Part 8
For Saint Paul does not set down any mean way here, as though he said that we should find that which we want, in Jesus Christ, and be able to have the rest of ourselves. But he says that for as much as we know once that we cannot be taken as righteous for our own deserts, nor for our own works, only faith must content and suffice us. Wherefore let us understand, that there is not one whit of our salvation out of Jesus Christ, but that we have there both the beginning and the end of it, that is to say every whit of it: and let us abide continually in that lowliness, knowing that we bring nothing with us but damnation, and that all that ever pertains to our salvation must be received of God's only free mercy, so as we may say that it is by faith that we be saved, that is to say, because God the father has appointed his son our Lord Jesus Christ for us to rest upon, that he might both begin and finish our salvation, in such wise as the whole must be fathered upon him, and we learn to renounce ourselves, and to give ourselves fully and wholly unto him.
And now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our sins, praying him to make us so to feel them, as we may dislike more and more of them, and grow and go forward in the amendment wherein we ought to spend our whole life, and learn to magnify his goodness in such wise, as it has been showed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, so as we may be wholly ravished with it: and that the same may be, not a glorying of it with our mouth only, but a putting of our whole trust in him, so as we may be settled in it more and more, till we be gathered up into the everlasting life, where we shall have the reward of our faith. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people. &c.
The Thirteenth Sermon,
which is the seventh upon the second
Chapter.
17 But if we who seek to be justified by Christ are found to be sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? No, not so.
18 For if I build up the things again which I had cast down, I make myself an offender.
We have seen already that to dismantle all the pride and self-trust which men place in their own works and merits, Paul cited that the Jews, who had great privilege above other men, could not, for all that, earn God's favor except by believing the Gospel. Yet, it was a good assumption that the Jews had some righteousness in themselves by which to earn God's favor, because the law was given to them with the promise that whoever performed those things would live by them. Therefore, one might have judged that the Jews, even in regard to themselves alone without Christ, could have been justified before God to some extent; otherwise, it would seem that the law was unnecessary. But when they come to our Lord Jesus Christ, there they perceive themselves to be wretched sinners, lost, and condemned. It should seem then that Jesus Christ brings sin, for before his coming, the Jews were considered God's children. They bore the badge of holiness in their bodies, and moreover, it was said to them that they were the holy and chosen people of their God. Now
then, seeing they become fellow-like with wretched sinners, and there is nothing but cursedness to be found in them, so they are forced to flee for refuge to the mere grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it seems that Jesus Christ brought sin into the world. Truly, so will men judge of him according to their own opinion, albeit foolishly.
For it behooves us to note that our Lord Jesus Christ does not bring sin but reveals sin. For although the Jews exercised themselves in keeping the law, yet that only served to prove to them more and more that God would never show them mercy except through the means of the Redeemer. No doubt that in living chastely and soberly, and moreover in obeying God, they had some appearance of righteousness, but that came wholly of grace, and we must not attribute that to men which belongs to God, for by that means, God would be deprived of his honor. Then if the Jews, being governed by God's spirit, had some willingness and desire to lead a holy life, it must not be accounted that God was indebted to them for it; contrarily, they are much more bound to God. But on the other side, we have to note (as we shall see more fully in due time and place) that there was never yet any man so perfect but there was always much to be blamed in him. Therefore, we have to conclude that the Jews could not be so well accepted by God, but that they needed his mercy, and their salvation must necessarily be wholly grounded upon the forgiveness of their sins. Also, regarding ceremonies, they believed that there was great holiness in them, which hypocrites have always used as their cloak. But however they fared, it is certain that the Jews were more damnable than all other men. And why? For (as Saint Paul says) without the law, sin does not upbraid men, to the extent that men fall asleep and flatter themselves in their vices when they do not have that Summoner to cite them before God's judgment seat.
Then, whereas the wretched Gentiles might have some defense and excuse, at least that they are not so guilty before God, the Jews, in offering their sacrifices, had it witnessed to their face that all of them were worthy of eternal death and so consequently doubly guilty in comparison to the Gentiles. And therefore, in the second letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul uses this similitude, that the Ceremonies of the law were as evidence to bind a man more tightly. Truly, just as although a debtor is not condemned by the order of law, nor has he bound himself before a notary, nor given assurance in writing under his hand and seal, yet he ceases not for all that to be bound [in conscience] to pay his debt; even so, although the Gentiles had not any authentic matter of record by which to be condemned, yet they ceased not to still be worthy of death. But as for the man who has passed bonds by the order of law and entered his debt in the common records, what shall he say more? There is no escape for him; he must answer [the debt] out of hand. Now, the Jews were in a similar plight. For their washing of themselves when they went into the Temple, and in their own houses, and everywhere else, was a confession that there was nothing but uncleanness in them. Again, when they killed the beasts and saw them slain before them, surely the same was as a vivid picture of their own death and cursed state. And yet could not the brute beasts nor the shedding of their blood clear them, nor likewise the water, which is a corruptible element and cannot reach the soul. So then, the washing which they used had been a foolish thing if it had not directed them to the spiritual washing which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise in baptism in these days, if we think ourselves to be made clean by the water, what an abuse is it? All these things must serve to lead us to the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I conclude that whereas the Jews were exercised in the law, the same was a greater evidence against them and bound them more closely to subjection to God's judgment and eternal death than the Gentiles were.
And so we see how Jesus Christ was not a bringer-in of sin but a discoverer of sin. For the Jews thought themselves well-shielded under the Ceremonies and made a shield of them to defend themselves from God's displeasure, considering all other nations unholy, under the opinion that there was nothing but uncleanness in all the world besides, and that all holiness was in themselves. See what their arrogance was. Yet when Jesus Christ came and put things in order, he showed them that they should be obliged to show other men by their own example that their salvation was to be sought elsewhere than in their own merits and that it behooved them to come to him with such humility as to confess that they brought nothing with them but utter cursedness. And by that means, our Lord Jesus Christ revealed the mischief that had been hidden before, just as diseased persons shall often not perceive the festering of some sore that will breed some deadly disease until the Surgeon finds it out, who cannot do his duty in curing it until he has searched the sore to the bottom which was unknown before. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ was forced to reveal the wretchedness that was in the Jews so that they should return to him and confess that they had nothing in them worthy of God's favor, nor any other refuge than to his mere mercy. Thus, you see in effect what we have to consider for the solution of the question and doubt which Saint Paul puts forth here.
