Commentary on John 1 part 45/94

And indeed the blessed Paul, to those who after faith foolishly wished to be justified out of the law, writes expressly: 'Ye are severed from Christ, whosoever of you are justified in the law; ye are fallen from grace.' A wondrous thing therefore and precious is single-minded faith, and the will to follow Christ steadfastly, which draws the shadows of the law over into the knowledge that is in Him, and transforms the things spoken in riddles into spiritual instruction.

For through the law and the prophets there is proclaimed the mystery that is in Him.

'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'

The saying is still dim, and not exceedingly clear;

yet nevertheless it is in travail with a power that is sister to those which preceded it, and it is woven together for us out of the same considerations, though after a different manner.

For here too He persuades those who have once believed to depart, and henceforth to love to remove themselves from the service according to the law;

and, as it were leading them as a schoolmaster, He bids them account the shadow a guide unto the knowledge that is in Him, and, leaving the things that are in figures and riddles, to go swiftly to the truth itself—that is, to Christ, the giver and redeemer of true freedom.

'Ye shall therefore know the truth,' He says, 'if ye abide in my words; and from knowing the truth ye shall find the profit that comes from it.'

And receive for me again the Lord saying some such thing to the Jews;

for I think it needful to enlarge also upon the consideration contained in the passage before us, because of its profit to those who shall read it.

'A bitter bondage,' He says, 'ye endured in Egypt, and a long toil consumed you when ye had entered into servitude under Pharaoh; but ye cried then unto God, and moved Him to mercy upon you, and, groaning under the calamities that were upon you, ye sought a redeemer from the heavens;

and I came to you straightway even then, and sent you forth out of the land that was not yours, and, delivering you from a most cruel tyranny, called you unto freedom.

But that ye might learn who is the helper and redeemer, I inscribed for you my own mystery in the slaying of a lamb, and I commanded that the salvation through blood should then be prefigured beforehand;

for ye were saved by smearing both yourselves and the doorposts with the blood of the lamb.'

'Therefore, having leapt but a little way beyond the figures, whenever ye learn the truth, ye shall assuredly and truly be free.'

'And let no one doubt concerning this,' He says.

For if the figure was then the procurer of so many good things for you, how shall not the truth much more bestow a richer grace? Such things, then, there is nothing to prevent us from supposing that Jesus said to the Jews, the discourse running out into a broad contemplation;

and it is likely that yet another meaning also should shine forth for us out of what lies before us.

The law given through Moses prefigured baptisms and sprinklings; but also, to whomsoever it might chance to happen to be caught and to slip into the pit of sin, it commanded him to sacrifice a calf or a sheep, and thus to cut away the charges for whatever each one had transgressed in.

But those things availed nothing toward the washing away of sin.

For it could never remove from their guilt those who were condemned, nor does it declare free from the need of being punished those by whom the divine law has been trodden underfoot.

For what would it profit a man who has transgressed to sacrifice an ox? and in slaughtering a sheep, what gain would one find? For what shall he gratify, as it were, through these things—so far as concerns the transgression of the law—to God who has been insulted? For hear Him saying: 'Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?' And besides this, plainly to the Jews: 'Gather together your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh; for I spake not unto your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this word I commanded them, saying: Judge righteous judgment.' Therefore the offering through blood is altogether unprofitable, and knows not how to wash away the stain that has been rubbed into man from sin.

'What is it that my beloved hath wrought abominations in my house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy wickednesses, or shalt thou escape by these?' For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, as Paul says.

And that, as men practising a vain worship, and as taking pains to perform the offerings through blood, that is the bringing of gifts, for no useful end, they were with reason sent forth out of the divine court, He will teach clearly through the voice of Isaiah also, saying: 'Ye shall no more tread my court;

if ye bring fine flour, it is vain;

incense is an abomination unto me.' Therefore not in those things—

I mean in the things ordained in the law—

is the true salvation, nor could anyone take from thence the thrice-longed-for freedom, that is, the freedom from sin;

but having leapt up a little beyond the figures, and beholding now round about the beauty of the worship that is in spirit, and having come to know the truth—that is, Christ—we are justified through faith in Him;

and being justified, we pass over unto the true freedom, being ranked henceforth no longer among slaves as before, but plainly among sons of God.

