Since they were continually bringing up Galilee and the prophet (as if that was all he claimed to be), he wanted to show that he was not one of the prophets but the Master of the world. I am the Light of the world, not only of Galilee, or of Palestine, or of Judea.

The Manichaeans suppose the sun visible to our natural eyes to be our Lord Christ,… but the right faith of the universal church condemns such fiction…. He is God of God, Light of Light. The sun’s light was made by this Light.^[1] And the Light that made the sun, under which he also made us, was himself made under the sun for our sake. That Light that made the sun was made, I say, [to come humbly] under the sun for our sake…. He hid himself under the cloud of the flesh, not to obscure but to temper his light. Speaking then through the cloud of the flesh, the Light unfailing, the Light of wisdom says to humanity, I am the Light of the world.

No one was able, either in heaven or in earth or under the earth, to open the book of the Father… so that all things … might behold their King and that the Fatherly light might meet with and rest upon the flesh of our Lord and come to us from his radiant flesh. In this way, human beings might attain to immortality, having been invested with the Fatherly light.

Listen to the voice of God, which sounds so exceedingly clear to me—I who am both disciple and master of these mysteries. This is how I hope to God it may sound to you: I am the Light of the world. Therefore approach him and be enlightened,^[1] and do not let your faces be ashamed,^[2] being signed with the true Light. It is a season of new birth; let us be born again. It is a time of reformation; let us receive again the first Adam.^[3] Let us not remain what we are, but let us become what we once were. The Light shines in darkness^[4] in this life and in the flesh. It is chased by the darkness but is not overtaken by it. I am referring to the power of the enemy that leaps up in its shamelessness against the visible Adam. But it encounters God and is defeated. Let us put away the darkness so that we may draw near to the Light and may then become perfect Light, the children of perfect Light.

[Christ] is the brightness of souls, the one who drives away the darkness of ignorance, and the one who reveals mysteries that can be perceived only by the pure.

O Dayspring,

Splendor of the Eternal Light, and Sun of Justice.

Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. O

Do you not recognize the words of the prophet,^[1] in the fact that the Galileans enjoy a great light? Therefore, [Jesus says], I am that light. And I not only provide [this light] for them but for all people. Whoever keeps close to me will not suffer; I have sufficient [light] for all people.

He called himself the light, not because the light is in me—lest someone split the one Christ into a duality of Sons. Christ, the Son, is one, both before the flesh and after the flesh. He is in truth the one and only Son of God the Father even when he became man since he did not partially embrace the human nature. For his body is his own, and it is blasphemy to divide Christ after his incarnation into two sons or into two beings.^[1]

Jesus reveals the ignorance of the scribes and Pharisees when he cries out, I am the light of the world. He is saying, You who go through the whole of holy Scripture and think that you will assess what is spoken about me through the prophets have strayed far from the way of life. And it is no wonder, for he who reveals mysteries and illumines the whole world, he who shines like a sun into the hearts of those who would receive him— he is not in you. He who does not have the divine and spiritual light within himself must surely walk in darkness and stumble in great foolishness. The Only Begotten is light by nature, beaming forth from God the Father who is light by nature…. But we must note again that he says that he is the light not especially or solely for the people of Israel but for all the world.

[That unfailing Light] has taken you from the eyes of the flesh and brought you back again to the eyes of the heart! He does not think it enough to say… shall have light but adds of life, even as in the psalm it was said, [In your light shall we see light]; for with you is the fountain of life.^[1] See how the words of our Lord agree with the truth of that psalm where light is placed with the fountain of life and now here he speaks of the light of life. For bodily uses, light is one thing and a well another. Our mouths seek a fountain; our eyes seek the light. When we thirst, we seek a fountain; when we are in darkness we seek light. And if we happen to get thirsty in the night, we kindle a light to come to a fountain. With God the light and the well are the same. The one who shines on you so that you may see him is the same one who flows to you so that you may drink him.

You see then what kind of light this is if you see inwardly the light of which he says, He that follows me shall not walk in darkness. Follow the sun, and let us see if you will not walk in darkness. When the sun rises, it comes toward you and heads on to the west. But perhaps your journey is toward the east. So if you follow the sun, then you will certainly err and instead of going east you will go west, whether by land… or by sea. Finally, you decide that you should follow the sun, and you travel to the west, where it also travels. Let us see if, after it sets, you will not still walk in darkness. See how, though you are unwilling to desert it, yet it will desert you in order to finish out its service for the day. But our Lord Jesus Christ, even when he was not made known to all through the cloud of his flesh, still held all things by the power of his wisdom. Your God is everywhere entirely. If you do not fall away from him, he will never fall away from you.

What he has promised he has put in the future tense. Notice, he doesn’t say has but shall have the light of life. And yet, he does not say he that shall follow me but he who follows me. He puts in the present tense what our duty is, but in the future tense what he has promised to do…. What we follow now by faith we shall have hereafter by sight…. When shall we walk by sight? When, in the future, we have the light of life and come to that vision whereby this night will have passed away.

Since he knew they would challenge him, he fashions his speech after a more ancient image of things that also draws on the experience of their ancestors…. For when Israel was crossing the wide desert, hurrying to the promised land, a cloud was suspended over them like a canopy during the day, driving off the sun’s flame. By night a pillar of fire contended with the darkness and marked out for the travelers their unerring road. For just as they escaped from straying who at that time followed the fire that guided and led them—being led straight to their right and holy ground without having to deal with the night or darkness—so the one who follows me, that is, who follows in the tracks of my teachings, will not be left in the dark but will gain the light of life, that is, the revelation of my mysteries that are able to lead him by the hand to everlasting life.