Likewise in these days, if a man speaks of the Gospel to such as think they serve God and hope to win heaven by their own deserts, they are grieved at it because that gate is shut against them by the presumption which they have conceived beforehand, saying: "What, I pray? Shall I have lost my time when I have been so devout all my life long?" As for the man who shall have heard a Mass or two, or mumbled up a sort of prayers, or gone on pilgrimage, or lashed out his money and substance (without sparing) upon pardons,
indulgences, and such other things: if one tells him that we are all wretched and that there is nothing else for us to lean unto but the mere grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that all that ever we are able to bring unto God is but filthy and loathly, he will storm and reply, "Is it possible that God should have no regard for so great pains as I take to serve him? Must not all of it pass into my account and be allowed to my salvation?" They would fain accuse God, yes, and we shall see many that will not stick to rail upon him with open mouth because they are loath to lose what they have done. Although the hypocrites perceive much lewdness in themselves, yet they would fain hide all under their cowls. For they break out in this manner: One says, "I have gone woolward"; another, "I have risen at midnight to serve God"; the third, "I have refrained from eating flesh"; and another, "I have been shut up in a Cloister as in a prison, and finally, I have been dead to the worldward, and shall all this be unprofitable to me, so as God will have no regard of it?" Such murmurings as these we shall hear daily. But let us see if they can make their case the better for all their replying. For when they have well examined what is in them, they shall find that all their doings are but as a painting to overlay things with, like a man who intends not to repair his house, leaves the holes unmended within, and does but daub them over on the outside so they are not seen, and afterward whitewashes them, so that finally, it is nothing else but a plastering or whitewashing, according also as our Lord Jesus Christ uses the same similitude against the hypocrites that did no more but blanch things. However, in the meantime, God regards not the outward appearance, as it is said in the first of Samuel, but searches men's hearts and the truth and lays open the things that were hidden before, according also as it is said in Jeremiah. Since it is so, then all such as allege or set forth their own devotions may perhaps have some fair show before men, but surely, before God, all is but lying. And as soon as God but blows upon their painting and starch, it shall
scale off like the painting of harlots that take great pains to starch their faces, and yet the Sun does no sooner shine upon them, but a man shall see the filthy scales fall off, and their foulness is discovered to their shame. In like taking are all hypocrites when they will needs color things after that manner before God; their shameful lewdness must needs be brought to light.
Therefore, let us mark that our Lord Jesus Christ, in condemning the whole world by showing that none can be saved but by the free goodness of God his father, which he offers and imparts to us, brings not sin (for we have that already in us) but utters and betrays it so that we should be convicted of it, and all the pride wherewith we were made drunken before be laid down, and nothing remains in us but lowliness to confess unfeignedly that we are undone, and that there is no other shift for us but that God utter the infinite treasures of his mercy upon us. You see then that all mouths shall be stopped, and men must not beguile themselves anymore by surmising to find any righteousness in themselves.
Furthermore, Saint Paul uses here a double answer to show that it is nothing so. However, before he answers, he sets down a precise word, saying: "God forbid." As if he should say, it is a horrible blasphemy to intend to lay the blame of our sins upon our Lord Jesus Christ. For (says he) if I pull down the thing that I have built up, there shall be contrariety in me. And in speaking so, he brings us back to the common doctrine of the Gospel. For our preaching of the end whereunto God has sent his only son is to show that he has brought us righteousness and is come to put away sin, which holds us as it were under Tyranny, till we be delivered and set free from it by the grace which was purchased for us in the death and passion of the Son of God.
Now then, seeing it is so, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the bringer in of sin, but is come to destroy sin (as Saint John says in his Canonical Epistle) and we also do see it to be so. For what else does the Gospel teach us but that we are full of all wickedness, and must be fain to be made clean by him who is made the Lamb without spot, and also that he has brought us the spirit of holiness? For as much then as men, so long as they are cut off from Christ, have nothing in them but cursedness, so as they are utterly rotten and steeped in their sins, and that Jesus Christ is the party that makes them pure and clean by the shedding of his blood to wash them withal and by bringing us the spirit [of regeneration] to renew us with, that we might give ourselves to the serving of God, have his Image repaired in us, and walk in truth and uprightness.
For as much as it is said so: we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the bringer in of sin. And why so? For let us consider what we are, and we shall find that there is a gulf of all manner of wickedness in every one of us, and in all mankind. But our Lord Jesus Christ comes to remedy it. You see then that the sin was in us before: but our Lord Jesus Christ is forced to uncover it. What harm does a Physician by letting blood? Behold, a wretched man has a disease that is not perceived: his blood is altogether corrupted, and yet it is not seen to be so as long as it lies within the veins. But let him once be let blood, it will appear that it was no blood, but filthy corrupt matter. Again, what filthiness voids out of a man's body when he is purged for some disease? Now shall the Physician be blamed for it, or the medicine that was given him? It is well known that the purgation serves to deliver the body that was half rotten before.
So then if our Lord Jesus Christ does by the light of his Gospel reveal the spiritual diseases that were in us, and the filthy uncleanness which is loathly before God and shameful before men, and does
purge us quite and clean thereof: ought he to be charged with any blame or reproach for his labor? What an unthankfulness were that? Therefore, here is a sufficient answer to beat back the blasphemies and grudgings of the enemies of the Gospel, which burst for pride and cannot endure to be tamed.
Let them allege what they can to prove that they have some righteousness and holiness: and yet shall it always be found that there is nothing but uncleanness in them, which they wist not of, and yet it shows itself continually. Mark that for one point.