And John will bear witness, saying concerning Christ and those who believe on Him: 'But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become children of God.' Serviceably, therefore, our Lord and Christ does not suffer those who believe on Him still to marvel at the shadows that are in the law;

for in them there is nothing that profits, nor anything that procures the true freedom;

but rather He commands them to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For through this, He says, they shall be steadfastly set free, according to the force contained in the words that have been spoken.

'We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been in bondage to anyone;

for he to whom no bondage belongs—how,' He says, 'should he need Him who calls us unto freedom, and who gives, as it were by way of addition, that which already exists?'

But they are ignorant—and that though wont to fancy themselves wise—that the forefather Abraham was born not of a distinguished father according to the world, nor was he most illustrious among those who are marvelled at in this life, but was made glorious through faith alone, the faith that is toward God;

for 'Abraham believed God,' it says, 'and the faith was reckoned unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.' Thou seest then, and very clearly, the cause of the glory that was in him.

For since he was named the friend of God who is over all, on this account he became great and renowned, and the faith was reckoned to him for righteousness, and the righteousness that is out of faith became for him the occasion of the freedom that is according to God.

Therefore when, having believed, he was justified—that is, when he shook off the ignoble baseness that comes from sin—then he was shown to be illustrious and noble and free.

Foolishly, therefore, the Jews, spurning the grace that set free even the founder of their race himself, walk in the steps only of him who was set free through it; and, having examined neither whence it is, nor where it looks, that which is illustrious in him, they dishonour the giver of the most excellent things that are in him, and, forsaking the fountain of all nobility, they think highly of themselves over him who has partaken of it.

and they shall be caught out also in vainly boasting that they have never been in bondage to anyone, and the word concerning this, being false with them, shall no less be exposed.

For they were in bondage to the Egyptians four hundred and thirty years in number, and through the grace from above they were with difficulty brought forth out of the house of bondage, and out of the iron furnace, as it is written—that is, out of the covetous oppression of the Egyptians.

They were enslaved also to the Babylonians and Assyrians, when these uprooted the whole land of the Jews, and Jerusalem itself, and transported the entire people of Israel into their own country.

From no angle, therefore, is the argument of the Jews sound;

for besides being ignorant of the truer slavery — I mean the slavery that lies in sins — they also utterly deny that other, ignoble bondage, since they have a mind accustomed to boast greatly over what is nothing at all.

He who commits sin is a slave of sin.

Since they are carnal, and look only to things of the body, He rouses them out of the ignorance that dwells within them, and somehow transfers them to more spiritual things, carrying them over as it were to a discipline wholly untrodden and unfamiliar, pointing out to them the slavery hidden from them and unrecognised through many seasons. And that they speak falsely in saying, 'We have never been in bondage to anyone,' He wisely lets pass; nor does He say that they boast in vain of their forefather's nobility, lest again He should seem to be inciting them to what was unfitting, since they were already inclined and much disposed toward wrath.

But advancing, as it were, to that very point which was necessary and which they truly needed to learn, He says that the one who commits sin is a slave of sin, all but saying this: 'Man upon the earth, O you people, is a composite living being, made of soul and body; the bondage according to the flesh concerns the flesh, but the bondage that is accomplished in the soul and concerning the soul has for its barbarous mother — sin.'

Now to free a man from the bondage according to the flesh — the power of rulers may possess that authority; but to set him free from sin belongs fittingly to God alone to be affirmed, and will suit none of the others.

Therefore He persuades them to think what is fitting, and to long for the truly and genuinely real freedom, and henceforth to seek — not the splendour of their ancestors, which in no way profits them toward this end — but God alone, who has authority over His own laws, whose transgression fashions the sin that is the nurse of the bondage in the soul.

It seems, moreover, that our Lord Jesus Christ is somehow still secretly and very obscurely reproving them, as those who vainly think highly of a man and suppose the blessed Abraham to have been entirely free.

For by declaring in a more general way that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, He brings even Abraham himself within the nets, as one who was once a slave of sin.

For he was justified not as being righteous, but when he believed God, being called to the freedom that comes from being justified.

And it is not at all in contentiousness against the reputation of that righteous man that we say such things, but because no one among men is untried by the darts of sin, and even he who seems to be great has surely been brought under the yoke of sin, according to what is written: 'There is none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' And the glory of God, among other things, is this too — to be in no way able to fall into sin, which indeed has been reserved for Christ alone.