He uses light and darkness in a spiritual sense, meaning do not remain in error. Here he tacitly praises Nicodemus… and the officers… and censures those who were secretly plotting against him as being in darkness and error but who will be unable to overcome the light.^[1]

Who can rightly say, I am the light of the world, except one who is truly God by nature? Let the Pharisees go through the entire divinely inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and divine Word and show us who of the holy prophets ever dared to say such a thing or when an angel ever made such a claim…. The crowd of Pharisees thought that he spoke falsely. In their exceeding foolishness, they had no idea that there are those who set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially inherent in them, not out of boasting or because they are bent on making a name for themselves. Rather, they are simply declaring what they really are…. And so, even when our Savior Christ says that he is the light, he is speaking the truth and will not be found boasting…. But they attack him as though he is one of us. Without hesitation they say Your record is not true of the one who cannot lie. And yet, he decided to lead by the hand those who had gone astray… telling them what they had missed about him when they committed sacrilege by ascribing love of lying to him who is from above and begotten of God the Father.

In order to refute their arguments and to show that he adapted his expressions to address the suspicions of those who thought he was no more than a mere man, our Lord says, Though I bear record of myself, my record is still true. And he adds the reason, For I know where I come from, in other words, I am from God, I am God and the Son of God. Now, God is surely a competent witness to himself.

The light shows both other things and also itself. You light a lamp, for instance, to look for your coat, and the burning lamp affords you light to find your coat. Do you light the lamp to see the lamp itself when it burns? A burning lamp is indeed capable at the same time of exposing to view other things that the darkness covered and of showing itself to your eyes…. The witness of the light then is true, whether it shows itself or other things. For without light you cannot see light, and without light you cannot see any thing else that is not light. If light is capable of showing other things that are not lights, is it not capable of showing itself?… Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is a competent witness to himself.

For, I know where I come from and where I am going. This has reference to the Father; for the Son, who is himself equal [to the Father], gave glory to him by whom he was sent. How greatly then should one glorify the Creator who made him!… He did not separate from his Father, however, when he came, or desert us when he returned— unlike that sun which in going to the west leaves the east.

A burning lamp is indeed capable at the same time of exposing to view other things that the darkness covered and of showing itself to your eyes. So also the Lord Christ distinguished between his faithful ones and his enemies, as between light and darkness: as between those whom he illuminated with the ray of faith and those on whose closed eyes he shed his light. So, too, the sun shines on the face of the sighted and of the blind. Both alike, while standing and facing the sun, have the sun shine on them, but both are not enlightened in the eyesight. The one sees; the other does not. The sun is present to both, but one of them is absent from the present sun. So likewise the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is everywhere present because truth is everywhere, wisdom is everywhere… Therefore the light bears witness to itself. It opens the healthy eyes and is its own witness so that it may be known as the light…. It is also present [to unbelievers], but they do not have the eyes of the heart with which to see it.

These Jews then saw the man; they neither perceived nor believed him to be God.

Just as living after the flesh means to live badly, so judging after the flesh is to judge badly…. And so he is saying that they judge unjustly. But if we judge unjustly, someone might say, then why do you not rebuke us? Why do you not punish us? Why do you not condemn us? Because, Jesus says, This is not what I came for. This is the meaning of I judge no one.

This question may be solved in two ways: I judge no man, that is, I do not judge him now. He says this elsewhere: God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.^[1] It is not that he abandons his justice but rather only defers it. Or, having said, You judge according to the flesh, he says immediately, I judge no man. He adds this to let you know that Christ does not judge according to the flesh, as people judged him. Therefore let no scruple of doubt remain in our heart against the faith that we hold and declare concerning Christ as judge. Christ is come first to save but then to judge.

Let it not by any means surprise anyone that he says, My judgment is true; because I am not alone, but it is I and the Father that sent me that judge.^[1]

When… [Jesus] declares that he is not alone and uses these words, but I and the Father who sent me, does he not show that there are two— two and yet inseparable? Indeed, this was the sum and substance of what he was teaching them, that they [i.e., Father and Son] were inseparably two. [This must be the case] since, after citing the law when it affirms the truth of two men’s testimony, he adds at once: I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf. Now, if he were one—being at once both the Son and the Father—he certainly would not have quoted the sanction of the law, which requires not the testimony of one but of two.

But we must know that by his saying again that he was sent, he does not show that he is second in dignity to the Father. For we must not imagine a mission befitting a servant, even though, because he was clothed in a servant’s form, he might rightly say even this of himself. But he was sent as Word from Mind, as the Sun’s radiance from itself. For these I suppose are processions^[1] from those things in which they are, from their appearing to issue forth,^[2] yet they exist naturally and immovably in those things from which they come. For we should not suppose that the things that mind and sun have produced, that is, Word or radiance, are devoid of Word or radiance once they have gone forth from them…. For mind will never be wordless, nor will words ever exist without the mind that fashioned them.

Your law, [he says], states that any case about which there is doubt is settled if two testimonies are given about it. Therefore according to the will of the law, there must be two witnesses besides the one about whom the testimony is given. If the Father and the Son, as divinity, testify in favor of the human nature of our Lord, the rule of law is respected.

It is a huge question, my brothers, and to me it certainly appears to be a mystery when God says, In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. … It is possible, however, that two witnesses may lie. The chaste Susannah was arraigned by two false witnesses…. The whole people spoke against Christ falsely…. How then must we understand the word By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, except as an intimation of the mystery of the Trinity in which there is a perpetual stability of truth? Do you wish to have a good cause? Have two or three witness: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…. Receive our testimony then [the Trinity says], otherwise you will feel our judgment…. I delay my judgment, [Jesus says]. I do not delay my testimony.