Secondly, Saint Paul adds a more large and easy declaration when he says that he is dead to the lawward by the law itself: and that he was crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God. Now when he says that he was dead to the lawward by the law: it is in way of mocking such as pretend to be justified by keeping of the law. For I have told you already how all his disputing and striving was against such kind of folk. They were but deceivers who went about to mingle Jesus Christ with the law of Moses, yea even to get righteousness. For it is certain that our Lord Jesus Christ is not contrary to the law, but rather his Gospel takes witness of the law, as it is showed in the first chapter to the Romans.
Nevertheless, when the matter concerns justification, that is to say, when men come to scrutinize, to know how and by what means God takes and accepts them as innocent, pure, and without spot, then must the law be separated from Jesus Christ. And why? For the law brings nothing in it but cursing: and Jesus Christ brings the remedy of it. Therefore, the enemies of the Gospel against whom Saint Paul now disputes would have mingled the law with it, and have made men believe that although they were justified by our Lord Jesus Christ, yet notwithstanding they should mingle the ceremonies with
him as a part of their salvation, and that by means of them they should purchase grace and favor before God.
But Saint Paul cuts off all this gear, and says that there is none but only Jesus Christ [that can do that] and that men must seek none other helps in that case either one way or other, but simply content themselves with his grace, and not give the law any room in that behalf. For he says, as for me, I am not dead through the Gospel. As if he should say, will you make me believe that I can get God's favor by means of the law? Nay, I tell you contrariwise, that it is not the Gospel which has condemned me, it is not the Gospel that has showed me my filthiness, to make me ashamed of it, it is not the Gospel that has bereft me of all hope of salvation: but it is the Law, which has showed me that I am stark dead, that I am damnable before God, that I am undone and damned: This comes not from elsewhere than from the law. And would you have me to seek righteousness there? It is all one as if you would give me a poison to eat, to the end I should take nourishment of it. However (to say truth) that inconvenience is not to be blamed upon the Law, for it should redound to the dishonor of God, from the Law came.
But however the case stands, considering the corruption that is in us, the Law cannot but kill us, as we have seen in the second to the Corinthians, and as Saint Paul declares more fully in the seventh to the Romans. For he says, that when men believe themselves to have life: that is to say, when they believe themselves to be righteous, and to stand in the grace and favor of God: it is a sign that the law is dead to them, that is to say, that it hath not the power and strength to show them that which else it should do. For to what end was the law given? To set the rule of good life before our eyes, and that rule is called the righteousness which God allows.
Secondly, the law ought to be as a looking glass to us, wherein to behold our own deformities, blemishes, foulness, filthiness, and iniquities, so far out of all order, as we may be as it were swallowed up in despair at the sight of them. Now before we have the law, we see none of all these things: that is to say, we know not what manner of ones we be, nor what evil is in us. But when God sets his demands before us, and we perceive the same thoroughly: then are we at our wits' end, and utterly out of hope. The Law then is dead: that is to say, it is as it were thrust underfoot and as good as buried, so long as we think ourselves to be alive, and conceive any foolish imagination of being righteous, and of obtaining heaven by our own good works. But when the law lives: that is to say, when God gives it power to touch us, then are we dead, then is it as a sword to thrust us to the heart.
Therefore we must needs receive a deadly wound, so soon as we have perceived what the Law contains. After that manner speaks Saint Paul in the text which I have alleged. And now, following the same matter, he says that he is dead to the Law by the Law: as if he had said, "Come not hither to slander the Gospel, as though it were the cause of our damnation, or an entrance unto us to be cursed before God, to have the knowledge of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in us. No, no. But it is certain that the Law (when it does its office, and we read it in such wise as becomes us) does always kill us, and we lie as it were plunged in despair, till our Lord Jesus Christ have reached us his hand to lift us out of it. Thus then am I dead unto the law, that is to say, I can have no life, I can have no assurance of soul health, I can have no comfort, rest nor contentation, and to be short, there is nothing in the law whereby I may come unto God: but clean contrariwise, it shaketh me off, it thrusteth me back, it banisheth me from the kingdom of heaven, it cutteth me quite off from the hope of salvation, it maketh me a poor, cursed, and wretched creature, and to
be short, it sendeth me to the bottom of hell. You see then what I have won by abiding in the law. And Saint Paul speaks of himself rather than of any other body, to the end that the things which he speaks may be the better received, as of a man of experience.
And it is after the same manner that he speaks in the fore-alleaged seventh Chapter to the Romans. For there he sets not forth this man or that man for an example, but says, "I myself was sometimes alive": that is to say, at such time as he was a Pharisee, and accounted a holy man, yea even for one of the excellentest in all Jewry, in so much that he was a mirror of all perfection, and as a little Angel: then (says he) I was alive, howbeit but by hypocrisy. For he made himself to believe wonders, and he was so puffed up with pride, that he held scorn of Jesus Christ. Lo in what blindness Saint Paul acknowledges himself to have been. And he adds anon after, that he wist not what was meant by, "Thou shalt not covet." It might be thought strange that a man which had not only been at school, but also been a great teacher of others, and thereto a very zealous man as he himself affirms, should be so dulled as not to know his own faults. But Saint Paul shows the reason of it. For (says he) I looked no further than to the outward honesty, that there might no fault be found in me before the world, nor any man know any evil by me. But when I understood what this saying, "Thou shalt not lust," meant, and perceived that God condemns all the affections, and thoughts of men: then I perceived that the worst was behind, as the common Proverb says: for it is the last commandment of the law, wherein God makes so lively, and deep a search as nothing can be excepted from it.
