The Eighth Sermon on the First Chapter - Ephesians 1:19-23
Jesus Christ for nought, but that His so doing has been to the end that every one of us might even now, according to the measure of his faith, possess the goods that are peculiar to Him, till He has filled us to the full: which shall be when He has knit us fully to Him.
But now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our sins, praying Him to make us so to feel them, as it may draw us from them, and cause us to direct our life obediently according to His commandments, so as we may show by our deeds, that He has not bought us so dearly in vain, but that we give over all our own fleshly lusts, and yield ourselves wholly to the service of Him that has once adopted us for His heritage. And therefore let us all say, Almighty God our heavenly Father. Amen.
The Eighth Sermon upon the First Chapter.
19. And that you may know what the excellent greatness of His power is towards us believers, according to the working of the mightiness of His strength, 20. Which He uttered in Jesus Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21. Above all principality, and mightiness, and power, and lordship, and above all names that are named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
22. And hath put all things under the feet of Him, and set Him over all things, to be the head of the Church,
23. Which is the body of Him which fills all in all.
I began to tell you this morning, how God has sufficiently declared unto us, that if we have and possess His only Son Jesus Christ, we have the full perfection of all good things, so that if we cast our eye upon Him, we may see all that is to be wished. Therefore, although there are many things blameworthy in us, and we find nothing but frailty in ourselves, yet we shall have a sure and substantial support to lean unto, in that our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to Him and tells us that the things which He has received from God His Father are common to us. And although we do not yet enjoy them fully, we cannot be disappointed of them.
To be short, I told you also that our Lord Jesus Christ is set at the right hand of God His Father, to the end that we might be sure that all things are under His hand, that He rules the whole world, that all good things are from Him, and that He is able to thwart all annoyances. Insomuch that if we are under His protection, we may defy the devil and all our enemies.
And now to the intent we should learn to content ourselves the better with Jesus Christ alone, and not wander here and there as we are wont to do, Saint Paul adds expressly that He was set above all mightiness, sovereignty, principality, and power. No doubt he means the angels; however, he has used this manner of speech to hold us the better to our Lord Jesus Christ, so that no fancy might turn us from Him. As if he should say, although God has imparted some portion of His glory, dignity, and power among the angels, it does not diminish in any way that which He has given to Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we shall find in Him all things that are needful, so we
need not to seek them here and there, nor is it lawful to join any companion with Him. All preeminence, and whatsoever else may be thought or devised to be most noble and excellent, is there—in our
Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is to be sought unto, as Paul himself says also in the first chapter to the Colossians.
For it is not only recently that the world has sought occasion to turn away from our Lord Jesus Christ, under the pretense of seeking to the angels of heaven. We see how God's creatures are always drawn to some superstition, and men make idols of them, because God executes His sovereignty by the angels, and they are as it were His hands, His officers, and His instruments. That is the cause why men think they have done much by committing themselves to Saint
Michael, or to Saint Gabriel, or to I know not whom else. For, as I said, it is not a vice newly devised. The devil, who is the father and author of lying, has entangled men at all times with such fancies, and even Christians have followed the example of the heathen men's doings in that respect. For the heathen have always surmised the angels to be as half-gods, and thought to have them as their mediators by which to come unto God, because they were not worthy of themselves. And in the same manner, talk the Papists at this day.
Now, the very same abominations began to be built upon the earth even in Saint Paul's time. And for that cause, he shows that it is not lawful to match anything with Jesus Christ. Even though the angels be magnified, and be called virtues, powers, lordships, and dominations, and men give them what other titles they like, they must stoop and be inferior to the head, and the chief dignity must be reserved to God's Son, because all knees must bow before Him, not only of worldly creatures but also of heavenly.