It is written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. If this is to be taken literally, in what respect does our Lord differ from human beings? The rule has been laid down for humanity on the ground that one man alone is not to be relied on. But how can this be applicable to God?… These words are quoted then with another meaning. When two men bear witness, both to an impersonal matter, their witness is true. This constitutes the testimony of two men. But if one of them bears witness to himself, then they are no longer two witnesses. Thus our Lord means to show that he is consubstantial with the Father, and does not need another witness, that is, besides the Father’s, I and the Father that sent me.… Again, on human principles, when a person bears witness, his honesty is assumed. And a person is admitted as a fair and competent witness in an impersonal matter but not in one relating to himself unless he is supported by other testimony. But here it is quite the opposite. Our Lord, though giving testimony in his own case, and though saying that he is borne witness to by another, pronounces himself worthy of belief, thus, showing his all-sufficiency. He says that he deserves to be believed.

Those who suppose that Christ is the son of Joseph or was born as a result of fornication and who do not know that the Word shone forth from God the Father—how can such people not understand Jesus’ words, You know neither me nor my Father? If they had known that the Word has shone forth from the Father and was for our sakes made in the flesh according to the divine Scripture, then they would have known the one who begat Jesus. For those who zealously seek after knowledge are given accurate knowledge of the Father through the Son…. The Father and the Son are mutually revealing. When the Father is mentioned, one recalls his offspring, and similarly when the Son is mentioned we remember the one who begat him. And so, the Son is like the doorway leading to knowledge of the Father, and it is in this sense that Jesus says, No one comes to the Father but by me.^[1]

If you knew me you would know my Father also. What does this mean, except I and the Father are one?^[1] It is a common expression used when you see one person very much like another…. If you have seen him or her, you have seen the other. You say this because they are so alike…. And so our Lord says, If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. It is not that the Father is the Son, but that the Son is like the Father.

It is necessary to observe that the heterodox think that this text proves clearly that the God whom the Jews worshiped was not the Father of Christ. For if, they say, the Savior said you know neither me nor my Father to the Pharisees who worshiped the Creator,^[1] then it is evident that the Pharisees did not know the Father of Jesus because he was different from the Creator…. But they who say these things have not understood the divine Scriptures or observed the usage of language in them….

If anyone knew about the Creator and his priestly service, the sons of Eli did, having been raised at the place of worship. Yet, because they sinned, it is written of them in the First Book of Kings that they… did not know the Lord.^[2]…

So, again, the Pharisees did not know the Father since they did not live according to the Creator’s will. For knowing God can also refer to knowing God, which is something different from merely believing in him…. But who could not agree that the words written in the Psalms, Be still and know that I am God,^[3] were written for a people who believe in the Creator?

There is a difference between knowing God and believing in him. To the Pharisees, to whom he says, You neither know me nor my Father, he had the right to say, You do not even believe in my Father, for he who denies the Son does not have the Father, either by faith or knowledge. But Scripture gives us another sense of knowing a thing, that is, being joined to that thing. Adam knew his wife when he was joined to her…. If one who has joined to a prostitute has known the prostitute and one who has joined to his wife has known his wife, then one who has joined to the Lord has known the Lord in a holy manner. And in this sense the Pharisees neither knew the Father nor the Son….

Maybe it is possible for someone to know God and yet not know the Father. For if there is one aspect of him in accordance with which he is Father and another in which he is God, perhaps it is possible for someone to know God but not to know the Father…. Therefore among an infinite number of prayers offered up in the law, we do not find any one addressed to God as Father. Perhaps it is because they did not know the Father. They only pray to him as God and Lord, … not anticipating the grace shed by Jesus over the whole world, calling all to sonship and to praise the Father in the midst of the assembly, as it is written, I will declare your name to my brothers.

The Evangelist would not have added these words were it not to convey something useful…. Whenever it says these are the words that he spoke in such and such a place, you will discover a reason for the addition….

The treasury was a place where coins were contributed for the honor of God and the support of the poor. What else would these coins be than the divine words that have the image of the great King stamped on them and that are examined by trustworthy money changers who know how to separate counterfeit coins from the genuine ones?…

But if everyone contributed to the temple treasury in support of the needy for the common good, Jesus, more than anyone else was surely a worthy contributor. He gave the words of eternal life and his teaching about God and himself. His statement, I am the light of the world, which was spoken in the treasury, was more valuable than any coin… as were all his other teachings in that place. And all the gold of the others who brought what they had into the treasury was like a bit of sand in comparison to the words of Jesus, for every word of his was wisdom.^[1]

This is an instance of power, not of necessity. He waited for this hour. It was not the fated but the fitting and voluntary hour. This was that all might first be fulfilled that was supposed to be fulfilled before his death.

Someone will object: If he said this to those who persist in unbelief, how does he say to such people, You will seek me? It is good to seek Jesus, since it is the same as seeking the Word, the truth and wisdom. You may answer that seeking was also said of those who plotted against him…. There are differences between those seeking Jesus. Not all seek him legitimately for their salvation or benefit. People seek Jesus with countless motives that fall short of the good. Only those who seek him in a right way find peace. They may be said to seek him in a right way who seek the Word that was in the beginning with God, who seek him that he might lead them to the Father.

I go away, he said, and you shall seek me, not from any longing for me but in hatred. For after his removal from human sight, he was sought for both by those who hated him and those who loved him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of seizing him. … Accordingly, because the former sought it in this wrong way, with a perverted heart, what did he add next? You shall seek me, and—not to let you suppose that you will seek me for good—you shall die in your sin. Dying in one’s sins happens to those who seek Christ wrongly. It happens to those who hate the one through whom alone salvation could be found. For while those whose hope is in God should not render evil even for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced to them beforehand and in his foreknowledge uttered the sentence that they should die in their sin. And then he adds, Where I am going, you cannot come. He said the same to the disciples also in another place.^[1] And yet he did not say to them, You shall die in your sin. But what did he say? He said the same as he did to these men: Where I am going, you cannot come. He did not take away hope but foretold delay. For at the time when the Lord said this to the disciples, they were not able to come where he was going, yet they were to come afterwards. But these men would never come. And so in his foreknowledge he said to them, You shall die in your sin.