Whereas it is said in the law, "Thou shalt not have any strange gods: Thou shalt not make any image to worship it: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: Thou shalt keep holy the day of rest: Thou shalt honor thy father & mother: Thou shalt not kill: Thou
shalt not commit adultery: Thou shalt not steal": All this is well (will we think), we must abstain from all whoredom, violence and extortion: we must abstain from deceit and robbery: we must live soberly. Here too, we must abstain from blasphemy, and we must honor God. All this will easily be granted. But there is a back look that we perceived not, which is, "Thou shalt not covet" or lust: that is a privy nipper. Truly it seems not to be very big or great: but yet for all that, it is such a stinger, as passes all the rest in biting. For by the end and winding up of his Law, God searches out all that ever is in man. He sets down that commandment, to try out the things that were hidden: and when he says, "thou shalt not covet," it is a piercing even into the marrow of men's bones. So then Saint Paul confesses that he knew not what sin meant, till he understood what was meant by the commandment that forbids men to covet or lust. And therefore in this text he charges not the Gospel, but the Law with it. Wherefore let us remember upon this text, that all they which deceive themselves by any opinion of their own merits, never tasted what the Law of God is, nor what it meaneth: I speak of the greatest doctors that are in most estimation, as (in good faith) it is to be seen in the Papadome. For even those that are taken to be the pillars of the Church, (notwithstanding that they profess Divinity) know not one word of God's law, to apply the same to his true and natural use. For they have nothing in them but hypocrisy, and they bear themselves in hand, that they shall please God with a rattle, as if he were a little babe. They do but toy with him, and yet you shall see them stand so much in their own conceits, as they cannot abide to be condemned. And if a man tell them that we must seek our salvation in Jesus Christ: yea, say they? and what shall become then of our free will? what should become of our own merits and satisfactions? To their seeming it were much better to pluck the sun out of the sky, yea and God out of his seat too, than to bereave man of that prerogative, or of the thing that he can bring of himself to compound with God
and yet for all that, it is certain that there is nothing in them but stark filthiness. For men see that there is neither fear of God, nor uprightness, nor equity, nor aught else [that is good] in their life. They be so full of pride that they be ready to burst again, and they be full of envy, rancor, and all manner of looseness. And yet for all this, they will needs hold God bound unto them: but that is because they never knew the law.
So then, when our Lord teaches us and shows us how we ought to walk in this world, let us learn to lay the doctrine that he sets forth and our life together, and there we shall find the right perfection of the law, and that in ourselves there is nothing but horrible confusion: we shall see hell ready prepared for us. By that means it will be easy for us to give over all the deserving which we shall have fancied in ourselves, so as it shall be soon beaten down, and our mouths stopped, and we become like poor dead folk without any breath, because we shall perceive well enough that we cannot come unto God, but must needs thunder against us if we bring any foolish imagination of our own deservings. See how the law slays us. But when we have passed through such death, that is to say, when we be already rightly humbled and utterly dismayed: then here is a remedy, which Saint Paul sets down, saying: "I was crucified with Jesus Christ, even to live unto God." Now he shows here that our Lord Jesus Christ not only brings us remission of our sins, but also sanctifies and regenerates us by his holy spirit, in so much that whereas there was nothing but stubbornness in us before, now we be given to serve God, and to please him. And for the better understanding of that which Saint Paul tells us, let us mark that we receive two principal graces of our Lord Jesus Christ: The one is the forgiveness of our sins, whereby we are assured of our salvation, and have our consciences quieted, and whereupon it behooves us to be grounded, so as we call upon God as our father. Who gives us the
boldness to lift up our heads to heaven, and to call God our father? Again, what makes us so bold as to glory that we be companions and brothers to the Angels? It is because our sins come not to account: for we must always have recourse to the washing of them away, which was done by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see then that our righteousness is that God accepts us, albeit not in respect of our own worthiness, but in respect of the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all our misdoings are wiped out. That is the first benefit which we have by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second is, that whereas we be froward of our own nature, and all that the Papists term by the name of free will is but frenzy, and that however great account soever men make of themselves, all is but naughtiness, and we be full of vice and corruption: instead of being so, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the grace to be sorry for our sins, and to labor to do good: for so long as we abide in our own nature, every of us soothes and flatters himself in his evil. But when we have once tasted the inestimable love of our God, and perceived what our Lord Jesus Christ is: then we be so touched by his holy spirit, that we condemn the evil, and desire to draw near unto God, and to frame ourselves to his holy will. We be sure of that once, and although we go halting, yet do we continually sigh to see our own imperfections and infirmities, and perceive full well how it is the spirit of God that moves us thereto, when our chief desire is to forsake the sinfulness that is in us, and comes of our flesh, so as we wish nothing else but that God should be glorified in all our life, and faithfully obeyed in all things. That is the second benefit which our Lord Jesus Christ brings us: and they be two things knit together by inseparable bond, so that like as the light of the sun cannot be separated from his heat: so these two graces (that is to wit our righteousness, and the remission of our sins) are inseparably matched with our renewal, which is done by the spirit of sanctification. Thus you see two graces inseparable:
and like as when we say that the Sun is hot, it ceases not to shine also, and yet notwithstanding the light of the sun is not heat: so when we say that we be justified by the remission of our sins, it is not meant that our Lord Jesus Christ does thenceforth suffer himself to be mocked and despised, but that we have need to be thoroughly cleansed, so as we may learn to renounce the world, and ourselves, to the end to stick unto him with true obedience. However the world goes, the thing that Saint Paul speaks in this text, shall always be found true, namely that he was crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God. Then if any man accuse the Gospel that it gives liberty to do evil and to sin: we may always answer, how so? By the law we be always dead, for there we see our own cursedness which will leave us dismayed in despair. But in the Gospel, although we be crucified, that is to say, although there be a spice of death in the Gospel, yet is that death a quickening death, and the cause of life. For so long as men live to themselves, they be dead unto God: they be wretched carcasses full of rottenness. But when they die in themselves, they live unto God.
And for that cause Saint Paul in the twelfth to the Romans calls us living sacrifices, where he tells us that we must be transformed and utterly give over our own reason and our own will to yield God such service as is meet for him to have. He says, "Offer up yourselves as living sacrifices." So then, in the Law there must needs be a deadly death, a death that leaves us utterly overwhelmed and sunken even down into hell. But in the Gospel there is a quickening death. And why? For we are crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God, that is to say, our old man (as Saint Paul terms it in the sixth to the Romans) and that which we have of our own nature, is done away, albeit not at the first day, but by little and little. But however the case stands, we shall perceive that our Lord Jesus Christ mortifies all that was in us of our own, or of the world, so as we are not so greatly
given to nestle here below, because we see it is a miserable state to live here, and our very care is to stick unto God. Thus, you see how we may be crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ.