We see then that the cause of Saint Paul's packing together of so many words in this place to express the angels with, is that we should
be better held to our Lord Jesus Christ, and rest wholly upon Him, without wandering one way or another, under the pretense that the angels have excellent and noble gifts. And so we see and may gather upon this strain, that all the dotage of the papacy in imagining patrons, advocates, and mediators unto God, sprang up every whit of it from none other cause than for want of knowing our Lord Jesus
Christ, and of the things given unto Him by God His Father. For we have no mind to repose ourselves upon Him, except we know to what end He has come. But the Papists have on one side imagined themselves to be separated from our Lord Jesus Christ, not knowing that He has become our brother, to the end we should repair familiarly unto Him. On the other side, they have robbed Him of His office which is allotted Him in the Holy Scripture, and made but a dead thing of it.
So much the more therefore does it behoove us to mark well these sayings: that we be made all one, and gathered together into one body with the angels of heaven, and with the holy fathers that lived under the Law, and that we and all the prophets, apostles, and martyrs, must with one common accord glorify our common head
Jesus Christ, and resort unto Him. He must be set up on high for every man to look at, and we must not wilfully put blindfoldings before our eyes, but take away all impediment, that His glory be not in any wise dimmed. The very means then to overcome all hindrances that Satan shall cast in our way to stop us from coming to Jesus Christ, is to consider that there is no dignity or worthiness in the whole world, neither above nor beneath, which is not made to stoop, to the end we should all of us be joined unto Him, with one accord. Thus you see in effect what we have to gather upon this text.
True it is that by those words, we are made to understand also, that God distributes offices among His angels as pleases Him, so that one
has a greater charge than another. Yet it is not in our power to know how the case stands with them. Let us be content to know it according to the measure of our faith, and only give ear to God's word, and in all soberness learn of Him, without giving bridle to our own fond curiosity, as a number do, whom we see disputing finely of the angels, as though every one of them would be marshal of God's house, to place every one of the angels according to his degree. For there is not a more devilish presumptuousness than to babble in that sort of God's secrets, further than God has made us privy to them by His word. Therefore let us hold ourselves contented, that the angels
(however noble they be) are ordained to be the ministers of our welfare, by means of Jesus Christ. And whenever we intend to have the familiarity (or acquaintance and help) of them, let us not do as the Papists do, who have their peculiar prayers to make unto them.
Let us repair to Jesus Christ, for by that means shall all things become common between them and us. When having spoken of the Church, we say, I believe the communion of saints: it is certain that the angels are comprehended therein, seeing that God employs them to do us service. And why does He so? It is not because we are worthy of it, but because He has gathered us all together under Jesus Christ.
That therefore is the very bond of concord and brotherhood between us and the angels.
Now hereupon St. Paul adds that Jesus Christ has obtained a name, that is to say, a majesty, which is above all names, both in heaven and on earth. Here St. Paul briefly shows us that all our wisdom is to know the benefits brought to us by the Son of God, and which we possess in Him alone, so long as our faith is wholly settled upon Him. As it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. For, as I told you this morning, inasmuch as God is incomprehensible and dwells in light which we cannot approach, as St. Paul terms it, Jesus Christ
must as it were step in between Him and us, so that we may boldly approach Him and know that He is not far distant nor far separated from us. Therefore, let us mark that whereas here mention is made of a Name, it is because God will be known in the person of His only
Son. It is said herewithal that there are not many Godheads. As touching the essence or being, we have but only one God. And yet in Jesus Christ, we have the living and express image of the Father, so that we find there whatsoever is expedient and requisite for our salvation.
It is said that we ought to glory in our knowing of the only one God, but that is accomplished in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, because when men go about to seek God, they enter into a terrible maze unless Jesus Christ is their way and leader. Thus, we see now whereat St. Paul aimed.
It is added also that the same is not only for this world but also for the other, whereby it is meant that the knowledge which we have of Jesus Christ will suffice us for the heavenly life. Now, it might seem at first blush that there is some contrariety between this text and that which is said in the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. For there he says that at the latter day when the world shall be judged, our Lord Jesus Christ shall yield up the kingdom to God His Father, of whom He holds it. And here he says that Christ is established in all authority, even for the world to come. But these two agree very well. For whereas he says that Jesus Christ has a name above all names, and that He is the image of God His Father, that is because of our rudeness and infirmity.
