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1. What follows of the Gospel? and was read today, we must next in
order look at, and speak from it as the Lord may grant us. Yesterday
it was read thus far, that although they had not seen the Lord Jesus
in the temple on the feast-day, yet they were speaking about Him:
"And some said, He is a good man: but others said, Nay; but he
seduceth the people." For this was said for the comfort of those
who, afterwards preaching God's word, were to be seducers, and yet
true men. For if to seduce is to deceive, neither was Christ a
seducer, nor His apostles, nor ought any Christian to be such; but
if to seduce (to lead aside) is by persuading to lead one from
something to something else, we ought to inquire into the whence and
the whither: if from evil to good, the seducer is a good man; if from
good to evil, the seducer is a bad man. In that sense, then, in
which men are seduced from evil to good, would that all of us both were
called, and actually were seducers!
2. Then afterwards the Lord went up to the feast, "about the
middle of the feast, and taught." "And the Jews marvelled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" He
who was in secret taught, He was speaking openly and was not
restrained. For that hiding of Himself was for the sake of example;
this showing Himself openly was an intimation of His power. But as
He taught, "the Jews marvelled;" all indeed, so far as I think,
marvelled, but all were not converted. And why this wondering?
Because all knew where He was born, where He had been brought up;
they had never seen Him learning betters, but they heard Him
disputing about the law, bringing forward testimonies of the law,
which none could bring forward unless he had read, and none could read
unless he had learned letters: and therefore they marvelled. But
their marvelling was made an occasion to the Master of insinuating the
truth more deeply into their minds. By reason, indeed of their
wondering and words, the Lord said something profound, and worthy of
being more diligently looked into and discussed. On account of which
I would urge you, my beloved, to earnestness, not only in hearing
for yourselves, but also in praying for us.
3. How then did the Lord answer those that were marvelling how He
knew letters which He had not learned? "My doctrine," saith He,
"is not mine, but His that sent me." This is the first
profundity. For He seems as if in a few words He had spoken
contraries. For He says not, This doctrine is not mine; but,
"My doctrine is not mine." If not Thine, how Thine? If
Thine, how not Thine? For Thou sayest both: both, "my
doctrines;" and, "not mine." For if He had said, This doctrine
is not mine, there would have been no question. But now, brethren,
in the first place, consider well the question, and so in due order
expect the solution. For he who sees not the question proposed, how
can he understand what is expounded? The subject of inquiry, then,
is that which He says, "My, not mine" this appears to be
contrary; how "my," how "not mine"? If we carefully look at what
the holy evangelist himself says in the beginning of his Gospel, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God;" thence hangs the solution of this question.
What then is the doctrine of the Father, but the Father's Word?
Therefore, Christ Himself is the doctrine of the Father, if He is
the Word of the Father.
But since the Word cannot be of none, but of some one, He said both
"His doctrine," namely, Himself, and also, "not His owns"
because He is the Word of the Father. For what is so much
"Thine" as Thyself? And what so much not Thine as Thyself, if
that Thou art is of another?
4. The Word then is God; and it is also the Word of a stable,
unchangeable doctrine, not such as can be sounded by syllables and
fleeting, but abiding with the Father, to which abiding doctrine let
us be converted, being admonished by the transitory sounds of the
voice. For that which is transitory does not so admonish us as to call
us to transitory things. We are admonished to love God. All this
that I have said were syllables; they smote through the air to reach
your sense of hearing, and by sounding passed away: that, however,
which I advise you ought not so to pass away, because He whom I
exhort you to love passes not away; and when you, exhorted in
transient syllables, shall have been converted, you shall not pass
away, but shall abide with Him who is abiding. There is therefore in
the doctrine this great matter, this deep and eternal thing which is
permanent: whither all things that pass away in time call us, when
they mean well and are not falsely put forward. For, in fact, all
the signs which we produce by sounds do signify something which is not
sound. For God is not the two short syllables "Deus," and it is
not the two short syllables that we worship, and it is not the two
short syllables that we adore, nor is it to the two short syllables
that we desire to come two syllables which almost cease to sound before
they have begun to sound; nor in sounding them is there room for the
second until the first has passed away. There remains, then,
something great which is called "God," although the sound does not
remain when we say the word "God." Thus direct your thoughts to the
doctrine of Christ, and ye shall arrive at the Word of God; and
when you have arrived at the Word of God, consider this, "The
Word was God," and you will see that it was said truly, "my
doctrine:" consider also whose the Word is, and you will see that it
was rightly said, "is not mine."
5. Therefore, to speak briefly, beloved, it seems to me that the
Lord Jesus Christ said, "My doctrine is not mine," meaning the
same thing as if He said, "I am not from myself." For although we
say and believe that the Son is equal to the Father, and that there
is not any diversity of nature and substance in them, that there has
not intervened any interval of time between Him that begets and Him
that is begotten, nevertheless we say these things, while keeping and
guarding this, that the one is the Father, the other the Son. But
Father He is not if He have not a Son, and Son He is not if He
have not a Father: but yet the Son is God from the Father; and the
Father is God, but not from the Son. The Father of the Son, not
God from the Son: but the other is Son of the Father, and God
from the Father. For the Lord Christ is called Light from Light.
The Light then which is not from Light, and the equal Light which
is not from Light, are together one Light not two Lights.