But what is meant by that crucifying? Verily, it is a certain kind of death. However, that death brings us to life, which thing the death which the Law brings does not. Now then we see the very intent of Saint Paul, and the natural meaning of this text. Therefore, nowadays when the enemies of the truth blaspheme the Gospel, we have here an answer to stop their mouths. And if they hold on still, let them bark like dogs, but they shall not be able to bite, do what they can. See here what the Papists flush forth when we preach that men are justified through God's free goodness. "O," say they, "are they so? That were the next way to give every man the bridle to live after his own liking, and to cause that there might be no more remorse nor scruple of conscience, so as every man might have leave to do what he listed." That is the common blasphemy of the Papists.
Again, when we show them that they cannot bind us by their traditions, and that it is but a tyranny which they have usurped in robbing God of his right, and that the liberty was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that we should not be tied to the things which men would lay upon us of law and necessity in matters concerning the spiritual government of our souls. "O," say they, "see what comes of it: their desire is nothing else but to wallow in all pleasure, and to lead a loose life." Surely, we may easily answer to all this. For the doctrine that we bring serves not to stir up men's lusts, nor to give them too great and lawless a liberty: but to the clean contrary.
However the case stands, it ought to suffice us that if we should abide in the quagmire of the Papists, surely there would be nothing but
death for us. For were they not too fast asleep and utterly dulled, undoubtedly they should be tossed with such unquietness and heartbiting, as they should need to see that that is not the thing whereupon we must rest. But behold, they be so rotted in their ignorance, that they have not any feeling of God's justice at all. But as for our parts, for as much as we know we have such a freedom purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, and are sure of our salvation because God does freely forgive all our faults, and do feel already by the working of God's holy spirit, that he draws us to him, and are mortified to live unto him: Let us go forward with a cheerful heart.
And although there be never so many infirmities in our nature, yet notwithstanding let us not doubt but God accepts us, for all our imperfections. But the Papists cannot have so much as one good purpose to serve God, saving that they are utterly bewitched [to believe so] through vain self-trust. And why? For they ground themselves upon their own merits, and (to their seeming) that is the mean to purchase grace. But now what is it that they can do? Put the case that they brought a hundred times more with them than they have to bring, and that God governed them by his holy spirit, so as they had some manner of feeling of the Gospel, though it were but half a feeling: yet should they come far short of discharging their duty, yea or of the hundredth part of it towards God. But in the meantime, it is well known that all that ever they do is but pelting trash: and as for the law of God, it is not worth with them, and yet in the meantime they busy their heads about their own inventions.
However, let us still put the case that they endeavored to walk in the fear of God, and that they had learned aright to do the things that God commands them: yet for all that, they could not make their boast that they were come to the perfection of that righteousness
which God requires of us. And when they had tormented themselves never so much, how should they be able to serve God with a cheerful courage, unless they knew themselves to be in his favor, notwithstanding that they be so blameworthy before him? But as for us, we on our side are able to serve God with a free heart, notwithstanding that our consciences find fault with us, and we know that there are many sins in us. And why? For we ground not ourselves upon our own merits, but upon God's mere mercy: and thereby we are taught, that God receives our works though there be much faultiness in them, and that we are in his favor although there be many vices and blemishes in us.
And that is the cause why he says by his prophet that he will accept the service which we do unto him, as a father accepts the service of his child. You see that a child is willing to obey his father: and when his father says to him, do this: his father takes his doing in good worth, though the child knows not what he does, yea and sometimes though he mar a thing, yet his father is contented to lose the thing when he sees that the child was willing and desirous to serve him. But if a man take a servant for wages, he will look to have him do his task. And why? For he looks for his wages: and a man will not abide to have him mar the work that is put into his hands: yea and if it be not well done, he will not be contented with it. Now our Lord speaking of the grace of the Gospel, says he will receive our services, as a father receives the obedience of his child, though all that ever he does be nothing worth: that is to say, he passes not a whit for the perfection that is in them, for he shall find none at all in them: but he bears with us of his goodness. He shows himself so kind and freehearted towards us, that whatever we do, he takes it in good part, although it be not worthy, nor do deserve it. You see then that the way for us to have a free courage to serve God, is to assure ourselves
that he blesses all our works, because that whatever spotiness is in them, is cleansed away by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To be short, whereas God shows himself pitiful towards us, and uses inestimable mercy: let us understand that he does it not to the end that every of us should run a scatter-loping, and take the bridle in his teeth, and play the horse that is broken loose: no no, but contrariwise it is to the end, that the sword of God's word should strike us to the heart, and make such a search there, as we might be rightly humbled to crave pardon at God's hand. Not that we should have the heartbiting which the Papists have, which would pluck us back and hinder us from coming unto God, making us to say, wretched creature what dost thou? What canst thou tell whether God love thee or no? Let us have no such nips, but let us be fully resolved that God beholds us with pity, and takes our works in good worth: not for any desert or worthiness that he finds in them, but because we are joined to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now therefore we see what Saint Paul meant to say. Also we see how that doctrine served not for that time only: but that the same is as profitable and needful for us at this day, as ever it was [for any heretofore.] For inasmuch as God's enemies fight against the Gospel, and spew out their blasphemies: it stands us on hand to have wherewith to resist them: and not only them, but also Satan, who has at all times had the sleight to make us believe men, that they could live of themselves and by their own deservings: but that is but to lull us asleep in death.
And therefore let us assure ourselves, that it is better for us to die to the law, than to live to it: that is to say, let us assure ourselves, that if God should enter into account with us, we should be utterly undone and damned. And being so dismayed, let us suffer ourselves to be
crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ: and since we know that he has reconciled us to God his father by the sacrifice which he offered, let us also suffer ourselves to be governed by his holy spirit, and to be renewed by him in such wise, as being dead in ourselves we may live truly unto God, giving over all overweening of our own righteousness, and fighting against all the lusts of our flesh, and withdrawing ourselves from the world.
And 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 be to pluck us back from the filthiness wherein we be plunged, and to join us so unto our Lord Jesus Christ, as he may draw us to God his father, and make us come still nearer and nearer unto him, till we be fully joined unto him. And so let us all say, Almighty God heavenly father. &c.
