, verily], I say unto
you." The Truth speaks: and in what sense does the Lord our God
claim it as His to say, "Amen, amen, I say unto you"? His
charge is weighty in so announcing it. In some sort, if lawful to be
said, His form of swearing is, "Amen, amen, I say unto you."
Amen in a way may be interpreted, [It is] true [truly, verily];
and yet it is not interpreted, though it might have been said, What
is true [verily] I say unto you. Neither the Greek translator nor
the Latin has dared to do so; for this word Amen is neither Greek
nor Latin, but Hebrew. So it has remained without interpretation,
to possess honor as the covering of something hidden; not in order to
be disowned, but that it might not, as a thing laid bare to the eye,
fall into disrepute. And yet it is not once, but twice uttered by the
Lord, "Amen, amen, I say unto you." And now learn from the
very doubling, how much was implied in the charge before us.
4. What, then, is the charge given? Verily, verily, I say unto
you, saith the Truth who surely, though He had not said, Verily,
I say, could not possibly lie. Yet [thereby] He impresses,
inculcates His charge, arouses in a way the sleeping, makes them
attentive, and would not be contemned. What does He say?
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who committeth sin
is the servant of sin." Miserable slavery! Men frequently, when
they suffer under wicked masters, demand to get themselves sold, not
seeking to be without a master, but at all events to change him. What
can the servant of sin do? To whom can he make his demand? To whom
apply for redress? Of whom require himself to be sold? And then at
times a man's slave, worn out by the commands of an unfeeling master,
finds rest in flight. Whither can the servant of sin flee? Himself
he carries with him wherever he flees. An evil conscience flees not
from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he
cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within. He
has committed sin to obtain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes
away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has
remained behind. Evil bondage! Sometimes men flee to the Church,
and we generally permit them, uninstructed as they are men, wishing to
be rid of their master, who are unwilling to be rid of their sins.
But sometimes also those subjected to an unlawful and wicked yoke flee
for refuge to the Church; for, though free-born men, they are
retained in bondage: and an appeal is made to the bishop. And unless
he care to put forth every effort to save free-birth from oppression,
he is accounted unmerciful. Let us all flee to Christ, and appeal
against sin to God as our deliverer. Let us seek to get ourselves
sold, that we may be redeemed by His blood. For the Lord says,
"Ye were sold for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money."
Without price, that is, of your own; because of mine. So saith the
Lord; for He Himself has paid the price, not in money, but His
own blood. Otherwise we had remained both bondmen and indigent.
5. From this bondage, then, we are set free by the Lord alone.
He who had it not, Himself delivers us from it; for He alone came
without sin in the flesh. For the little ones whom you see carried in
their mothers' hands cannot yet walk, and are already in fetters; for
they have received from Adam what they are loosened from by Christ.
To them also, when baptized, pertains that grace which is promised by
the Lord; for He only can deliver from sin who came without sin, and
was made a sacrifice for sin. For you heard when the apostle was
read: "We are ambassadors," he says, "for Christ, as though
God were exhorting you by us; we beseech you in Christ's stead,"
that is, as if Christ were beseeching you, and for what? "to be
reconciled unto God." If the apostle exhorts and beseeches us to be
reconciled unto God, then were we enemies to God. For no one is
reconciled unless from a state of enmity. And we have become enemies
not by nature, but by sin. From the same source are we the servants
of sin, that we are the enemies of God. God has no enemies in a
state of freedom. They must be slaves; and slaves will they remain
unless delivered by Him to whom they wished by their sins to be
enemies. Therefore, says be, "We beseech you in Christ's stead
to be reconciled unto God." But how are we reconciled, save by the
removal of that which separates between us and Himself? For He says
by the prophet, "He hath not made the ear heavy that it should not
hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God."
