Sermon 143

SERMO 143

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (16:7-11): ^7 But I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ^8 When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ^9 about sin, because people do not believe in Me; ^10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; ^11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
"I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, IT IS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE THAT I GO."

Faith in Christ is necessary for justification.

The medicine for all wounds of the soul, and the one atonement for the sins of men, is to believe in Christ; nor can anyone at all be cleansed, either from original sin, which he has derived from Adam, in whom all have sinned, and have naturally become children of wrath; or from the sins which they themselves have committed by not resisting carnal concupiscence, but by following it, and serving it in crimes and wickedness, unless they are united and joined to his body, who was conceived without any carnal allure and deadly pleasure, nor was he nourished in the womb by his mother in sins, and he did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Indeed, by believing in him, they become sons of God; because they are born of God through the grace of adoption, which is in the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord. Wherefore, beloved, rightly does our same Lord and Savior say this one sin; of which the Holy Spirit convicts the world, because it does not believe in him. I, he says, speak the truth to you, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Concerning sin, indeed, because they did not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

The sin of unbelief in Christ, why is it alone reproved?

Therefore, He willed the world to be convicted of this one sin, that they do not believe in Him; namely because by believing in Him all sins are forgiven, He willed this one to be counted, in which all others are included. And because by believing they are born of God, and become sons of God: For He gave them, He said, the power to become sons of God, to those who believe in Him. Therefore, whoever believes in the Son of God, insofar as he clings to Him, and also himself becomes a son and heir of God by adoption, and a co-heir with Christ, to the extent that he does not sin. Hence John says: He who is born of God does not sin. And therefore the sin from which the world is convicted is this, that they do not believe in Him. This is the sin about which He also says: If I had not come, they would not have sin. Did they not already have innumerable other sins? But by His coming, this one sin was added to the unbelievers, by which the others are bound. But in the believers, because this one was lacking, it has happened that all are forgiven to the believers. Nor for any other reason did the apostle Paul say: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; so that whoever believes in Him, will not be put to shame; just as the Psalm says: Come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces will not be put to shame. Therefore, the one who glories in himself will be put to shame; for he will not be found without sins. Thus, only he will not be put to shame, who glories in the Lord. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, when speaking of the unbelief of the Jews, he did not say: For if some of them have sinned, will their sin nullify the faith of God? For how could he say: If some of them have sinned; when he himself said: For all have sinned? But he said: If some of them did not believe, will their unbelief nullify the faith of God? In order to show more clearly this sin, by which all others are contained, lest they be remitted by God’s grace. Of this one sin through the coming of the Holy Spirit, that is, through the gift of His grace which is given to the faithful, the world is convicted, as the Lord says: Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

The great gift of the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Christ.

But it would not be a great merit and a glorious blessedness for believers if the Lord always appeared to human eyes in a resurrected body. Therefore, the Holy Spirit brought this great gift to those who would believe, so that they would sigh after Him whom they did not see with carnal eyes, with a sober mind free from carnal lusts and filled with spiritual desires. Hence also that disciple, who had said he would not believe unless he touched His scars with his hand, when he had touched the Lord's body, exclaimed as if awakening: My Lord and my God! The Lord said to him: Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The Holy Spirit as the Paraclete brought this blessedness, so that with the form of a servant, which He received from the womb of the Virgin, removed from the eyes of the flesh, the purified gaze of the mind could be directed to the same form of God, in which He remained equal to the Father even when He deigned to appear in the flesh; so that, filled with the same Spirit, the Apostle could say: Even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, we now no longer know Him thus. For he who knows the flesh of Christ not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, recognizes the power of His resurrection, not through a curious touching, but through a certain faith; not saying in his heart: Who will ascend into heaven? This is to bring Christ down; or: Who will descend into the abyss? This is to bring Christ up from the dead. But the word is near you, in your mouth, because the Lord is Jesus: and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. These are the words of the Apostle, brothers, uttered by the holy inebriation of the Holy Spirit Himself.

The justice of faith from the Holy Spirit after the departure of Christ.

Therefore, since we would in no way possess this blessedness by which we do not see and believe unless we received it from the Holy Spirit, it was rightly said: "It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." He is always indeed with us in his divinity; but unless he went away from us bodily, we would always see his body in a carnal manner and would never believe spiritually. By this faith, which justifies and blesses us, we would merit to behold with a purified heart the same Word, God with God, through whom all things were made, and which was made flesh to dwell among us. And if not by touching with the hand but believing with the heart unto righteousness, it is fitting that the world is reproved concerning our righteousness, which refuses to believe unless it sees. But in order that we might have the righteousness of faith, by which the unbelieving world is reproved, the Lord said: "Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more." As if to say: This will be your righteousness, that you believe in me as mediator, whom you will surely know to have gone to the Father, although you do not see him carnally; so that being reconciled through him, you might be able to see God spiritually. Hence, to the woman bearing the figure of the Church, when she fell at his feet after the resurrection, he said: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." This is understood mystically as: Do not believe in me carnally through corporeal touch; but spiritually you will believe, that is, you will touch me with spiritual faith when I have ascended to the Father. Because blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. And this is the righteousness of faith, by which the world is reproved concerning us who are not without it; because the just shall live by faith. Whether, therefore, because in him rising again, and in him coming to the Father we are invisibly perfected in justification; or because, not seeing and believing, we live by faith, since the just shall live by faith; hence he said: "Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more."

The infidelity of the world is inexcusable.

The world cannot excuse itself from being hindered by the devil from believing in Christ. For the prince of this world is cast out for those who believe, so that he can no longer operate in the hearts of the people whom Christ began to possess through faith; as he operates in the children of disobedience, whom he often stirs up to tempt and trouble the just. Since he has been cast out, he who used to rule from within, now fights from without. Even if the Lord directs the meek through his persecutions, yet he himself has been judged by the very fact that he has been cast out. And from this judgment the world is reproved; because it complains in vain about the devil, who does not want to believe in Christ, who being judged, that is, cast out, and permitted to attack us from outside for our exercise, has been overcome not only by men, but also by women, and boys, and girls who were martyrs. But in what did they conquer, except in Him in whom they believed, and whom they loved without seeing, and in whose dominion in their hearts they were freed from the worst ruler? And all this through grace, that is, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, rightly, the same Spirit reproves the world, both of sin, because it does not believe in Christ; and of righteousness, because those who wished to believe did so, even though they have not seen Him in whom they believed; and by His resurrection, they also hoped to be perfected in the resurrection; and of judgment, because if they wished to believe, they would be hindered by no one, since the prince of this world has been judged already.