If the Word is not received when present, he threatens to go….

As long as we preserve the seeds and principles of truth that have been sown in our souls, the Word has not yet departed from us. But if we utterly destroy them with a flood of wickedness, he will say to us, I go. And then, even if we seek him, we will not find him but will die in our sin, overtaken in our sin and swept away by it….

And we must not pass over without noticing the expression you will die in your sins. If it is taken in the ordinary sense, it is clear that sinners will die in their sin and the righteous in their righteousness. But if you will die is taken in relation to death, the enemy of Christ,^[1] since the one who dies has committed a sin that leads to death, then it is clear that those to whom this is spoken have not yet died….

Those to whom the Word had not yet come had not committed sin that leads to death. Still, they were spiritually sick, a sickness tending toward death. The Physician, seeing that they were deadly ill, after he had despaired of healing them, said, I go, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.…

Perhaps the statement where I go you cannot come, attached to you will die in your sin, will be clearer. For whenever someone dies in his sin, he cannot go where Jesus goes, for no one who is dead can follow Jesus: For the dead do not praise you, O Lord.^[2]

We are those who bear about with us, in this living and moving image of our human nature, the likeness of God. It is a likeness that lives with us, takes counsel with us, associates with us, is a guest with us, feels with us and feels for us. We have become a consecrated offering to God for Christ’s sake. We are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people who once were not a people but are now the people of God.^[1] We are those who, according to John, are not of those who are beneath but have learned all from him who came from above; who have come to understand the dispensation of God; who have learned to walk in newness of life.

But pay attention, if you also desire to learn from Scripture who it is who is from below and who it is who is from above. Since each person’s treasure is where his heart is, if someone stores up treasure on earth,^[1] by the very act of storing up treasure on earth he is from below. But if someone stores up treasure in heaven,^[2] that person is born from above and assumes the image of the heavenly.^[3] And in addition, when this person has passed through all the heavens, he is found to have reached the most blessed goal.

How could Jesus be of the world when he made the world?

Here again he speaks of their worldly and carnal imaginations. It is clear that I am not of this world does not mean that he had not taken flesh on himself but that he was far removed from their wickedness.

Here he clearly shows what he means by above and below. The Pharisees would have understood what he said in a bodily way, thinking the above and below were localities. That is why our Lord clarifies what he had previously said so obscurely. For he says, You are of this world, that is, from beneath; I am not of this world, speaking of what is from above. For God surpasses all that is created. His superiority is not a localized kind of exaltation (as if the incorporeal could be conceived in any way as local, except by the foolish and utterly uninstructed). Rather, he surpasses derivative beings because of his own most excellent and ineffable nature. It is of this essence that the Word says he is. He has not been created by it. He is its fruit and offspring. For notice how he does not say, I have been created and made from above but instead says, I am, in order to show both where he came from and also that he was always and eternally with his own progenitor. For he is even as the Father too is….

But the enemy of the truth… will say that by adding this, Christ has shown that there is another world, the spiritual world, from which he might have come, implying the Son is a creature… in the same class as angels^[1] who… if he is not part of this world, is part of another…. But the word this or of this is a demonstrative pronoun that does not necessarily imply comparison with another…. Therefore when Christ says, I am not of this world, he is not saying that he is part of some other world but is… putting the Jews in the place of things that have an origin, saying, You are of this world while he severs himself altogether from things created and connects himself instead with that other place, and by this I mean the Godhead, when he says, I am not of this world. In this way, he contrasts the Godhead with the world so that we can understand.

Now, if the one who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ will die in his sins, it is clear that the one who does not die in his sins has believed in the Christ. But he who dies in his sins, even if he says that he believes in the Christ, has not believed in him so far as truth is concerned. And if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead.^[1]… For one who believes in [Christ’s] justice does not do injustice. One who believes in his wisdom would not say or do anything foolish…. And if we collected the remaining attributes of Christ, we will easily discover that whoever does not believe in Christ will die in his sins because he comes to be the very opposite of what is seen in Christ. The sins themselves kill him.

What is this, If you do not believe that I am? I am what? There is nothing added. And because he added nothing… there is much implied in his only saying I am, for God had used the same words with Moses, I am who am.^[1] Who can adequately express what that I AM means?^[2]… For all excellence, whatever kind it is, if it is changeable, it does not truly exist. There is no true existence wherever nonexistence also has a place. For whatever can be changed, so far as it is changed, it is not what it was: if it is no longer what it was, a kind of death has therein taken place. Something that was there has been eliminated and exists no more…. For in all actions and movements of ours, yes, in every activity of the creature, I find two indications of time, the past and the future. I seek for the present, but nothing stands still. What I have said is no longer present. What I am going to say is not yet come. What I have done is no longer present. What I am going to do is not yet come. The life I have lived is no longer present. The life I have still to live is not yet come. Past and future I find in every creature-movement. I do not find either past or future in what is abiding. There I only find the unchangeable present that finds no place in the creature. Analyze the idea of mutability, and you will find was and will be: contemplate God, and you will find the is where was and will be cannot exist…. And so, by these words, If you do not believe that I am, I think our Lord meant nothing else than this, If you do not believe that I am God, you shall die in your sins. Well, God be thanked that he said, If you do not believe and did not say: If you do not comprehend. For who can comprehend this?

They ask, Who are you? Such a lack of understanding! After such a long time with all of his signs and teaching they still ask, Who are you? What then does Christ say? The same that I told you from the beginning.^[1] What he is saying is: You are not worthy to hear my words at all, much less to learn who I am. For everything you say is an attempt to tempt me. But you have not even listened to one of the things I have said. And all these things I am now able to prove against you.

