6. Sixth Sermon
SIXTH SERMON
I saiah, Chapter LIII 11. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
*** Although the Prophet has added this statement to confirm what he had already said — namely, that the death of the Son of God would not be useless, but would produce an excellent fruit for the salvation of the world
— nevertheless he expresses more than he had before; for firstly he shows us the love our Lord Jesus has borne us, saying that he shall be satisfied because he will have acquired us eternal life by his death; and then secondly he shows that he would suffer not only in his body but also in his soul. We know that this word "to be satisfied" or "content" carries with it great desire. For many things will happen that will not touch us at all; even though they be to our profit, this does not mean we shall rest in them fully.
A man may have many things, and yet not hold himself content, for perhaps he does not have the chief thing, or does not have the whole. But the Prophet shows that the Son of God will be fully content, having no regard for himself, when he sees that his Church is acquired for him, and that poor sinners are drawn out of the curse in which they were, so as to be reconciled to God and to obtain the inheritance of heaven. In short, we see here how our Lord Jesus had no regard for his own person, but was ravished by the love he bore us, so as to seek there all his contentment, as if he had no other desire, affection, or care.
Now here again we must note that, provided we seek by faith the good acquired for us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and which is daily offered us by the Gospel, we shall not be frustrated of our hope. For the Prophet says "he shall see," to express that not only has God willed to declare his mercy to us in the person of his Son, when he exposed him to death for us, but that he will bring it about by his Holy Spirit that this death shall not be without fruit, and that many shall see that it was not without cause or in vain that he endured so much, and shall know it by experience. Let us, then, give entry to our Lord Jesus Christ, so that he may make us partakers of the fruit of his death and passion, approaching him by faith; and let us not doubt that when we thus open our hearts, God will add this benefit besides — that just as he willed his Son to be our Redeemer, so too we shall truly enjoy the good he has brought us, and shall know that it is not a vain thing that he endured so much for us. Behold, then, what we must retain from this passage.
As for the second point we proposed, it is shown here that not only was Jesus Christ to be beaten, struck, and afflicted by the hand of his Father, to bear the chastisement we had deserved, but that he was also to be anguished in his soul. It is not said here merely that he shall see the fruit of his stripes,
of his affliction, and of his death, as the Prophet had spoken before, but of the travail and the distress of his soul. For the word he uses carries this meaning. He means, then, to express that Jesus Christ was not only crucified, after having endured great torments in his body, but that he had to go further still — namely, that he would be in sorrow for us, and would sustain the sorrows of death, and would be subjected even to that, in order to justify us. And indeed, what would it be if our Lord Jesus had suffered only in appearance, and only before men? For if he had suffered only in his body, he would be Redeemer of bodies only. But since the chief thing we must hope of him is that we should feel and be persuaded that death is no longer mortal to us, and that we are freed from the curse of God, it was necessary that our Lord Jesus should feel these very points in himself, and that, coming before God, he should be there like a poor malefactor before his judge. We know that the sin of man carries with it not merely a temporal death, which is the separation of body from soul, but the sense that God is against us, the horror of his judgment. And what is that? A thing more unbearable and horrible than anything else. It was necessary, then, that our
Lord Jesus should come to this point in order to deliver us; and this is what the Prophet now declares. And here we see all the more how much God has loved us, and what are the treasures of his grace and infinite goodness that he has displayed toward us; and we may well recognise also what solicitude and what zeal our Lord Jesus Christ had for our salvation, when he did not spare himself, and willed not only that his body should answer for the satisfaction of our sins, but that he himself should be terrified, as one who was to feel the judgment of God, and who apprehended what that curse God pronounces with his mouth deserves — namely, that it is to swallow us up in hell, that it is an abyss to overwhelm us entirely. It was necessary, then,
that Jesus Christ should feel this. And indeed, when we see that he sweated blood and water because of it, that Angels had to descend to comfort him, we must indeed say that this sorrow was extreme, since never was there a like example in the world.
Behold, then, what is signified by this word "travail" or "distress" of the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it is true (as St. Peter says) that he could not be held by the sorrows of hell, but he had to do battle against them; he had the victory, but it was not without great and difficult combat.
Furthermore, now we must gather from this passage that although we must die, this does not mean that the death of our Lord Jesus Christ does not have its effect, and does not profit us as much as is expedient for us; for the death to which we are now subject is but a reminder of the curse of God. If we were altogether exempted from dying, we would not know the grace acquired for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we know how much need we have to be humbled, and that God should always make us feel his wrath; for even though he wishes to exempt us from it, we must still think on it, so as to groan because of our sins and all the more magnify his mercy. Thus, the death now common to all men is not, properly speaking, mortal, as regards those who have faith in Jesus Christ, for they only pass from this world in order to live unto God. Let us know, then, that in dying we have something to console ourselves with, knowing that God will be favourable to us, and will turn this evil into good, and will make death (which before carried a mortal wound) serve as it were as medicine. And how? Because we do not apprehend that God wishes to be our judge in all rigour, and to display his vengeance against us, when we have Jesus Christ in the midst who shows that he has satisfied for us. There is not, then, that horrible apprehension in death which used to confound us, even to plunge us into despair — but we
come freely to commit ourselves into the hands of God. For as it is said that Jesus Christ commended his Spirit to God his Father, let us know that this was to constitute himself guardian of our souls; and therefore, we may safely commit them into his hand, for he has protested that nothing shall perish of all that has been given him. Behold, then, of what use to us is it that our Lord Jesus was thus anguished, and that besides enduring death and other torments, he also had this terror of feeling God as his judge, as if he must endure the sorrows of hell.