Also, when He is called God's lieutenant, that is because we could not be at rest unless we knew that God has His hand stretched out to succor us at our need, and we perceive that the better in Jesus Christ,
inasmuch as He has come near unto us and has become our brother.
God then does not so reign by means of Jesus Christ that He should give over His own office and sit idle in heaven Himself. It would be a foolish notion to think so. And truly, we see how our Lord Jesus
Christ speaks thereof in the fifteenth of St. John: "My Father and I," says He, "have always our hand at work." There He shows that the ordaining of Him to be ruler of the world was not to the end that the Father should in the meantime sit unoccupied in heaven, but it is said so in respect of us, to the intent that we should not doubt but that God is continually near at hand to us when we seek Him in faith.
At the latter day, and after the judgment, we shall have new eyes, as says St. John. And forasmuch as we shall be like unto God and be transfigured into His glory, we shall see Him as He is, which thing we cannot do now, because we have too dull wits. Therefore, it is enough for us now that we behold Him as in a glass and darkly, as says St.
Paul, and that we know Him in part. You see then that the yielding up of the kingdom by our Lord Jesus Christ unto God His Father, is that we shall behold God's majesty and substance which is incomprehensible to us as now. For we shall have our nature changed, and we shall be newly fashioned in the heavenly glory, and we shall be quite and clean rid of all the corruption wherewith we are encompassed about as now.
And yet for all this, it is not meant that Jesus Christ shall be abased, for He shall then be much better in His perfection, according as it is said in the third to the Colossians, that our life is hid in God with Jesus Christ, and that when Jesus Christ appears, then shall our life be discovered likewise. To be short, when we have come to the sovereign bliss that is purchased for us, then shall we have the thing that lies as yet but in hope, and Jesus Christ shall gather all things to Himself, so that we shall then be partakers of His glory, every man
according to his own degree and measure. Thus you see how these two texts agree very well, namely, that God has given Christ a name above all names, and also that He shall yield up the kingdom to God the Father. And why? For we shall then see His heavenly majesty, which we are not able to conceive as now because we are fleshly.
Also, we shall perceive that whereas Jesus Christ has appeared unto us a mortal man, He has been so glorified in His human nature, that in very deed He is God, of one same substance with His Father. This,
I say, shall be fully known then, whereas now we have but a little shadow of it.
Furthermore, let us learn that when Jesus Christ was exalted by God His Father, it was to the end that His advancement should serve to our everlasting salvation. And therefore, in the ninth of Isaiah, He is called the Father of the world to come, to the end we might know, not only that He is given unto us for this transitory life, but also that the substance of the faith which is grounded in Him, is in heaven.
And there we shall feel the fruit of the thing that is now hidden, and which we taste as yet but in part, and that we shall enter into full possession of all the goods that are given to Him already. Thus, you see why St. Paul has purposely made express mention of the world to come.
He adds immediately that God has put all things under His feet and made Him head of the Church above all things. His speaking here of the subjection of the whole world is to show that whatever we need, if we can resort to our Lord Jesus Christ, He is able to succour us, for He has the means to do so. Yea, and we must mark well how it is said in the eighth Psalm, that God has care of all things, even unto the sheep, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea. To be short, all creatures are put under His feet. And to what end? The Holy Ghost meant to draw us thereby, as little babes, and to show that the
spiritual benefits (which we ought to have in greatest estimation) are communicated to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
His saying then is that we might not eat one bite of bread, save in the respect that we are members of Jesus Christ. For it is as if he intended to train us up higher by degrees, inasmuch as all things are given to our Lord Jesus Christ, with the condition that if we are indeed members of His body, all things that He has belong to us, and that if we do not separate ourselves from Him, He will hereafter make us partakers of far higher and more excellent goods: that is to say, we shall be named God's children and be taken as such, becoming the temples of His Holy Ghost. And what a thing is that?