Who are you, that we may believe? He answered, The beginning. Here is the existence that [always] is. The beginning cannot be changed. The beginning is self-abiding and all-originating, that is, the beginning, to which it has been said, But you yourself are the same and your years shall not fail.^[1]… Believe me to be the beginning so that you may not die in your sins. By saying, Who are you? they had said nothing else than this, What shall we believe you to be? He replied, The beginning, that is, Believe me to be the beginning.^[2]

In the beginning was the Word.^[1] That through which he made things already was. That is how he made what as yet was not. We can understand it, and rightly understand it, in the sense that heaven and earth were made in the only begotten Word itself. They were, you see, made in that through which they were made. This can be, and be understood as, the beginning in which God made heaven and earth. This Word, after all, is also the wisdom of God, about which it is said, You have made all things in wisdom.^[2] If God made all things in wisdom and his only begotten Son is without a shadow of doubt the wisdom of God, let us not doubt that whatever we have learned was made through the Son was also made in the Son. The Son himself, after all, is certainly the beginning. When the Jews were questioning him and saying, Who are you? He answered, The beginning. And there [in Genesis] you have, In the beginning God made heaven and earth.^[3]

Remember when he said, I judge no one?^[1] Now he says, I have many things to say of you and to judge. But I do not judge, is one thing, I have to judge is another. For he had come to save the world, not to judge the world.^[2] When he says, I have many things to say of you and to judge, he refers to a future judgment when, after he ascended, he would come back to judge the living and the dead.

When he says, He that sent me is true, it is as if he said, Therefore I too shall be true in my judgment, because as the Son of the true One, I am the truth…. The Son is the Truth, the Father is true. I inquire which is the greater, but [when I inquire, I] find equality. For the true Father is true not because he contained a part of that truth but because he begat truth in its entirety.

He says this so that they may not think that he allows them to talk against him with impunity, or from inability to punish them or that he is not aware of their secret thoughts and contempt.

By reason of the inseparability of the two it was impossible for one of them to be either acknowledged or unknown without the other. He who sent me, says Jesus, is true; and I declare to the world what I have heard from him. And the Scripture narrative goes on to explain in a simple way that they did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father, although they certainly ought to have known that the Father’s words were uttered in the Son, because they read in Jeremiah, And the Lord said to me, see, I have put my words in your mouth.^[1]

What does this mean? For it looks as if all he said was that they would know who he was after his passion. Without doubt, therefore, he saw that there were some there, whom he himself knew, who would believe after his passion…. We are here speaking of those three thousand and those five thousand Jews whom now he saw there,^[1] when he said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am. It was as if he had said, I am not allowing you to recognize what happened until I have completed my passion.

When it is appropriate, you shall know who I am. Not that all who heard him were only then to believe, that is, after the Lord’s passion. For a little after it is said, As he spoke these words, many believed on him, and the Son of man was not yet lifted up. But the lifting up he is speaking of is that of his passion, not of his glorification, of the cross, not of heaven. For he was exalted there also when he hung on the tree. But that exaltation was his humiliation, for then he became obedient even to the death of the cross.^[1] This required it to be accomplished by the hands of those who should afterwards believe and to whom he says, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am. And why so, except that no one might despair, however guilty his conscience, when he saw those forgiven their homicide who had slain the Christ?

Here Jesus is saying, Since you are looking only to the flesh, you believe that I am merely a man, and you suppose that I am just like you. But the dignity and the glory of the Godhead does not even enter your mind. However, you shall know that I am God of true God and Light of light through your dreadful and lawless act—my death on the cross. For when you see your mad foolishness come to nothing and the snare of death crushed in pieces—for I shall surely rise from the dead—ultimately you will be forced, even against your will, to agree with what I said, and you shall confess that I am God by nature.

Already the Sabellian, i.e., the Patripassian,^[1] was beginning to rejoice over the discovery of a ground for his error, but immediately … he is confounded by the light of the following sentence. You thought that he was the Father, because he said, I am. Hear now that he is the Son: And I do nothing of myself. What does this mean, I do nothing of myself? I am not of myself. For the Son is God of the Father, but the Father is God yet not of the Son. The Son is God of God, and the Father is God but not of God. The Son is Light of light; and the Father is light but not of light. The Son is, but there is [one] of whom he is; and the Father is, but there is none of whom he is.

Do not then let what follows, As the Father has taught me, I speak these things, suggest a carnal thought to any of you…. Do not place as it were two men before your eyes, a Father speaking to his son, as you do when you speak to your sons…. How did the Father speak to the Son, seeing that the Son says, As the Father taught me, I speak these things? Did he speak to him? When the Father taught the Son, did he use words, as you do when you teach your son? For what words could be spoken to the only Word?… If the Father speaks in your hearts without sound, how does he speak to the Son?… The Father speaks to the Son incorporeally because he begat the Son incorporeally. He did not teach him, as though having begotten him untaught. Rather, the teaching him is the begetting him knowledge.^[2]… For if the nature of truth is simple, to be, as regards the Son, is the same as to know…. As then the Father gave the Son existence by begetting, so he gave him knowledge also.

And though both are together, yet one is sent, the other sends. For the mission is the incarnation. And the incarnation is of the Son only, not of the Father…. He says then, He that sent me, meaning by whose Fatherly authority I am made incarnate.

The Father sent the Son but did not withdraw from him. For there is no way that the Father was not wherever he sent the Son. For is there anywhere the maker of all things could not be who said, I fill heaven and earth.^[1]… And Christ adds the reason why his Father did not leave him: For I always do those things that please him. That equality always exists: not from any particular beginning and then onwards, but without beginning and without end. For divine generation has no beginning in time since time itself was created by the Only Begotten.

He means it as an answer to those who were constantly saying that he was not from God because he did not keep the sabbath. I always do, he says, those things that please him, showing that even the breaking of the sabbath was pleasing to him…. He takes care in every way to show that he does nothing contrary to the Father.