And so, then, we are not reconciled, unless that which is in the
midst is taken away, and something else is put in its place. For
there is a separating medium, and, on the other hand, there is a
reconciling Mediator. The separating medium is sin, the reconciling
Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ: "For there is one God and
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." To take
then away the separating wall, which is sin, that Mediator has come,
and the priest has Himself become the sacrifice. And because He was
made a sacrifice for sin, offering Himself as a whole burnt-offering
on the cross of His passion, the apostle, after saying, "We
beseech you in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God," as if we
had said, How shall we be able to be reconciled? goes on to say,
"He hath made Him," that is, Christ Himself, "who knew no
sin, [to be] sin for us, that we may be the righteousness of God in
Him," "Him," he says, Christ Himself our God, "who knew no
sin." For He came in the flesh, that is, in the likeness of sinful
flesh, but not in Sinful flesh, because He had no sin at all; and
therefore became a true sacrifice for sin, because He Himself had no
sin.
6. But perhaps, through some special perception of my own, I have
said that sin is a sacrifice for sin. Let those who have read it be
free to acknowledge it; let not those who have not read it be
backward; let them not, I say, be backward to read, that they may
be truthful in judging. For when God gave commandment about the
offering of sacrifices for sin, in which sacrifices there was no
expiation of sins, but the shadow of things to come, the self-same
sacrifices, the self-same offerings, the self-same victims, the
self-same animals, which were brought forward to be slain for sins,
and in whose blood that [true] blood was prefigured, are themselves
called sins by the law; and that to such an extent that in certain
passages it is written in these terms, that the priests, when about to
sacrifice, were to lay their hands on the head of the sin, that is,
on the head of the victim about to be sacrificed for sin. Such sin,
then, that is, such a sacrifice for sin, was our Lord Jesus Christ
made, "who knew no sin."
7. With efficacious merit does He deliver from this bondage of sin,
who saith in the psalms: "I am become as a man without help, free
among the dead." For He only was free, because He had no sin.
For He Himself says in the Gospel, "Behold, the prince of this
world cometh," meaning the devil about to come in the persons of the
persecuting Jews; "behold," He says, "he cometh, and shall find
nothing in me." Not as he found some measure of sin in those whom he
also slew as righteous; in me he shall find nothing. And just as if
He were asked, If he shall find nothing in Thee, wherefore will he
slay Thee? He further said, "But that all may know that I do the
will of my Father, rise and let us go hence." I do not, He says,
pay the penalty of death as a necessity of my sinfulness; but in the
death I die, I do the will of my Father. And in this, I am doing
rather than enduring it; for, were I unwilling, I should not have
had the suffering to endure. You have Him saying in another place,
"I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up
again." Here surely is one "free among the dead."
8. Since, then, every one that committeth sin is the servant of
sin, listen to what is our hope of liberty. "And the servant," He
says, "abideth not in the house for ever." The church is the
house, the servant is the sinner. Many sinners enter the church.
Accordingly He has not said, "The servant" is not in the house,
but "abideth not in the house for ever." If, then, there shall be
no servant there, who will be there? For "when" as the Scripture
speaketh, "the righteous king sitteth on the throne, who will boast
of having a clean heart? or who will boast that he is pure from his
sin?" He has greatly alarmed us, my brethren, by saying, "The
servant abideth not in the house for ever." But He further adds,
"But the Son abideth ever." Will Christ, then, be alone in His
house? Will no people remain at His side? Whose head will He be,
if there shall be no body? Or is the Son all this, both the head and
the body? For it is not without cause that He has inspired both
terror and hope: terror, in order that we should not love sin; and
hope, that we should not be distrustful of the remission of sin.
"Every one," He says, "that committeth sin is the servant of
sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever." What
hope, then, have we, who are not without sin? Listen to thy hope:
"The Son abideth for ever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you
free, then shall ye be free indeed." Our hope is this, brethren,
to be made free by the free One; and that, in setting us free, He
may make us His servants. For we were the servants of lust; but
being set free, we are made the servants of love. This also the
apostle says: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty;
only Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another." Let not then the Christian say, I am free; I have
been called unto liberty: I was a slave, but have been redeemed, and
by my very redemption have been made free, I shall do what I please:
no one may balk me of my will, if I am free. But if thou committest
sin with such a will, thou art the servant of sin. Do not then abuse
your liberty for freedom in sinning, but use it for the purpose of
sinning not. For only if thy will is pious, will it be free. Thou
wilt be free, if thou art a servant still, free from sin, the servant
of righteousness: as the apostle says, "When ye were the servants of
sin, ye were free from righteousness. But now, being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life." Let us be striving after the latter,
and be doing the other.