What a thing is it that we may come freely unto Him and call upon Him boldly as our Father? What a thing is it to be enriched again with the gifts that we were bereft of by the sin of Adam? What a thing is it to be matched in fellowship with the angels, instead of being under the tyranny of Satan and the thraldom of sin? How can we have these so high and noble things, seeing we cannot claim so much as a morsel of bread as our own without theft, save that we are members of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Now then we see what St. Paul aimed at in saying that all things are made subject to our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, let us learn now to give God thanks in the name of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom He has sent not only to feed and nourish our bodies but also to be food to our souls, that they may live everlastingly. And by that means, let us learn to accustom ourselves to acknowledge that our
Lord Jesus Christ has the means to succour all our necessities. Then, if the devil makes so violent an assault upon us that we may be afraid of utter quailing, let us understand that our Lord Jesus Christ has an invincible fortress with which to defend us against him, and armies with which to make us invincible in all battles. Therefore, when we
are weak, let us resort to His strength. When we lack any grace, let us desire Him to give us what He thinks necessary. When our enemies play the mad beasts, and it seems that we should be quite and clean swallowed up as it were in gulfs, let us beseech our Lord Jesus Christ to hold us under His protection, and to hold Satan and all his upholders as it were chained, so that He suffers us not to be overcome by them. You see then how all things were made subject to our Lord Jesus Christ, not for His own use (for what need had He of them?) but for our sakes, to the end that He should give us whatever
He knows to be for our benefit, and that we should also learn to seek all things at His hand, and that when He sees our enemies have the advantage over us, He should repress them, as He well can.
Furthermore, whereas St. Paul says here that He was ordained head in the Church (or over the Church) in all things, it is a continuation of his argument to bring us wholly to Jesus Christ. As if he should say, "It is true that God's gracious gifts are distributed abroad, and that the angels and mortal men also may be ministers of them to us: but yet, however the case stands, we must always resort to the source." The veins that are dispersed throughout the whole body may well give strength to every part, for they are as it were the conduits of the blood. However, the brain must always be the wellspring of life.
It is well seen that in a tree, the sap is spread throughout. And yet, although the root does not ascend up to give nourishment to every branch and leaf, all the nourishment comes from the root. If any man would say that the whole tree is maintained alive by any one branch, the clean contrary is seen. It is true that a great bough may well give nourishment to the branches and twigs that are about it, but it is not proper that this should prejudice the root. No more should the members of a man's body prejudice the head, though every member does its duty.
Here St. Paul says that our Lord Jesus Christ was given to the Church to be her head above all things, as if he should say, "It behooves us all to resort unto Him." In this case, there is neither St. Paul, nor St.
Peter, nor the Virgin Mary, nor St. Michael that has anything of their own. For they are all needy and hungry, save so far as Jesus Christ fills them. Therefore, all of them, both great and small, must be compelled to draw from His abundance. And that is the cause why, in the selfsame text which I quoted out of the first to the Colossians, St.
Paul says it pleased God the Father that all fullness should dwell in Him. For the title of Head is not only a style of fleeting honour, but it serves to express the power of our Lord Jesus Christ all the better.
Therefore, just as a natural head not only has superiority and preeminence above the whole body, but also yields nourishment to the whole and keeps the man alive, even so it is between our Lord
Jesus Christ and us, inasmuch as all should go to wreck if we did not depend upon Him. Although it may seem that we have received right excellent gifts at God's hand already, yet notwithstanding, all is but wind and smoke unless we hold out in the union of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Herewithal it behooves us to note also that inasmuch as Christ is called a head, it is fitting that all others should obey Him, and that we should yield unto His doctrine, that He may rule all things as the head rules all the rest of a man's body. For the feet go, and the hands stir, and to be short, there is no part which is not willing and forward to do whatever the head shall appoint it. The same must be done in the Church: Jesus Christ must rule, and all men must quietly obey
Him.
And so we have to note in this text, first, that our salvation depends so much on Jesus Christ that there are neither angels nor men, however holy they may be, who do not need to receive from His hand
the things that they lack in themselves. Therefore, when we stand in need of anything that is requisite either for the present life or for the heavenly life, either for our bodies or for our souls, there is no running to St. Peter nor to St. Paul, but we must go straight to our
Lord Jesus Christ. Mark that for one point.