When he brought his speech down to a more human level, many believed in him. Do you still ask why he spoke so humbly? And yet, the Evangelist clearly alludes to the reason [here], all but proclaiming aloud: Do not be disturbed at hearing so humble a speech from Christ, for those who had heard the greatest doctrines from him and were still not persuaded that he was from the Father were persuaded by these more humble words so that they might believe. This explains why he spoke these things in such a humble way. These then believed on him, yet not as they ought but only because they were pleased with the refreshing humility of his words. The Evangelist, in fact, shows their imperfect faith in his subsequent narration, which relates their unjust proceedings against him.

Beloved, our condition needs much endurance; and endurance is best produced when doctrines are deeply rooted. For just as there is no wind that is able to tear up an oak tree by its assaults because it sends down its root deep into the earth, so too the soul that is nailed by the fear of God—not just rooted but nailed—will not be able to be overturned…. Our Lord wanted to test the faith of those who believed so that it might not be merely superficial, and so he digs deeper into their souls by a more striking word…. And so, when he said, If you continue, he made it clear what was in their hearts. He knew that some believed but would not continue. And he makes them a magnificent promise, that is, that they shall become his disciples indeed. These words are a tacit rebuke to some who had believed and afterwards withdrawn because they could not continue.

It is a small thing for a disciple to come to him; it is a much greater thing to continue in him. Therefore he does not say if you hear or come or praise my Word. He says, If you continue in my Word. What do you think, brothers? Is continuing in the Lord hard work or not? If it is hard work, look at the reward. If it is not, you receive the reward for nothing. Let us then continue in him who continues in us.

We must endure and persevere, beloved brothers, so that once we have the hope of truth and freedom, we may actually attain them. For the very fact that we are Christians is the substance of faith and hope. But if hope and faith are going to achieve their result, there must be patience. For we are not following after present but future glory…. Therefore, waiting and patience are needed so that we may fulfill what we have begun to be and may receive what we believe and hope for according to God’s own appearing.

This saying of Jesus persuades those who believe to leave behind worship that is according to the law.^[1] It teaches us that the shadow [i.e., the law] is our guide to the knowledge of him and that, leaving the types and figures behind, we should go resolutely forward to the truth itself, which is Christ the giver of true freedom, who is also our Redeemer….

And so, true salvation is not in the ordinances of the law, nor will anyone win the thrice-longed for freedom from sin by observing the law. Rather, bounding a little above the types and surveying the beauty of worship in the Spirit and acknowledging the truth, that is, Christ, we are justified through faith in him. And justified, we pass over to what is true freedom, no more ranked among the slaves but among the sons of God…. For it is only through this truth, that is, Christ, that they shall be entirely free.

What does he promise believers? And you shall know the truth. Why is that? Hadn’t they come to such knowledge when the Lord was speaking? If they had not, how did they believe? They believed, not because they knew but so that they might come to know. For we believe in order that we may know. We do not know in order that we may believe. For what we shall yet know, neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man [humankind].^[1] For what is faith, but believing what you do not see? Faith then is to believe what you do not see. Truth is seeing what you have believed, as Christ himself says in a certain place.^[2]… But isn’t what you [Christ] have been speaking the truth? It is the truth, but as yet it is only believed, not seen. If you abide in what is believed, you shall attain to what is seen.^[3]

We are God’s money: we have wandered away as coin from the treasury. The impression that was stamped on us has been rubbed out by our wandering. He has come to mint us again, for he is the one who minted us in the first place, and he himself is asking for his money, as Caesar asks for his. Therefore he says, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s,^[1] to Caesar his money, to God yourselves. And then shall the truth be reproduced in us.

Someone might say, And what does it profit me to know the truth? And the truth shall set you free. If the truth does not appeal to you, then let freedom have its charms. In the Latin we use the word free chiefly in the sense of escape from danger, relief from care. But the proper signification of to be free is to be made free, just as to be saved is to be made safe.… This is plainer in the Greek.

Our freedom comes when we subject ourselves to the truth. And this truth is our God who frees us from death, that is, from the condition of sin. For he himself spoke of this truth as a man among people when he spoke to those who believed: If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. For the soul enjoys nothing in freedom unless it enjoys it in peace.^[1]

From what shall the truth free us except from death, corruption and changeableness, since truth itself remains immortal, incorrupt and unchangeable? But true immortality, true incorruptibility, true unchangeableness is eternity itself.

But the Lord did not say, You shall be free, but The truth shall make you free. However, that word [free]—because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek—they understood as pointing only to freedom. They puffed themselves up as Abraham’s seed and said, We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to anyone: how is it that you say, ‘You shall be free’? O inflated skin! This is not magnanimity; it is hot air! For even if you want to talk about freedom in this life, how were you truthful when you said, We were never in bondage to anyone? Wasn’t Joseph sold?^[1] Weren’t the holy prophets led into captivity?^[2] And again, didn’t that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver but also in clay?^[3] If you were never in bondage to anyone, ungrateful people, why is it that God is continually reminding you that he delivered you from the house of bondage?^[4] Or do you perhaps mean that your ancestors were in bondage, but you who speak were never in bondage to anyone? 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?^[5]

They did not speak the truth. They had been freed from the bondage of the Egyptians, who were their neighbors, and from that of the Babylonians. And now, when they were speaking these words, they were subjects to the Romans. But our Lord did not lower himself to rebuke them about it, even though they were lying.

This assertion is important. It is, if one may say so, his oath. Amen means true but is not translated. Neither the Greek nor the Latin translator has dared to translate it. It is a Hebrew word, and people have abstained from translating it in order to throw a reverential veil over so mysterious a word. It is not that they wished to lock it up but only to prevent it from becoming despised by being exposed. How important the word is, you may see from its being repeated…. Our Lord has recourse to this mode of enforcing his words, in order to rouse people from their state of sleep and indifference.