6. If we have understood this, thanks be to God; but if any has
not sufficiently understood, man has done as far as he could: as for
the rest, let him see whence he may hope to understand. As laborers
outside, we can plant and water; but it is of God to give the
increase. "My doctrine," saith He, "is not mine, but His that
sent me." Let him who says he has not yet understood hear counsel.
For since it was a great and profound matter that had been spoken, the
Lord Christ Himself did certainly see that all would not understand
this so profound a matter, and He gave counsel in the sequel. Dost
thou wish to understand? Believe. For God has said by the prophet:
"Except ye believe, ye shall not understand." To the same purpose
what the Lord here also added as He went on"If any man is willing to
do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it be of
God, or whether I speak from myself." What is the meaning of
this, "If any man be willing to do His will"? But I had said,
if any man believe; and I gave this counsel: If thou hast not
understood, said I, believe. For understanding is the reward of
faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but
believe that thou mayest understand; since, "except ye believe, ye
shall not understand." Therefore when I would counsel the obedience
of believing toward the possibility of understanding, and say that our
Lord Jesus Christ has added this very thing in the following
sentence, we find Him to have said, "If any man be willing to do
His will, he shall know of the doctrine." What is "he shall
know"? It is the same thing as "he shall understand." But what is
"If any man be willing to do His will"? It is the same thing as to
believe. All men indeed perceive that "shall know" is the same thing
as "shall understand:" but that the saying, "If any man be willing
to do His will," refers to believing, all do not perceive; to
perceive this more accurately, we need the Lord Himself for
expounder, to show us whether the doing of the Father's will does in
reality refer to believing. But who does not know that this is to do
the will of God, to work the work of God; that is, to work that
work which is pleasing to Him? But the Lord Himself says openly in
another place: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him
whom He has sent." "That ye believe on Him," not, that ye
believe Him. But if ye believe an Him, ye believe Him; yet he
that believes Him does not necessarily believe on Him. For even the
devils believed Him, but they did not believe on Him. Again,
moreover, of His apostles we can say, we believe Paul; but not, we
believe on Paul: we believe Peter; but not, we believe on Peter.
For, "to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted unto him for righteousness." What then is "to
believe on Him"? By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem
highly, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His
members. It is faith itself then that God exacts from us: and He
finds not that which He exacts, unless He has bestowed what He may
find. What faith, but that which the apostle has most amply defined
in another place, saying, "Neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love?" Not any faith
of what kind soever, but "faith that worketh by love:" let this
faith be in thee, and thou shall understand concerning the doctrine.
What indeed shall thou understand? That "this doctrine is not mine,
but His that sent me;" that is, thou shall understand that Christ
the Son of God, who is the doctrine of the Father, is not from
Himself, but is the Son of the Father.
7. This sentence overthrows the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians
have dared to affirm that the Son is the very same as He who is also
the Father: that the names are two, but the reality one. If the
names were two and reality one, it would not be said, "My doctrine
is not mine." Anyhow, if Thy doctrine is not Thine, O Lord,
whose is it, unless there be another whose it is? The Sabellians
understand not what Thou saidst; for they see not the trinity, but
follow the error of their own heart. Let us worshippers of the trinity
and unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and one God,
understand concerning Christ's doctrine, how it is not His. And
He said that He spoke not from Himself for this reason, because
Christ is the Son of the Father, and the Father is the Father of
Christ; and the Son is from God the Father, God, but God the
Father is God not from God the Son.
8. "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.' This will
be he who is called Antichrist, "exalting himself," as the apostle
says, "above all that is called God, and that is worshipped." The
Lord, declaring that this same it is that will seek his own glory,
not the glory of the Father, says to the Jews: "I am come in my
Father's name, and ye have not received me; another will come in his
own name, him ye will receive." He intimated that they would receive
Antichrist, who will seek the glory of his own name, puffed up, not
solid; and therefore not stable, but assuredly ruinous. But our
Lord Jesus Christ has shown us a great example of humility: for
doubtless He is equal with the Father, for "in the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" yea,
doubtless, He Himself said, and most truly said, "Am I so long
time with you, and ye have not known me, Philip? He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father." Yea, doubtless, Himself said, and most
truly said, "I and the Father are one." If, therefore, He is
one with the Father, equal to the Father, God from God, God with
God, coeternal, immortal, alike unchangeable, alike without time,
alike Creator and disposer of times; and yet because He came in
time, and took the form of a servant, and in condition was found as a
man, He seeks the glory of the Father, not His own; what oughtest
thou to do, O man, who, when thou doest anything good, seekest thy
own glory; but when thou doest anything ill, dost meditate calumny
against God? Consider thyself: thou art a creature, acknowledge thy
Creator: thou art a servant, despise not thy Lord: thou art
adopted, not for thy own merits; seek His glory from whom thou hast
this grace, that thou art a man adopted; His, whose glory He sought
who is from Him, the Only-begotten. "But He that seeketh His
glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
Him" In Antichrist, however, there is unrighteousness, and he is
not true; because he will seek his own glory, not His by whom he was
sent: for, indeed, he was not sent, but only permitted to come.
Let us all, therefore, that belong to the body of Christ, seek not
our own glory, that we be not led into the snares of Antichrist. But
if Christ sought His glory that sent Him, how much more ought we to
seek the glory of Him who made us?
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