Secondly, let us also learn to allow ourselves to be ruled and held in awe by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may show ourselves to be true members of His body. He cannot be our head without also being our Shepherd and having all authority over us.
Just as I told you that the devil has laboured to deface the glory of God's only Son under the pretence of angels, so on the other side, he has sent us an idol into the world to be a barrier in our way, so that Jesus Christ might be separated from us. For the Pope is not ashamed to spew out this blasphemy, that the Church should be but a headless body if he himself did not reign over it and have universal dominion over it, so that everyone looked to him, and his seat was above the whole world. And that is as much as if he should say that Jesus Christ has no more to do here, but ought to hold Himself content with heaven and let His successor rule in His stead. But herein we see how he overshoots himself, attempting to abolish the whole sovereignty of the Son of God.
Therefore, it stands us in good stead to bear well this text in mind, where St. Paul says that Jesus Christ is appointed to be head of the Church above all things. It is true that the Pope will affirm himself to be but an under-head and that Jesus Christ is not thrust out of His place. But let us look back to what I have already touched upon:
Jesus Christ will not have an imaginary title but will have His power reserved to Himself, which belongs to Him. For a head requires not only to be set highest but also to have all men receive all things from Him. It behoves us all to understand that He is the very root of our
life, the fountain from which it behoves us to draw, notwithstanding that He sends forth His spiritual benefits and goods among us by such channels or conduits as He thinks good. Thus, you see what we have further briefly to bear in mind.
This matter is laid forth more at large in the first chapter to the Colossians. For St. Paul shows there that our Lord Jesus Christ was appointed to be the head even from the beginning of the world, forasmuch as all things were created in Him, and not only because
He is our redeemer today. For if Adam had not fallen into the ruin into which he has drawn us with him, yet God's Son would have always been the firstborn of all creatures. Not that He Himself is a creature, but because He is the foundation, according also as St. Paul adds the reason thereof, which is, that in Him the angels were created, and in Him they have their being or abiding. You see then that the Son of God should not have ceased to have all preeminence both above and beneath, though we had not fallen with our father
Adam into such confusion as we are in.
But now our Lord Jesus Christ must be our head in another manner: that is to say, to reconcile us with God His Father, and to gather us together again unto Him, from whom we were estranged by sin, so that He was our deadly enemy until we were brought into favour again by means of Jesus Christ, by the forgiveness of our sins. And besides this, St. Paul declares in the same text that Jesus Christ was ordained head of the Church, to the end that all fullness should be in Him. Thus we see how we ought to be knit with the angels, with the ancient fathers, and with the prophets, with the condition that our
Lord Jesus Christ must nonetheless not only continue the first and chief but also have all things referred unto Him, and we communicate together in such wise that every one of us keeps his place and we all be members of one body, and that there be no more
heads thereof but only one. For if we add any fellow to Jesus Christ, it is a bereaving Him of the thing that God His Father has given to Him alone. Let us be content that He makes us partakers of all His benefits, upon condition that we acknowledge all things to come from Him and seek all things in Him.
In the forty-fifth Psalm, it is well shown that we are all fellows with Jesus Christ and that we receive some portion of all the good things that were given unto Him. But yet for all that, it is not to be said that He is fellow and fellow-like with us, and that He cannot be discerned from His apostles, as the Papists prate in their foolish proverb. But it is to the end that we should know that none of all the good things which we can wish are far from us, but that they are offered to us by Him, and that He is so liberal that He desires nothing else at our hands but that we should receive the things that are for our own welfare. According as He Himself says, "Come unto me all ye that are athirst, come drink water, yea even without money or money's worth, drink your fill of water, wine, and milk." There our Lord shows how it is He that we must resort unto, and that if we look upon Him, His majesty is too high and too far off from us. Jesus Christ, therefore, must be our means, and forasmuch as He is come down to us, let us also repair unto Him. According as it is said in the seventh of St.