Inasmuch, then, as he terms those the slaves of sin who serve sin but does not certainly call sin itself God, in this way also he terms those who serve mammon as the slaves of mammon, not calling mammon God. For mammon is, according to the Jewish language,^[1] which the Samaritans also use, a covetous person, and one who wishes to have more than he ought to have. … We cannot serve God and mammon.

Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, that is, turning to evil in any matter and situation somehow enslaves a person and puts the stigma of a runaway slave on the person, with scars and brands inflicted by the blows of sin.

Whoever yields to wrong desires puts his formerly free soul under the yoke of the evil one and takes him for his master. But we oppose this master when we struggle against the wickedness that has laid hold on us, when we strongly resist habit, when we pierce sin with repentance and wash away the spots of filth with tears.

And the more freely people follow their perverse desires, the more closely they are in bondage to them.

This is what he means: The subject of what I am talking about is not corporeal bondage. I want to talk to you about real freedom. In one instance a master, at his discretion, drives away from the house a servant in whom he sees an evil will and subjects him to any punishment he considers to be appropriate. But… no master drives away his son from the house. So, one who is a slave to sin, since he is far removed from all divine goodness, is given a perpetual punishment. But the one who has been made worthy of freedom and has been given the status of son always enjoys divine goodness and can never be removed from it. If you, he says, are freed through me and are made worthy of the title of sons, then you will possess real freedom.

He has greatly alarmed us, my brothers, by saying, The servant does not remain in the house forever. He further adds, however, But the Son remains forever. 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 both the head and the body? There is a reason why he inspires both terror and hope: terror so that we do not love sin, and hope so that we should not distrust the remission of sin. Everyone, he says, who commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant does not remain in the house forever. What hope, then, do we have who are not without sin? Listen to your hope: The Son remains forever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, then shall you be free indeed. Our hope is this, brothers, to be made free by the free One. Our hope is that, in setting us free, he makes us his servants. For we were the servants of lust; but being set free, we are made the servants of love. This is also what the apostle says: For, brothers, you have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.^[1] Do not then let the Christian say: I am free; I have been called to freedom. I was a slave but have been redeemed, and by my very redemption I have been made free. I shall do what I please. No one may deny my will if I am free. But if you commit sin with that kind of a will, you are the servant of sin. Do not then abuse your liberty for freedom in sinning, but use it for the purpose of not sinning. For your will is only free if it is godly. You will be free if you are still a servant— free from sin and the servant of righteousness. This is what the apostle says: When you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. But now, being made free from sin and having become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end, which is everlasting life.^[2] Let us strive for everlasting life even as we maintain holiness.

The first stage of freedom, then, is to abstain from sins… such as murder, adultery, any sexual sins, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and others of that sort. When someone has started getting free from these (and every Christian ought to be so), he begins to raise his head toward freedom. But that is freedom begun, not completed. Why, says someone, is it not completed freedom? Because I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind; for what I want to do, he says, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do.^[1] The flesh, he says, lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the things that you want.^[2] There is partial freedom and partial bondage. This freedom is not yet complete, pure or full freedom because it is not yet in eternity. For we are still partially weak and thus only partially free. Whatever our sin was previously, it was wiped out in baptism. But because all our iniquity has been blotted out, does that mean there is no weakness left? If there were no weakness left, then that would mean that we should be living here without sin. Yet who would venture to say such a thing except someone who is proud but also unworthy of the Deliverer’s mercy? This is the kind of person who wants to be self-deceived and who is destitute of the truth. And so, from the fact that some weakness remains, I venture to say that in whatever measure we serve God, we are free. In whatever measure we serve the law of sin, we are still in bondage. And so too the apostle says what we began to say: I delight in the law of God after the inward person.^[3] Here it is then. Freedom occurs when we delight in the law of God, for freedom gives you joy. As long as you do what is right out of fear, you find no delight in God. Find your delight in him, and you are free. Do not fear punishment; rather, love righteousness. Are you not yet able to love righteousness? Fear even punishment then so that you may attain to the love of righteousness.

The power to set free belongs to none other than the one who is the Son by nature—one who is truly free and unconstrained by any bondage. Because he is wisdom and light and power by nature, he makes those who are ignorant wise. He enlightens those in darkness, and he strengthens those who are weak. Therefore, because he is God of God and the genuine and free fruit of the essence that reigns over all, he bestows freedom on whomever he wants to. For no one can become truly free at the hands of one who does not possess freedom by nature. But, when the Son himself wills to free anyone, infusing his own good [into them], they are called free indeed. They receive dignity from the one who possesses authority and not from any of those who have borrowed it from another or those who have been ennobled, as it were, with a grace that was not theirs to begin with.

Do not then abuse your freedom for the purpose of sinning freely. Rather, use it in order not to sin at all. Your will is free only if it is godly. You will be free if you become the servant of righteousness.

Having clearly shown and demonstrated that their boast of being descendants of Abraham is utterly empty and devoid of any good, Jesus says this so that they might seek the nobility that is true and dear to God…. But how is it that we who are made of earth and formed from a piece of clay^[1] can be called relatives of the Lord of all, as Paul says,… God’s offspring?^[2] Admittedly, we have been made God’s offspring because of the flesh that pertains to the mystery of Christ. But it is possible to understand this reality. By thinking his thoughts and earnestly resolving to live godly lives, we are called children of God who is over all. And when we conform our mind to his will, so far as we are able, we are truly like God and indeed truly God’s offspring.

It is also possible for one who happens to be the [biological] seed of Abraham by diligence to become his [spiritual] child. And it is possible, by neglect and poor stewardship, for one to cease to be his seed. There was still hope for them, however, to whom the saying was addressed. Jesus knew that they were the seed of Abraham and saw that they had not yet lost the ability to become children of Abraham. Since it was possible for them to become children of Abraham in addition to being his seed, he said, If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. But just as some are seed of Abraham, so others are really seed of Canaan, not of Judah, as Daniel^[1] says….