For He alone became free among the dead, since He did no sin, although He came to be among the dead — that is, numbered among men, over whom the death of sin once held sway.

For I will recapitulate the aim of what has been said:

The Lord was somehow hinting that even the blessed Abraham himself had once been in bondage to sin, and, being set free through faith in Christ alone, was not competent to transmit spiritual nobility to others; since neither is he lord of the power to set any free who did not put away the bondage of sin through himself, nor did he show himself the supplier of freedom to himself, but received it from another — namely from Christ Himself who justifies.

The slave does not abide in the house for ever;

the Son abides for ever.

Having declared him who is guilty of sins to be unfree and under a bitter bondage, He usefully adds what shall come to the one who has loved slavery, and again what shall be granted by God to those who have chosen to live lawfully, and are for this reason ranked among the sons of God.

'For the slave,' He says, 'does not abide in the house for ever;'

for indeed he shall truly run out into the outer darkness, there to pay the penalty for his unfree life; but the Son abides for ever.

For those who have once enjoyed the glory of adoption shall abide in the presence of God, in no season thrust out from the sacred court of the firstborn, but rather spending in it a long and unending age.

And by the sheep is meant the choir of the godly, weighed down as it were with the fruit of righteousness like wool.

Therefore he who has taken up the shame of slavery shall be cast out of the kingdom of heaven as a useless and most dishonoured vessel;

but everyone who has loved to live rightly shall be received into it and abide therein, being for this reason ranked among the sons of God.

And it is likely that, in saying such things, the Lord also somehow hints to them that, since they did not accept the freedom that comes through faith, they shall assuredly also depart from the sacred and divine court — that is, from the Church — according to what was said through one of the prophets: 'Out of My house will I cast them.' For that what was foretold has come to fulfilment for them, the very nature of events bears witness;

for the daughter of Zion was left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as it is written;

and the temple fell and was utterly overthrown, and they themselves were left outside, not abiding in it for ever; but the Church from among the nations rose up as it were in its place and was raised up for Christ's sake, and in it abide continually those called through faith to the divine adoption;

for the boast of the Church shall in no way cease, nor shall it ever come to an end;

for the souls of the righteous, departing from earthly things, are transferred to the city above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn, which is our mother according to the voice of Paul.

But since, in examining the argument concerning slavery, and in our eagerness to track down the truth by every means, we said that Abraham himself too was numbered among slaves — not putting his person outside the compass of these considerations, on account of Christ's more general statement, 'Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin' — come then, following again our own reasonings, let us make clear the force of what has been said.

The Jews thought great and lofty things, putting forward Abraham as a kind of founder and fountain of the nobility that was in them; but that they ought to seek to be set free through the grace from above, they did not receive even in bare thoughts, being foolish and blind, according to the Saviour's word.

Necessarily, therefore, Christ wishes to show that that which is by nature a slave is not competent to bring freedom to others, nor indeed at all to itself;

for in what way shall that which is destitute of freedom, so far as its nature is concerned, bestow freedom upon itself? And that which borrows from another the grace for itself — how could it suffice for the freedom of others? But to be able to set free will fittingly belong and be properly ascribed to Him alone who is God by nature from God.

He therefore makes a clear demonstration that everything which does not abide for ever — that is, that to which it does not belong to be always in the same state — must necessarily be, and be confessed to be, a slave.

For everything that is in the state of coming-to-be is assuredly also subject to corruption;

and that which is so, will clearly be a slave of God who has called it into being.

For concerning created things it was said to Him: 'For all things are Thy servants.' The statement was made in this instance in a general way;

yet one part belongs to the whole — that is, the blessed Abraham, or again humanity in general.

And He gives a clear sign that the Only-begotten, who has shone forth as God from God, is King and Master of all things — namely, His abiding for ever;

this same doctrine the inspired psalmist also set forth for us, showing the creation to be a slave, but the Word who is God, shining forth from God the Father, to be King and Lord.

For extending the contemplation from a part to the whole of what is in the state of coming-to-be, concerning the heavens and the Son who is by nature Son he says: 'They shall perish, but Thou remainest;'

'and they all shall wax old as a garment, and as a mantle Thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed;'

'but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.' Do you see how well, and by these words too, it is confessedly true that the slave does not abide for ever, but the Son abides; and that not-abiding is a demonstration that whatever it may be predicated of is a slave? And correspondingly to this, the other — that is, abiding for ever — would become a clear sign that He of whom such an utterance is properly and truly said is Master and God?