John, "Come unto me all ye that are athirst, and whosoever drinketh of the water that I will give him, he shall have his belly so full that fountains of water shall flow out of him." Conditionally that men seek faithfully in Jesus Christ for the things they need, He will give us not only so much as shall serve the turn of every one of us for himself but also so much as we shall be able to bestow upon our neighbours too, and to succour their want.
Now for a conclusion, St. Paul adds that the Church is the body and the fulfilment of Him who accomplishes all things in all people. By
terming the Church the body of Jesus Christ, he reiterates the point I have already touched upon: that we need not make long detours or difficult journeys to obtain the things we need. For since we are united and joined to the Son of God, what more do we require? We must acknowledge this principle, that we have neither life, nor gladness, nor any good thing, but only in God alone. Having established this, let us see by what means we may attain to Him, and that is by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus you see the reason why it is said here that all fullness dwells in Him, and that it is His duty to unite us to God and to draw us back from the scattering in which we find ourselves. Therefore, we cannot deviate to convey any part of what is reserved for Jesus Christ alone to St. Peter or St. Paul without robbing God of His due. It is true that we may not acknowledge this, but our hypocrisy will not acquit us before God. We may well pretend many excuses, but in confessing that we ought to seek all our welfare at God's hand, we condemn ourselves.
Well then, if we claim that we are not worthy to press into God's presence, it is true, and if we ask how we may be able to fly without wings, that is true too. If we say, then we must repair to St. Peter or St. Paul, we speak of our own accord. For God says the exact opposite. "I send you to My only Son," says He, "for in Him shall you find all that you need. Fear not that you shall have any scarcity if you are once filled with the grace that I have placed in Him, and which abides in Him." This is why the Prophet Isaiah speaks purposefully of wine, water, and milk, as if to say, we have all fullness of life in Jesus Christ.
As for those who wander to St. Peter and St. Paul, seeking patrons and mediators, they not only wrong Jesus Christ by distributing the
gift that is wholly given to Him, but also rob God of His honour. For since it is His will that all fullness should dwell in Jesus Christ, it is certain that we openly defy Him when we do not abide within the boundaries He has set, by subjecting ourselves to the person He has given to us to provide all that we need.
Yet, the thing which he adds should be a greater and larger comfort to us when he says that the Church is the fulfilment of Him who accomplishes all. By this word fulfilment, he means that our Lord
Jesus Christ, and also God His Father, account themselves as incomplete unless we are joined to Him. And that is a testament to God's infinite goodness, which is beyond marvelling at. First and foremost, God does not need to borrow from others, for He is perfect in Himself; He lacked nothing even before He made the world. When
He made it, did He do it for His own benefit or advantage? No, it was solely so that we should know His goodness, power, wisdom, and righteousness, and be witnesses to it. He has set us here as on a stage, to see His glory in all His creatures. Yet, He could very well forgo us.
But suppose that God should borrow from others to perfect Himself, and that He were like mortal men, none of whom can forgo company.
Suppose that God were such a one, what are we? How can He fare better by being joined to us? It is as if the sun were matched with a quagmire. For what have we but infection and filthiness? What else are we but things so corrupted by Adam's sin that it is horrible to think? How then can we bring any such perfection to God? Although there is nothing but frailty in us, although we are froward and lewd, although there is nothing in us but all manner of filth, and although we are loathsome in His sight, yet it is His will to have us joined to Him, even on the condition that He should be perfected in us by His and our joining together in that manner.
As if a father should say, "It seems to me my house is empty when I do not see my child in it." A husbandman will say, "It seems to me I am but half a man when my wife is not with me."
In the same manner, God expresses that He does not consider Himself complete and perfect without gathering us to Him and making us one with Himself. He takes His entire pleasure in us and wants His glory to shine forth in us, so that His beams may spread out on all sides. Although the whole glory is in Himself, He desires it to be seen that we should have our part and portion of it. Thus, you see in effect what St. Paul meant by calling the Church the fulfilment of God and of Jesus Christ.