The Fourteenth Sermon,
which is the eighth upon the second
chapter.
20 So, I live: [yet] not I now, but Christ lives in me, and whereas I live now in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I refuse not the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain.
We have seen this morning to what end we are offered up in sacrifice unto God when our Lord Jesus Christ knits us together in his body. It is not so that we should lie still in the death into which we are already plunged by nature, but rather to make us partakers of the heavenly life. Now, the Apostle, having spoken in that manner, magnifies God's grace, saying that he himself no longer lives, but Jesus Christ lives in him. This is as much as if he had said that all of us, by nature, have nothing in us but wretchedness. Therefore, whatever good God bestows upon us, it becomes us to acknowledge and confess that it comes from Him and to serve Him for it. For faith always brings with it this humility, that men embrace themselves to give all praise to God.
But by the way, it may seem strange that a faithful man should boast that Jesus Christ lives in him, and yet he is still mortal. As long as we live in this world, we are subject to many infirmities. Therefore, this saying might seem to be a vain speculation or a fantastic conceit, that Jesus Christ lives in us. But St. Paul brings us back to faith and tells us that although our life appears corruptible outwardly, and we are subject to all the adversities of the world, faith quickens us so that our Lord Jesus Christ does not cease to make us partakers of His heavenly life. Indeed, we possess it, inasmuch as we must no longer consider the state of the faithful according to what may be judged of by our natural wit, but mount up higher. For the life which our Lord Jesus Christ imparts to us is a hidden treasure that we attain to only by faith, which rises above the whole world.
Now, it behooves us to hope for the things which we do not see and which are hidden from us. God is highly honored by us when we make such an account of His word and promises that all the things we see in the world cannot hold us back from continually seeking Him, going to Him, and employing all our wits about Him.
Therefore, first, we have to gather from this text that a man has never profited well in the Gospel until he attributes all his welfare to our Lord Jesus Christ. For if we reserve even a little to ourselves, we are unthankful to God outright, and His grace cannot be darkened by us without us being deprived of it as we are worthy.
In that regard, it appears that all those who trust in their own merits are still full of pride and are mortal enemies to God's glory. It is true that they will not profess it with their mouths, but for all that, the hypocrites who hope to be righteous by their own worthiness adorn themselves with God's feathers. Humility is the principal virtue among all others. For what are all their merits? Conversely, when the faithful humble themselves, it is not to purchase grace in God's sight as though they were worthy of it, but to confess, as truth is, that they have nothing to boast about and must receive all things from God's sheer liberality.
At least, it serves to make us acknowledge how greatly we are bound unto Him, seeing He has shown Himself so kind towards us as to spare nothing for us. That, therefore, is the thing that Saint Paul shows us here. And it behooves us to weigh well the second point where he says that we live in the flesh, albeit by the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. This phrase "live in the flesh" in this text signifies as much as to be a wayfarer here upon earth and to pass through this transitory life. For when he speaks of living in the flesh in Romans 8, he means to be given to wicked lusts, as those who have no fear of God, who give themselves to do whatever they want. Therefore, those who follow their own desires like brute beasts live in the flesh.
But in this place, Saint Paul compares this outward life with the heavenly life which we possess by faith. For how shall a man differentiate between the faithful and the faithless? Both eat and
drink. Surely, the faithful eat and drink soberly. Yet, you shall see many of the faithless sort very well restrained, not given to any drunkenness or excess. But however they fare, one would deem at first sight that this life is common to all men. Nevertheless, the faithful often drag their wings after them and nothing else but droop in this world and finally die just like all other men. Then, if one looks only at the outward appearance, there is no diversity between them.
In short, a man might say it is but lost labor to believe in Jesus Christ. For we do not receive the reward of our faith here, and although God calls us to a further thing, we all have one common and similar life, in that all of us must come to death. How then does Jesus Christ live in us? For His living is hidden. Saint Paul brings us back to faith.
Now remains to know what the nature of faith is: It is to behold the things that are incomprehensible to our senses, to forsake the world, and to seek the kingdom of God, and to hold ourselves to the pure and simple word that proceeds out of God's mouth, without respect to anything that we can perceive here. If we do not have this groundwork, we shall never understand what Saint Paul tells us in this text. For when men have read it a hundred times, yet they shall not know what difference there is between living in the flesh and living in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then there is an outward state, in respect to which Saint Paul comprehends all things that concern this transitory life. There is also an inward state which is hidden from us, that is to wit, the state which is promised to us, and which we wait for by hope. For the outward man must needs be defaced and decay by little and little until it be utterly done away with. Accordingly, although it is promised to God's children that God will give them new liveliness
and make them as it were to cast their feathers, yet notwithstanding, you shall see them sometimes so diseased as it is pity, and the strongest men of the world grow old and come to death. Seeing it is so, what preferment have they above the unbelievers? Great: however, the same cannot be perceived by eyesight.
For we have an inward man which lies hidden within us. And what meant Saint Paul by that? He meant that God works in such a way in us by His Holy Spirit, as we are always assured of the heavenly life that is prepared for us. And although we do but glide away here below and be as strangers, yet there is an everlasting heritage which cannot fail us. According as the outward man decays (says Saint Paul), so the inward man renews. For the more that the faithful see themselves decay, the more are they warned and provoked to look upward.
For we know that such as are strong and lusty do besot and forget themselves, and therefore our Lord is fain to tame us in such wise, as we may renew by decaying: I say in such wise as we may be, as you would say, new-cast in a mold again, to the end that the hope of the heavenly life may be established in us, and we have our sight cleared to behold the thing which otherwise would be wrapped up from us.
Mark how gold and silver do greatly waste when men make them to pass the furnace. When it is cast into the fire, it is a great mass of metal; but when it is taken out again, there is but a small quantity of it. And yet the gold (if it were not so fined) would never serve to any purpose, nor would silver neither. Even so is it with us: we could never be renewed to come to the kingdom of heaven except we died first. We must ever go forward to that utter defacement and not rest by the way upon anything that we see with our eyes. For this earthly life is but a shadow and a smoke that slides and vanishes away. And
yet, nevertheless, we are renewed thereby within. Not that all men have that benefit: For the faithless do well enough find their own weakness and are enforced to feel the summonings of death, especially when they are grown old, for then they perceive that any little blast is enough to cast them down, and thereupon they fall to storming and could find in their hearts to fall out with God and nature.
