Sermon 181
SERMO 181
OF THE WORDS OF THE EPISTLE OF 1 JOHN (1:8-9):
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,"
And the truth is not in us.
AGAINST THE PELAGIANS
No one here lives without sin.
The most blessed apostle John, writing healthily and truthfully, among other things says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. With these words, blessed John, or rather the Lord Jesus himself not being silent through John, taught that no one in this flesh, in this corruptible body, on this earth, in this evil age, in this life full of temptations, no one here lives without sin. It is an unequivocal sentence, and needs no interpreter: If we say that we have no sin. For who is it who does not have sin? As Scripture says: Not even an infant whose life is but one day on the earth. Such a little one has not committed sin, but has drawn it from his parents. Therefore, no one can in any way say that he has not had sin. But the faithful man has approached the washing of regeneration through faith, and all his sins have been forgiven him; now he lives under grace, lives in faith, has become a member of Christ, has become a temple of God; and still, just as he has become a member of Christ and a temple of God, if he says he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him; he is entirely lying if he says: I am just.
The error of the Pelagians, that the righteous are found here without sin. Argument of the Pelagians.
However, there are certain inflated wineskins, filled with the spirit of pride, not great in size, but swollen with the disease of arrogance, so much so that they dare to say that men can be found without sin. Therefore, they say that the righteous in this life have no sin whatsoever. These heretics, the Pelagians, and the same Pelestians, are the ones who say this. And when they are answered: What is it that you say? Does a man live here without sin, and has no sin at all, neither in deed, nor in word, nor in thought? They respond from the wind of pride with which they are filled; I wish they would end that wind, deflate and be silent, that is, become humble, not elated; they respond, I say: Truly these holy men, the faithful of God, can have no sin in deed, nor word, nor thought. And when it is said to them: Who are these just ones who are without sin? they respond and say: The whole Church. I could have marveled if I had found one, two, three, ten, as many as Abraham sought. For Abraham descended from fifty to ten; you, heretic, respond and say to me that the whole Church is such. How do you prove this? I prove it, you say. Prove it, I ask you. For you bring me great joy if you can teach that the whole Church, in each of its faithful, has absolutely no sin. I prove it, you say. Say from where? The Apostle speaks. What does the Apostle say? Christ, he says, loved the Church. I hear, and I recognize these as the words of the Apostle. Cleansing her by the washing of water in the word, so that he might present the Church to himself in glory, without spot or wrinkle, or anything of the sort. We have heard great thunders from a great cloud. For the Apostle is a cloud of God. These words have sounded, and made us tremble.
They are refuted by their own profession about themselves. Heretics are outside the Church.
But tell us, before we inquire how the Apostle said these words; tell us, I say, whether you are righteous, or not. They respond: We are righteous. Therefore, you have no sin? Through all days, through all nights you do nothing evil, say nothing evil, think nothing evil? They do not dare to say: Nothing. But what do they respond? Indeed, we are sinners; but we speak of the saints, not of ourselves. I ask you this: Are you Christians? I do not say: Are you righteous? Are you Christians? They do not dare to deny: We are Christians, they say. Therefore, are you faithful? Have you been baptized? Baptized, they say, we have been. Have all your sins been forgiven? Forgiven, they say. How then are you sinners? It is sufficient for me to repulse you from this. You are Christians, you have been baptized, you are faithful, you are members of the Church, and you have spots and wrinkles? How then is the Church at this time without spot and wrinkle, when you are its spot and wrinkle? Or if you do not want to be the Church unless it is without spot and wrinkle, with your spots and wrinkles cut yourselves off from its members, cut yourselves off from its body. But what more shall I say that they may segregate themselves from the Church, since they have already done this? For they are heretics, they are already outside: with all their purity they remain outside. Return, and listen; listen, and believe.
Deceptive humility of the Pelagians.
Perhaps you will say in your proud and swollen heart: Could we say that we are righteous? Indeed, it was necessary due to humility to say that we are sinners. So, you lie for the sake of humility? You are just, without sin: but for the sake of humility, you say you are a sinner. How can I accept you as a Christian in another testimony if I hold you as a false witness against yourself? You are just, without sin, and you say you have sin. Therefore, you are a false witness against yourself. God does not accept your lying humility. Examine your life, see your conscience. So, you are just, but you cannot help but say you are a sinner? Listen to John; he repeats to you what he truthfully said before: If we say, he says, that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. You do not have sin, and you say you have sin; the truth is not in you. For John did not say: If we say that we have no sin, humility is not in us; but he said: we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Therefore, we lie if we say we have no sin. If John feared a lie, do you not fear a lie, so that when you are just, you say that you are a sinner? How, then, can I accept you as a witness for another cause, when you lie in your own cause? You make the saints guilty when you give false testimony against yourself. What will you do to another, who defames you? How will another avoid your slander when you make yourself guilty with the lie of your tongue?
A lie in the form of humility is a sin.
I ask you again in another way: Are you righteous, or a sinner? You respond: A sinner. You lie, because you do not say with your mouth what you believe in your heart. Therefore, even if you were not a sinner, you become one while lying. For you say: We call ourselves sinners for the sake of humility; for God sees that we are righteous. When, therefore, you lie for the sake of humility, if you were not a sinner before you lied, by lying you become what you sought to avoid. Truth is not in you unless you call yourself a sinner in such a way that you also recognize that you are one. But the truth itself is that you say what you are. For how is there humility, where falsehood reigns?
It is clear from the Lord's Prayer that the church here is not without sin.