Now then, can we be excused before God when we say that we cannot come to Him, seeing we are His body in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ? If one of our feet, being diseased, would run I know not where and roam up and down, saying, "I go to seek a remedy somewhere else," and for performance thereof, would be cut off from the body; if (I say) the members of a body had any understanding and discretion and could speak after that manner, would it not be madness that the foot should say it would be rent from the body to seek elsewhere the thing that it needs?
Even so, when the Papists and other idolaters allege that they must serve their turn by the saints and have various mediators and means to bring them to God, it is as if they should say, "Jesus Christ is nobody, nor have we any access or entrance to Him." Are the members separated from the head? Truly, St. Paul has here accused and condemned all those of unthankfulness and unkindness who, under the pretext of unworthiness to come to God, devise new means, separate themselves from Jesus Christ, and diminish His power by rending it into pieces. St. Paul condemns them for not
accepting the benefit and privilege offered to them, in that our Lord Jesus Christ has condescended to become one with them as with His own body. Now then, let us learn to have such familiarity with our
Lord Jesus Christ as to resort to Him at all times whenever we are aware of our faults and needs.
Furthermore, to ensure that His majesty is not defaced thereby, St.
Paul adds that He ceases not to accomplish all things in all men. On the one hand, we see that when men are endowed with God's gifts, they start thrusting themselves into His place and want to be esteemed in His stead. After that manner do we behave, and we deceive ourselves into thinking that the gifts which God has bestowed upon us freely are as a prize or booty to boast of and to advance ourselves more than is lawful. On the other hand, when we hear of Jesus Christ, how He was abased for our sakes, how He went down into the dungeons of death, and how He condescended to be subject to all reproach, it seems to us that we may well despise Him.
St. Paul, therefore, to humble our pride and to show that Jesus Christ was not so abased that His glory was diminished, says that nevertheless He does all in all things. Wherefore, let us learn to receive the blessing, grace, and benefits given to us by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therewith, let us acknowledge that we are not only made from nothing, and that our life is but a fleeting and vanishing shadow, but also that all the virtue and excellence we think we have is like a green flower, which withers as soon as God breathes upon it.
Therefore, let us not imagine ourselves to be rich when we are poor; let us not vaunt ourselves of our own free will; let us not presume upon our own merits or any of the flimflams devised by the devil in popery. Instead, let us draw from the fountain that cannot be drained dry, that we may find what we need to quench our thirst whenever we are dry.
Finally, there are two means by which God does all in all things. Just as He Himself created the world, so also must all things be guided and governed by His hand. If it is asked who causes the sun to rise and set every day, who guides the whole order of nature, who orders the days, months, and years, and who makes the interchange of day and night: It is God who does all in all things. The same must be said of all other things we perceive in the universal governance of the whole world. Therefore, we must not imagine that God was a Creator for just a moment, but that He continues to sustain the things He created.
However, St. Paul speaks here of the spiritual goods which are, as it were, the peculiar heritage of God's children. God does all things in us: not only by the common order of nature, but by enlightening us with the belief of the Gospel, by sanctifying us, cleansing us from the vices and wicked lusts of our flesh, by drawing us from the world, and, in short, by providing us all things requisite to our welfare and salvation. Thus, you see how He does all in all things. As if St. Paul had declared in one word that the faithful are nothing, can do nothing, and have nothing of themselves. He speaks not here of the sun, the moon, the trees in the fields, or any other fruit, nor of beasts, nor yet of men as the children of Adam, but of those whom
God has begotten again by His Holy Spirit. So, whatsoever concerns salvation or belongs to the heavenly life is not to be had but only at His hand who has all things in Himself and does all in all things, as is said of Him here.
Therefore, let us learn to empty ourselves, to offer ourselves in sacrifice to God with true and right humility, to yield Him His deserved praise, so that none of us separates ourselves from Him through our own unkindness, but all of us honour Him by confessing that we hold all from Him, that we are joined to Him by our Lord