9. The first stage of liberty is to be free from crimes. Give
heed, my brethren, give heed, that I may not by any means mislead
your understanding as to the nature of that liberty at present, and
what it will be. Sift any one soever of the highest integrity in this
life, and however worthy he may already be of the name of upright, yet
is he not without sin. Listen to Saint John himself, the author of
the Gospel before us, when he says in his epistle, "If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
He alone could say this who was "free among the dead:" of Him only
could it be said, who knew no sin. It could be said only of Him,
for He also "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin." He alone could say, "Behold, the prince of this world
cometh, and shall find nothing in me." Sift any one else, who is
accounted righteous, yet is he not in all respects without sin; not
even such as was Job, to whom the Lord bore such testimony, that the
devil was filled with envy, and demanded that he should be tempted,
and was himself defeated in the temptation, to the end that Job might
be proved. And he was proved for this reason, not that the certainty
of his carrying off the conqueror's wreath was unknown to God, but
that he might become known as an object of imitation to others. And
what says Job himself?
"For who is clean? not even the infant whose life is but a day's
span upon the earth." But it is plain that many are called righteous
without opposition, because the term is understood as meaning, free
from crime; for in human affairs there is no just ground of complaint
attaching to those who are free from criminal conduct. But crime is
grievous sin, deserving in the highest measure to be denounced and
condemned. Not, however, that God condemns certain sins, and
justifies and praises certain others. He approves of none. He hates
them all. As the physician dislikes the ailment of the ailing, and
works by his healing measures to get the ailment removed and the ailing
relieved; so God by his grace worketh in us, that sin may be
consumed, and man made free.
But when, you will be saying, is it consumed? If it is lessened,
why is it not consumed? That is growing less in the life of those who
are advancing onwards, which is consumed in the life of those who have
attained to perfection.
10. The first stage of liberty, then, is to be free from crimes
[sinful conduct]. And so the Apostle Paul, when he determined on
the ordination of either elders or deacons, or whoever was to be
ordained to the superintendence of the Church, says not, If any one
is without sin; for had he said so, every one would be rejected as
unfit, none would be ordained: but he says, "If any one is without
crime" [E.V. blame], such as, murder, adultery, any
uncleanness of fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and others of
that sort.
When a man has begun to be free from these (and every Christian man
ought to be so), he begins to raise his head to liberty; but that is
liberty begun, not completed. Why, says some one, is it not
completed liberty? Because, "I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind;" "for what I would," he says,
"that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." "The flesh," he
says, "lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;
so that ye do not the things that ye would." In part liberty, in
part bondage: not yet entire, not yet pure, not yet full liberty,
because not yet eternity. For we have still infirmity in part, in
part we have attained to liberty. Whatever has been our sin, was
previously wiped out in baptism. But because all our iniquity has been
blotted out, has there remained no infirmity? If there had not, we
should be living here without sin. Yet who would venture to say so,
but the proud, but the man unworthy of the Deliverer's mercy, but he
who wishes to be self-deceived, and who is destitute of the truth?
Hence, from the fact that some infirmity remains, I venture to say
that, in what measure we serve God, we are free; in what measure we
serve the law of sin, we are still in bondage. Hence says the
apostle, what we began to say, "I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. " Here then it is, wherein we are free, wherein we
delight in the law of God; for liberty has joy. For as long as it is
from fear that thou doest what is right, God is no delight to thee.
Find thy delight in Him, and thou art free. Fear not punishment,
but love righteousness. Art thou not yet able to love righteousness?
Fear even punishment, that thou mayest attain to the love of
righteousness.