The psalmist, then, would suffice to bear witness to our arguments;

but since, according to what is written, 'at the mouth of two and three witnesses shall every word be established,' come, let us again show, alongside him, the blessed Jeremiah thinking and speaking in harmony.

For from the perishing of everything that has been made, and thereby showing it too to be a slave, but from the abiding and remaining unchangeable declaring the Son to be God by nature — and clearly for this reason Lord also — he speaks somehow thus to Him: 'For Thou sittest for ever, and we perish for ever.' For in all time that which is generated will be corruptible, at least according to the principle of its having been made, even if it be not corrupted by the power of God; but God will be for ever seated, since the sitting here spoken of indicates the establishedness of His essence and its being fixed in sameness, together with its being gathered up, and His being conspicuous in a kingly form and reality;

for the sitting bears somehow an image of these things too.

For I will run back again to the beginning:

from his not abiding for ever He shows the blessed Abraham to be corruptible and generated;

for he has died and departed, in a manner, from the Master's house — that is, from this world;

and correspondingly from this He wishes him also to be understood as a slave, not competent to be able to bestow freedom on others as well;

but from the Son's abiding for ever, He now clearly declares Himself to be God from God by nature, upon whom there would surely follow the being King and Lord.

And what is being administered as a result of the distinction just now stated by us will be clearly shown in the neighbouring and next passage set before us.

If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

'Only to the Son who is by nature, who is free according to truth and exempt from all slavery,' He says, 'is the power of setting free found to belong; but to none other beside Him at all.'

For just as, since He is by nature both wisdom and light and power, He makes wise those capable of wisdom, enlightens those in need of light, and empowers those requiring power;

so, since He is God from God, and the genuine and free fruit of the essence that reigns over all, He bestows freedom on whomsoever He may will.

From that which by nature does not possess it, then, no one could become truly free;

but when the Son Himself wills to set any free, implanting His own proper good, they shall in reality be entitled free, having received the dignity from Him who has the authority, and not from one of those who have borrowed from another and are as it were adorned with alien gifts of grace.

Most necessary, therefore, was the exposition in the foregoing passages, and much profit will arise from the distinction there made for those who have been eager to hear with fuller understanding.

For it was needful to understand from what source we must necessarily seek the nobility that is according to God, and to learn the Son who has the strength to set free.

Let them therefore take care not to be puffed up with lofty thoughts, those who rejoice in the dignities of this world, nor let them run down the glory and grace of the saints, even if some, small and of small origin, have come to be so according to the flesh;

for it is by the ways conspicuous in virtue that a man is rendered truly free and noble.

Joseph was sold into slavery, as it is written, yet even so he was free, shining forth with the nobility according to the soul;

but Esau sprang from a free father and was truly so, yet by the baseness of his ways he displayed a slavish mind.

Noble, then, in God's sight, as we have just now said, are not those who have wealth, and are flooded with abundances of riches, and rejoice in splendid honours of this world, but those conspicuous for a dignified life and a well-ordered conduct.

I know that ye are Abraham's seed;

but ye seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

In many ways showing their boast and pride derived from kinship with Abraham to be wholly vain and possessing no benefit, He says such things, that they may seek the true nobility, dear to God;

for God looks not to the flesh, according to what was said by our Saviour Christ Himself, 'The flesh profiteth nothing;' rather He accepts and deems worthy of every praise the nobility that is in souls, and knows those to have true kinship whom the likeness of works, or the sameness of habits, gathering as it were into one virtue, makes to take pride in equal forms of good things; and correspondingly to these, the opposite as well.

But it is possible also in another way to see that this is true, holding good at the same time.

For when we are minded as He is minded, and ponder not carelessly that it behoves us to live godly, we shall be reckoned sons of the God who is over all; and moulding our own mind, so far as is possible for us, unto His will, in this way, by our likeness and most exact resemblance to Him, we are truly His kinsmen.

That God takes the likeness which comes from works, that is, from one's manner of life, and the most exact resemblance, as constituting the power of kinship, we shall clearly discern by bending over the sacred oracles and ranging through the divine Scripture.