But if, in addition to being seed of Abraham, they had cultivated the seed of Abraham and given it over to greatness and growth, the word of Jesus would have produced great growth in the seed of Abraham…. But those who wished to kill the Word and to crush him did not contain his greatness…. If any one of us is seed of Abraham and the Word of God does not continue in him still, let him not seek to kill the Word. Let him change from merely being seed of Abraham to becoming a child of Abraham, and he will be able to take in the Word of God, whom he did not have till then.

He removes them by degrees from their relationship to Abraham, teaching them not to pride themselves so much on that relationship. For just as bondage and freedom depend on one’s actions, so also does one’s relationship to another. Still, he does not directly say, You are not the seed of Abraham [because] you are murderers of the righteous. Instead he goes along with them for awhile, affirming that they are Abraham’s seed…. But then, after the witness of his works shuts their mouths, he speaks more boldly: You seek to kill me. And if anyone says, What of it? They were only trying to act justly— this is not the case either. And so he adds the reason they acted the way they did: Because my word has no place in you.

If my word were taken, it would take hold; if you were taken, you would be enclosed like fishes within the nets of faith. What then does it mean that it takes no hold in you? It means that it does not take hold of your heart because it is not received by your heart. For this is how the Word of God is and how it ought to be for believers—as a hook to the fish: it takes when it is taken. And it does no injury to those who are caught by it. They are caught for their salvation, not for their destruction.

He does not say, You do not take in my words but My word has no place in you, thus declaring the depths of his doctrines. And yet, this is not a reason to kill him. In fact, they should have honored him and waited on him in order to learn. But they might say, Why should we pay attention to you if you are speaking about yourself? And so he adds, I speak what I have seen with my Father…. As both by my words and by the truth I declare the Father, so also do you by your actions [declare your father]. For I have not only the same substance but also the same truth with the Father.

But the Lord wishes God the Father to be understood when he says, I speak that which I have seen with my Father. I have seen the truth; I speak the truth because I am the truth. For if the Lord speaks the truth that he has seen with the Father, he has seen himself—he speaks himself because he himself is the truth of the Father, which he saw with the Father. For he is the Word—the Word that was with God.

The Savior is an eyewitness to what was done with the Father…. No one has known the Father except the Son,^[1] since they are no longer eyewitnesses to whom the Son has revealed him.

As of this moment, he has not yet named their father. A little above he referred to Abraham, but this referred to their lineage, not to their similarity of life. He is about to speak of that other father of theirs who neither begat them nor created them to be people. But they were still that father’s children in as far as they were evil, not in as far as they were people. In other words, they were his children because of how they imitated him, not because they were created by him.

They appear to have replied as if they had understood the statement about who their father was in a much lowlier manner than the Lord meant it. For Jesus was referring to God when he declared, And you, therefore, do the things that you have heard from the Father. They, however, make a humbler assertion about the father of their own nation when they say, Abraham is our father.

As if to say: What are you going to say against Abraham?… They seem to be inviting him to say something in disparagement of Abraham and so to give them an opportunity of executing their purpose.

It is clear, however, that the Savior refutes this too as a false statement by his reply, If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham.

And yet he said above, I know that you are Abraham’s children. He does not deny their origin, but he does condemn their deeds. Their flesh was from him but not their life.

Those who fasten on to one of Abraham’s works, such as the statement Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for justice,^[1] think that this is what is referred to in the command, Do the works of Abraham. Even if it is conceded to them that faith is a work (which would not be conceded by those who accept the saying, Faith without works is dead,^[2] as authoritative, nor by those who understand that to be justified by faith differs from being justified by works of law), then let them explain why it was not said in the singular, If you are children of Abraham, do^[3] the work of Abraham. Rather, it is said in the plural, Do the works of Abraham. This is equivalent, I think, to saying, Do all the works of Abraham.

He taught his disciples that he was life and light and truth, and the other conceptions of his divinity. However, to those who were not initiated into the secrets of his nature, he said, Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?

Those who seek to kill him seek to kill a man,^[1] since even if they should kill him, God is not killed. And if they seek to kill him when they have not yet killed him, they plot against him as against a man, not thinking that the one against whom they plot is God. For no one would continue to plot against him if he were convinced that the one against whom he plots is God.

But what is the truth of which he speaks? That he was equal with the Father. For this was what ultimately motivated the Jews to kill him. This is why he adds… which I have heard from my Father, in order to show that this doctrine is not opposed to the Father.

If Abraham has not done what he could not possibly have done, the words this Abraham did not do will seem to have been spoken without purpose. For some would say to this that the statement this Abraham did not do is made in vain, since he did not do what by no means [could have] occurred during his time, for Jesus did not exist during his time. But since I assume that the statement this Abraham did not do has been made in praise of Abraham, as it were, I would say that, in accordance with the word that teaches, Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day, and he saw it and was glad,^[1] it is possible that there was also a man in Abraham’s time who spoke the truth that he heard from God, and that Abraham, in truth, did not seek to kill this man.

In so far as we commit sins, we have not as yet put off the generation of the devil, even if we are thought to believe in Jesus. Consequently Jesus says to those Jews who have believed, You do the works of your father, father meaning the devil because of the statement You are of your father the devil. Now, if everyone who commits sin is of the devil,^[1] everyone who is not of the devil does not commit sin. In addition, if the reason the Son of God appeared was that he might destroy the works of the devil,^[2] to the extent that he has not yet destroyed the works of the devil in us, because we have not presented ourselves to him who destroys the works of the devil, we have not as yet put aside being children of the devil, since it is our fruits that show whose sons we are.