Finally, let us not omit the words of John: behold, in the body of the Church, which you say has no spot or wrinkle or anything of the sort, and is without sin; behold, the hour of prayer will come, the whole Church will pray: and indeed you are outside; come to the Lord's Prayer, come to the balance, come, say: Our Father, who art in heaven. Follow with: Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Follow, and say: Forgive us our debts. Answer, heretic, what are your debts? Perhaps you have borrowed money from God? No, he says. I will ask you no more about this: for the Lord himself will explain what debts are which we ask to be forgiven. So let us say what follows: As we forgive our debtors. Let the Lord explain this: For if you forgive men their sins (thus your debts are your sins), your Father will also forgive your sins. Return then, heretic, to the prayer, if you have turned a deaf ear against the true faith. Do you say, Forgive us our debts, or do you not say it? If you do not say it, even if you are bodily present, you are outside the Church. For it is the prayer of the Church, a voice coming from the teaching of the Lord. He himself said: Pray thus; he said to the disciples: Pray thus; he said to the disciples, to the Apostles, and to us whoever we may be, little lambs; he said to the rams of the flock: Pray thus. See who said it, and to whom he said it. Truth spoke to the disciples, the Shepherd of shepherds to the rams: Pray thus: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. The King spoke to soldiers, the Lord to servants, Christ to the Apostles, truth to men, the exalted to the humble. I know what goes on in you: I weigh you, I give account of my scales, indeed I say what goes on in you. For I know this more than you. Say: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
The entire Church here asks for her sins to be forgiven.
I ask you, just man, holy man, man without spot or wrinkle. I ask you, I say: is this prayer of the Church, of the faithful, or of the catechumens? Certainly, it is of the regenerated, that is, of the baptized; finally, what surpasses everything, it is of the children. For if it is not of the children, with what face is it said: Our Father, who art in heaven? Where then are you, O just and holy ones? Are you in the members of this Church, or are you not? You were there, but now you are no longer there. And I wish that those who have been cut off might hear and believe, receiving understanding. Therefore, if the whole Church says: Forgive us our debts, the one who does not say this is reprobate. And indeed, when we say: our debts, until we receive what we ask for, we are reprobate because we are sinners; but by doing what you do not do, that is, by confessing our sins, we are cleansed; if, however, we do what we say: as we forgive our debtors. Where are you, then, Pelagian or Celestian heretic? Behold, the whole Church says: Forgive us our debts. Therefore, it has spots and wrinkles. But by confession the wrinkle is stretched out, by confession the spot is washed away. The Church stands in prayer to be cleansed by confession; and as long as one lives here, so it stands. And when each one departs from the body, all that such a one had which were debts to be forgiven are forgiven; because they are forgiven also by daily prayers: and then one departs cleansed, and the Church is stored in the treasuries of the Lord as pure gold; and hence the Church is without spot or wrinkle in the treasuries of the Lord. And if it is without spot and wrinkle there, what is to be prayed for here? That pardon may be received. He who grants pardon wipes away the spot; he who forgives stretches out the wrinkle. And where is our wrinkle stretched out? As it were, on the rack of the great fuller, on the cross of Christ. For on that very cross, that is, on that rack, He shed His blood for us. And you faithful know what testimony you bear to the blood you received. Surely you say: Amen. You know whose blood it is, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Behold how the Church is made without spot or wrinkle, as if well cleansed, stretched on the tent of the cross: but this can indeed be done here. The Lord presents to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle. He does this here, He presents it there. For this He does, that we may have no spot or wrinkle. Great is He who does this, well does He care, the most skilled artist. He stretches on the wood, and makes us without wrinkle, whom by washing He had made without spot. He Himself who came without spot and wrinkle was stretched out on the rack; but for us, not for Himself, so that He might make us without spot and wrinkle. Therefore, let us beseech Him to do this, and after He has done it, to lead us to His barn, and there store us, where there will be no pressing,
The remedies of sins without which one cannot live. A Christian of good faith and good hope does not commit deadly sins. The condition by which our daily sins are forgiven.
So you who were speaking, are you without blemish and wrinkle? What are you doing here in the Church, which says: Forgive us our debts? It confesses that it has debts that need to be forgiven. Those who do not confess still have debts; but for this reason, they will not be forgiven. Confession heals us, and a cautious life, a humble life, prayer with faith, contrition of heart, tears flowing genuinely from the source of the heart, that our sins might be forgiven, without which we cannot exist. Confession, I say, heals us, as the apostle John says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. However, because I say that we cannot be without sin here, we should not commit murders, adulteries, or other deadly sins that kill with one blow. A Christian of good faith and good hope does not commit such acts; but only those sins that are washed away with the daily brush of prayer. Let us humbly and devoutly say every day: Forgive us our debts; but if we do what follows: As we forgive our debtors. This pledge with God is a true pledge and a firm condition. You are a man, and you have a debtor, and you are also a debtor. You approach God, who has debtors, and is not a debtor, to ask for your debts to be forgiven. But he says to you: I have no debts, you have debts; you owe me: but also your brother owes you. You are my debtor, and you have a debtor. You are my debtor, because you have sinned against me: you have a brother as a debtor, because he has sinned against you. What you will do with your debtor, I will do with mine; that is, if you forgive, I forgive; if you hold, I hold. You are holding against yourself, who do not forgive another. No one should therefore say they are without sin; but neither should we love sin for this reason. Let us hate them, brothers; and even if we are not without sins, let us still hate them; and especially let us abstain from crimes; let us abstain, as much as we can, from light sins. I, says someone, do not have sins. He deceives himself, and the truth is not in him. Let us earnestly pray that God forgives; but let us do what is said, let us forgive our debtors. When we forgive, we are also forgiven. We say this every day, and we do it every day, and it is done in us every day. Here we are not without sin, but we will leave here without sin.