Now in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, there arose a certain Elamite named Shemaiah, a false prophet, who uttered things out of his own heart, as it is written, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

And since there was also a great multitude of other false witnesses and false prophets, leading the crowds astray and dragging them off to things that were not fitting, God the Lord of all was reasonably indignant thereafter.

Then, having spent many words upon Shemaiah, and having set forth in some detail what penalties he would pay for this presumption, at the last He adds: And I will visit punishment upon Shemaiah and upon his kindred — those who do the like of him. Do you hear how in the like deeds He sees the kinship? For how would He who knows to judge righteous things have chastised along with Shemaiah his kindred after the flesh, if they were not of the same disposition with him in respect of wickedness — especially when He plainly says through the prophet Ezekiel, The soul that sinneth, it shall die? Therefore, lest any such thing be supposed concerning Him, having named the kindred He forthwith added, Those who do the like of him, defining the kinship by the sameness of the things done.

But that we may see the saying to be true in the case of the Jews themselves also, let us call to mind the words of John — I mean the holy Baptist.

For showing their boast of kinship with Abraham to be stale and worthless, he says: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father;

for God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham. For since it had been said to him by God, Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, the people of the Jews, leaning upon the truth that He who had promised must by all means not lie, thought great things of themselves, and never expected ever to fall away from kinship with their forefather, that so the divine promise might be preserved, so he says.

The blessed Baptist says, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And with these there will run together also the blessed Paul, thus speaking: For they are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. Since therefore it is shown from every quarter to be true that God recognizes the kinship that lies in character and manner of life, it now appears vain to pride oneself on holy and good forefathers while being left behind and standing far off from their virtue.

Yes indeed, He says; when I look only at the flesh, and consider whence the people of the Jews sprang, then I see them as having come of the seed of Abraham;

but when I survey all round the beauty of that man's way of life and mind, then I behold you as aliens and no longer kinsmen, He says.

For ye seek to kill me — and yet your forefather, in whom ye now pride yourselves greatly, was no murderer;

and, what is worst and most lawless of all, I am not even persecuted by you upon reasonable charges — nay, ye thirst for blood most unjustly;

for on this account alone ye took counsel to slay me, because my word finds no place in you, though I call you unto salvation and life.

But it finds no place in you plainly because of the sin that dwells in you, which, as it were, suffers you not to have any room for counsel and exhortation unto good things.

The Jews therefore are at once murderers and most unjust judges, decreeing that he who has done no wrong ought to be honoured with death — or rather he who has resolved to help them and is zealous to save them.

How then are they any longer kinsmen of Abraham the righteous and good, being so far behind the excellences in him, and having run so far from any likeness of disposition to him, as one might grant that wickedness stands apart and is separated from virtue? I speak the things which I have seen with the Father;

ye also therefore do the things which ye have heard from your father.

He had said that His word had become uncontainable among the Jews, and had declared that for this cause alone they were stirred up against Him — nay rather, convicting them of thirsting for His blood — and now He necessarily adds these words also, and I shall set forth once more for what cause.

For He was not ignorant, as was likely, that some of the Jews would rise up in opposition, contending against the words spoken by Him, and, belching forth the fruits of the derangement within them, would say again: Not without cause, as thou sayest, do some thirst for thy blood; they are impelled to this upon reasonable charges; the movement in them is pleasing to God, and a zeal that cannot justly be accused;

for thy word is uncontainable among us, since thou hast made it discordant with God, they say; thou teachest us another error, and drawest us away from the way that is according to the Law, and somehow transferrest us to that which seems good to thee alone.

As the Jews were doubtless muttering all these things secretly, or even pondering them within themselves, the Lord again meets them beforehand, knowing the movements of the reasonings within them;

and for this cause He says, I speak the things which I have seen with the Father; I have contemplated the nature of my Father, I have oftentimes seen out of myself and within myself Him who begat me, and I have become a beholder of the things willed in Him.

I have seen, that is, by innate knowledge, of what works He is a lover, and these things I speak to you; and I shall be found to have said nothing at all discordant, nor to have ordained anything contrary to what seems good to Him.

It is unto those things that I have been eager to call the hearers, not withdrawing them from what is His own;

for in me are the things that are His, and my things again in turn are in Him;

but if, being thus in nature, and being in all things one who wills together with God the Father, I seem to some among you not to be true, and am reckoned to be leading you astray from the divine instructions, let the accusation be dissolved, cast away the suspicion;