11. In the measure then spoken of above, he felt himself to be
already free, and therefore said, "I delight in the law of God
after the inward man." I delight in the law, I delight in its
requirements, I delight in righteousness itself. "But I see
another law in my members" this infirmity which remains "warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members." On this side he feels Iris
captivity, where righteousness has not been perfected; for where he
delights in the law of God, he is not the captive but the friend of
the law; and therefore free, because a friend. What then is to be
done with that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has
said, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free
indeed"? Indeed he also who thus spoke so looked to Him: "O
wretched man that I am," he says, "who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our
Lord." Therefore "if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed." And then he concluded thus: "So then, with the mind
I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
I myself, he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each
other, coming from different origins; but "with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin," so long as
languor struggles against salvation.
12. But if with the flesh thou servest the law of sin, do as the
apostle himself says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof: neither yield ye
your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin." He says not,
Let it not be; but, "Let it not reign." So long as sin must be
in thy members, let its reigning power at least be taken away, let not
its demands be obeyed. Does anger rise? Yield not up thy tongue to
anger for the purpose of evil-speaking; yield not up thy hand or foot
to anger for the purpose of striking. That irrational anger would not
rise, were there no sin in the members. But take away its ruling
power; let it have no weapons wherewith to fight against thee. Then
also it will learn not to rise, when it begins to find the lack of
weapons. "Yield not your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto
sin," else will ye be entirely captive, and there will be no room to
say, "With the mind I serve the law of God." For if the mind
keep possession of the weapons, the members are not roused to the
service of raging sin. Let the inward ruler keep possession of the
citadel, because it stands there under a greater ruler, and is certain
of assistance. Let it bridle anger; let it restrain evil desire.
There is within something that needs bridling, that needs
restraining, that needs to be kept in command. And what did that
righteous man wish, who with the mind was serving the law of God, but
that there should be a complete deliverance from that which needed to be
bridled? And this ought every one to be striving after who is aiming
at perfection, that lust itself also, no longer receiving the
obedience of the members, may every day be lessened in the advancing
pilgrim. "To will," he says, "is present with me; but not so,
how to perfect that which is good."
Has he said, To do good is not present with me? Had he said so,
hope would be wanting. He does not say, To do is not present with
me, but, "To perfect is not present with me." For what is the
perfecting of good, but the elimination and end of evil? And what is
the elimination of evil, but what the law says, "Thou shalt not lust
[covet]"? To lust not at all is the perfecting of good, because it
is the eliminating of evil. This he said, "To perfect that which is
good is not present with me," because his doing could not get the
length of setting him free from lust. He labored only to bridle lust,
to refuse consent to lust, and not to yield his members to its
service. "To perfect," then, he says, "that which is good is not
present with me." I cannot fulfill the commandment, "Thou shalt
not lust." What then is needed? To fulfill this: "Go not after
thy lusts." Do this meanwhile so long as unlawful lusts are present
in thy flesh; "Go not after thy lusts." Abide in the service of
God, in the liberty of Christ. With the mind serve the law of thy
God. Yield not thyself to thy lusts. By following them, thou
addest to their strength. By giving them strength, how canst thou
conquer, when on thine own strength thou art nourishing enemies against
thyself?
13. What then is that full and perfect liberty in the Lord Jesus,
who said, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free
indeed;" and when shall it be a full and perfect liberty? When
enmities are no more; when "death, the last enemy, shall be
destroyed." "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy
struggle?" What is this, "O death, where is thy struggle"?
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh," but only when the flesh of sin was in vigor. "O death,
where is [now] thy struggle?" Now shall we live, no more shall we
die, in Him who died for us and rose again: "that they," he says,
"who live, should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who
died for them and rose again." Let us be praying, as those who are
wounded, for the physician; let us be carried into the inn to be
healed. For it is He who promises salvation, who pitied the man left
half-alive on the road by robbers. He poured in oil and wine, He
healed the wounds, He put him on his beast, He took him to the inn,
He commended him to the innkeeper's care. To what innkeeper?
Perhaps to him who said, "We are ambassadors for Christ." He
gave also two pence to pay for the healing of the wounded man. And
perhaps these are the two commandments, on which hang all the law and
the prophets. Therefore, brethren, is the Church also, wherein the
wounded is healed meanwhile, the traveller's inn; but above the
Church itself, lies the possessor's inheritance.
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