However the world goes, though they rot, yet they are not renewed. For one grain of corn may well rot, and yet not take root to spring again and to bring forth fruit, and another grain shall rot likewise, albeit forasmuch as it is in good earth and has taken root, it will bring forth fruit in seasonable time. So then the faithful come to decay, and therewithal are renewed and gather new force. And why? For they rot in this world to be restored and renewed again in the heavenly heritage. The faithless also do go away to; they rot likewise, they slip aside, and they vanish quite away. But they have no advantage by it, because they are not restored to eternal life.
So then let us mark well that whereas Saint Paul says we live by the faith of Jesus Christ, it is to awaken us so that nothing in the world may keep us from resting continually upon God's promises. When we look upon all the things that are about us, there is nothing but death. But what for that? God has given us His word, that being dead in our own nature, we have our life elsewhere, namely in our Lord Jesus Christ, inasmuch as He was purposely sent to bring us from death to life. Seeing then that we have that promise of God, you see how He may be honored at our hands. And inasmuch as the case stands so, that only saying ought to suffice us. And if we settle and resolve ourselves fully thereupon, it is a token that we set our hands to God's truth as faithful witnesses thereof, as Saint John says. Contrariwise,
when we doubt or are in a stammering, then has God's word no authority nor reverence among us.
For if we look no further than to the things that are before us and to the things that are near at hand, we cannot acknowledge that God is faithful, and that the things which God has uttered with his own mouth are infallible. Moreover, in so doing, we turn away from our Lord Jesus Christ, who nonetheless is the pledge of all that is contained in God's word. Seeing we have the word, we must no more ask (as Moses says) who shall climb up above the clouds? or who shall go down into the deep? or who shall go over the sea? The word (says he) is in your mouth and in your heart, and we must content ourselves with it. And moreover, seeing that we have our Lord Jesus Christ for a larger confirmation, we know that he went down into the hells, that is to say, bore the curse that was due to us for our sins, and answered as our pledge and surety before the judgment seat of his father, and afterward went up into heaven, and in our behalf took possession of the heritage that he had purchased for us. For he was exalted up in our flesh and nature. Seeing that we have such an assurance, must we not necessarily be too wretched if we cannot hold ourselves to it?
Again, the matter wills us to look still back to that which has been said, namely, that we hope not for things that are open and manifest, but for the things that are unknown to worldly perception. Then since it is so, let us learn to live by the faith of Jesus Christ: that is to say, although we be miserable in this world and be fain to endure never so many heartbitings, griefs, anguishes, troubles, and distresses, yet notwithstanding let us continue in this constancy of believing that there is nothing but singular happiness in all our miseries, because God blesses and hallows them for our Lord Jesus
Christ's sake, and all is turned to our help and welfare as it is said in the eighth to the Romans.
Therefore, as we have seen in another text, God must utter the perfectness of his strength in our weakness, and we suffer him to make us to stoop, in such sort as this world may not keep us back from having the promises of the Gospel thoroughly printed in our hearts, nor hinder us to be glad and cheerful in the midst of our miseries and afflictions, nor boldly to despise all the slanderings and mockages of the faithless when they offer us reproach, saying, "God's, you silly wretches, think yourselves to be princes when you believe the Gospel. But alack, poor souls, where is the joy and happiness which you say is promised you of God? Where is the inestimable benefit which you make so great account of? For you have no more than those whom you call God's enemies, reprobates, and cursed caitiffs." But (as I said), all this gear must not thrust us out of the way, for we must come back unto faith.
Although then that here beneath we perceive not the things that are promised us in the Gospel, yet let us assure ourselves of them out of all doubt. For (as says Saint Paul) our life is hidden, and the time of the discovery thereof is not yet come. And where is our life but in our Lord Jesus Christ? Now the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is apparent enough: howbeit, that is but in part: we have but a taste of it: and things are so troubled and disordered in this world, that if we will judge of our salvation by the outward appearance, what would become of it? Therefore let us suffer our life to be hid till our Lord Jesus Christ comes, and then shall we perceive that we have not been beguiled in putting our trust in him, and in admitting the doctrine of his Gospel.
You see then after what manner we must live by faith: that is to say, we must not be so nice as to seek a quiet life here and to have all our commodities and ease here. For in so doing we should forgo the thing that God has promised us, we should forget him, and it would be an utter destruction of our faith. But let us take the mirror of God's word, and there look upon the things that surmount all our wit and are set far out of this world, and are utterly invisible, and let us lift up our eyes thither, not so far forth as our own reason and skill shall be able to guide us (for that is not enough), but so as we may climb above the world and forsake the present things, to the end to hold ourselves fast in God's promises, and to be patient in all afflictions and miseries wherewith we shall be exercised, and against which we must be fain to fight until we receive the fruit of our victory, when we are conveyed up into the rest of heaven.
Thus, you see what we have to gather upon this saying of Saint Paul, which might seem dark at the first sight. But when we have, on the one side, marked well what our state is while we be in this world, and on the other side considered what the nature of faith is, we shall easily perceive that there is no darkness at all in it. And now Saint Paul adds expressly that Jesus Christ loved him and gave himself to death for him. This is an exposition of what we saw earlier. For men do oftentimes misconstrue the word Faith because they consider not what the pith of it is. And indeed, every man will be called faithful, and yet even among those that make a profession of Christianity, you shall scarcely find one of a hundred that has so much as one drop of faith. For (as I said before) it is never sought what is meant by faith. The word is very short, but it draws a long tail after it, as we see by the addition that is set down here. For Saint Paul declares that he lives by faith because Jesus Christ had loved him and delivered himself to death for him. As much must we do. For inasmuch as we see that the Son of God; the Lord of glory, the head of the Angels, he
by whom all things were made, and by whom all things are still maintained, yields himself to death, yes, and to so vile a death that he took our curse upon him, and not only was hanged upon a Cross, which was an irksome thing to all the world, but also was pronounced accursed by God's own mouth: seeing (say I) that we have such a price to ransom us from death and to purchase us life and salvation: have we not cause (if we think well upon it) to overleap all the lettes that Satan can cast in our ways to make us turn head or to retire back, that we might not continue in the certainty of our faith? Surely the victory will be easy enough for us against all temptations if we can consider of what value the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is, and what it importeth. So then Saint Paul arms us here, to the end we might hold out with invincible constancy against all the stoppages that Satan laboureth to lay before us, to hinder us from keeping on our course.
When the faithful are pinched with hunger or thirst, they are troubled with looking here and there for the promise that they shall be heirs of the world, and in the meantime do well-nigh starve for famine and penury. But if they look to our Lord Jesus Christ, that will dispatch them of all their trouble and sweeten all the bitterness that might have put the promises of salvation out of taste with them. Therefore, whenever the faithful are in any peril or are persecuted, so as they have many wrongs and injuries done to them, and yet are not succored of all that while, they might think thus with themselves: Where is God? He has promised to dwell in us, to keep us as the Apple of his eye, and to be our shield and fortress: and yet in the meantime we are cast up to the spoil. Wherefore it is certain that we shall be undone at every blow. But when we come to the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must conclude that the Son of God was not offered up in vain. Seeing then that our Lord Jesus Christ spared not himself, but abased himself so far as to suffer so
slanderous, yes, and cursed a death, and afterward also the pains of Hell, albeit but for a while, to the end to set us free and clear, and to purchase us grace before the judgment seat of God his father: should that doing of his be unavailing? Is it possible that it should be? No: For if Heaven and earth were turned upside down, it were not so great a confusion, as to imagine that the Son of God has suffered in vain. Then see we now why Saint Paul tells us that he lived by faith. For it behooves us to be settled upon the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, assuring ourselves that it is able enough to draw us out of the dungeons of death.
And furthermore, it behooves us to look upon our Lord Jesus Christ, not only as dead in the infirmity of his flesh but also as risen again through his divine and heavenly power, as is said of him in another Text. And therefore when there is any speaking of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, it stands us in hand to consider what the same importeth: that is to wit, that it is a sacrifice to make an atonement of Reconciliation between God and man, an obedience to cover all the naughtiness that is in us, and a washing to scour away all our uncleanness and filthiness. For as much then as we know that there is such power in the death and passion of the Son of God, and that thereupon we march further, that is to wit, to the glory whereunto it leadeth us: let us not anymore imagine that man ought hereafter to continue still in his own nature, but that he ought to live in the faith of the Gospel, assuring himself that he shall not be disappointed in resting upon the promises that are contained there.
Thus, you see in effect whereunto we should refer this saying, where Saint Paul tells us expressly that the Son of God gave himself. And he contenteth not himself to say that Christ gave himself for the world in common, for that had been but a slender saying: but [shows that] every of us must apply to himself particularly the virtue of the death
and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whereas it is said that the Son of God was crucified, we must not only think that the same was done for the Redemption of the world: but also every of us must on his own behalf join himself to our Lord Jesus Christ, and conclude, "It is for me that he has suffered."
Likewise when we are baptized, as it is not for any one man alone, so is not the water sprinkled upon all men in common: but every man is baptized separately in his own behalf, to the end that every of us may apply it particularly to himself, to say that we are all members of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also when we receive the holy Supper, every man takes his own portion, to show us that our Lord Jesus Christ is communicated unto us, yea even to every one of us. Saint Paul therefore purposely uses that manner of speech, to the end we should not have any cold imagination, after the manner of diverse ignorant persons, which take themselves to be Christians, and yet in the meanwhile are as wretched beasts.
But when we once know that the thing which was done for the redemption of the whole world pertains to every of us separately: it behooves every of us to say also on his own behalf, "The Son of God has loved me so dearly, that he has given himself to death for me." Furthermore, the word Love is not superfluous here: for Saint Paul's intent is to magnify the gracious goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ: as if he should say, that we be very wretches if we accept not such a benefit when it is offered us, seeing that God in sending us his Son had no other respect but to our miseries which he intended to relieve. Also our Lord Jesus Christ did so neglect himself, that he spared not his life for our welfare. And what was the cause of it? The love that he bore us. Seeing it is so: must we not needs be worse than out of our wits, if we accept not such a benefit? But it is a very common doctrine in the holy Scripture, that God so loved the world,
that he spared not his only Son, but gave him to death for us: and also that our Lord Jesus Christ, at such time as we were his deadly enemies as Saint Paul says, did confirm a marvelous love towards us, in that he offered himself in sacrifice to make atonement between God and us, and to do away all our sins, so as they might no more come to account. Lo here a warrant of our salvation, so as we ought to think ourselves thoroughly assured of it. However, Saint Paul meant purposely here to rebuke men's unthankfulness, in that they accept not the benefit which God grants them so bountifully, yea and of his own free goodness. For it behooves us to call to mind how Saint John in his Canonical Epistle says that we loved not God first: (as if he should say, we did not prevent him, as those think they do which say, "I have done him such service and such." For alas what is it that we can do to him?) but that he loved us, [yea even] at such time as we were his deadly enemies,) and came even then to seek us out in the very deepest of the bottomless Dungeons. And thereupon Saint Paul adds, that he does not despise or shake off the grace of God. This is the knitting up of the things that we have hitherto seen. For here he meant to show that the Devil must needs possess those that make none account of God's mercy, that is uttered in our Lord Jesus Christ, and daily offered us in his Gospel. For look how often the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto us, and the infinite goodness of our God talked of: so often is this message renewed unto us, that our Lord Jesus Christ calls us unto him, to the end we should forsake the world and being out of all hope in ourselves, fasten and settle our whole trust in him. Since it is so: it is good reason that we should not reject the grace of God. And Saint Paul in saying so, meant to call back such as had gone astray before, and to show them the way, as if he had said, whereas the poor ignorant souls that never heard word of the Gospel might be excused: we must needs be worse than damnable, seeing we refuse the grace of God when it is offered us: for it smells of such an