Now far from this derogating from the majesty of the Son of God, it is rather so that we might know all the better how much he prized our salvation, and how dear we and our souls were to him. However much, then, he was annihilated (as we have seen above), however much he had neither form nor figure to be desired among men, nevertheless this very annihilation was to exalt him all the more. And indeed, although God has shown his loftiness and his infinite majesty in the creation of the world, nevertheless in the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ we have a fuller argument for glorifying God, since for us and for our salvation Jesus
Christ abased and lowered himself; and although he did not strip himself of his divine majesty, it was nevertheless hidden for a time, and was not perceived among men. This is, in sum, what the Prophet treats here, regarding how our Lord Jesus was anguished. Now in this we see that he forgot himself, as it were, and had no regard for himself. And the reason is that he was wholly devoted to our salvation; and thus he answered for us both in body and in soul, and was wholly our surety. And in this we see that the wretches who today would abolish this doctrine are without religion and without faith, like mastiff dogs that bark and know not why. The hypocrites of the Papacy, though they do not understand this except in part, are
compelled to confess, whatever else, that Jesus Christ felt terrible horrors. It is true they cannot define fully what these were, but whatever the case, they babble of them.
But here there are villains more monkish than those who dwell in the depths of those caves and brothels from which they have come, who have brought their stench and their infection into the Church of God. It is, then, certain that these wretches, who today bear the name of ministers, and even occupy the place, and yet make of the Church of God a pigsty, are dogs who have no religion, and who seek only to extinguish and efface from the memory of men all the grace of God, and what our Lord Jesus has done for us.
Now when we see Satan thus driving them, and that they are as brazen as harlots, all the more must we hold fast to this article of faith — that not only was Jesus Christ condemned by Pilate, an earthly judge, so that we might be absolved before God his Father; not only was he crucified, so that we might be delivered from the curse; not only did he endure death, so that we might be set free from it — but also so that today we might have peace in our consciences, and might rejoice, feeling the fatherly love of our God, and might call upon him with full mouth, being assured that he will receive us, and that we shall be pleasing to him. It was necessary that Jesus Christ should be plunged into these horrors that he felt, that he should be as a poor malefactor — he who was the Lamb of God without blemish, who was the mirror and pattern of all holiness and perfection — that he should have answered and been our surety even to that point, as if he must be condemned to the depths of hell. Furthermore (as we have already said) he overcame and surmounted those sorrows, but he had first to fight. Behold, then, what Isaiah meant, saying that Jesus Christ would have anguishes in
his soul; but we see that he was nonetheless content, provided that we were redeemed by this means. And today we must all the more take courage, knowing that if we have true obedience of faith to receive the inestimable good acquired for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall feel that it is not in vain that he suffered so much for us. And all the less excusable will be our ingratitude, if we do not come with burning zeal to him, so as to enjoy this inestimable good into which he has entered, and of which he has taken possession in our name, when he declares to us that he has reconciled us to God his Father, and that he is ready to receive us as his children. Behold, in sum, what we must retain from this passage.
Now the Prophet adds that he shall justify many by his knowledge — indeed, my righteous Servant, he says. As for the word "Servant," we have seen above that this does not derogate from the majesty of our Lord Jesus
Christ; for although he was master of all creatures, nevertheless he acquired yet a new empire in the person of Mediator, and in our nature, according to what St. Paul treats in the second chapter of Philippians, and we have already partly seen it: yet he willed to make himself a servant and to humble himself under this condition. Thus, it is not in vain that he is called servant of God. And we ought not to find this strange, for it is far stranger that Jesus Christ should be servant of men — the Son of God, he who had equal glory with his Father (as it is spoken of in the seventeenth chapter of St. John) — that he should abase himself to this condition of wishing to serve us; nevertheless, it is so. And this is also why he says: "I am among you, and converse among you, as one who serves, not as one who has mastery." Now since Jesus Christ descended so far as to make himself servant of men, it is not without cause that he is here called servant of God.
And indeed, he could not otherwise redeem us — I mean, according to the
decree of God his Father, as we have already declared above. For without any means God could well have saved us, but we must always presuppose that it was necessary for life to be acquired for us by Jesus Christ. Now to do this, he had at the same time to be a servant, for he could not otherwise render obedience to God his Father; and without that obedience he could not repair our transgressions and iniquities. Behold, then, why he is notably called Servant, and indeed righteous.
In short, the Prophet signifies that, since we have been rebels against God, and are still, until he has reformed us by his Holy Spirit — and even after he has touched us with a good disposition, we are unprofitable servants, and stumble at every step, and even when it seems the service we render him ought indeed to be accepted by him, there will always be something to find fault with, indeed it deserves to be rejected — it was necessary, in order to efface our defects, that the service and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ should be pleasing to God — as it also carries with it a proper satisfaction.
This, in sum, is what he meant to say. And from this we must gather that Jesus Christ has justified us, not merely inasmuch as he was God, but by the power of his obedience, in that he took our nature, and in it willed to fulfil the Law which was impossible for us and was a burden to crush us all and break our necks. In that, then, our Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself for our salvation, and was obedient to God his Father, behold how we are justified by him.
Now he speaks notably also of "knowledge," to express that it is not enough that our Lord Jesus should have accomplished in his person all that was necessary for our salvation, but that we must apprehend it by faith.
There is, then, the knowledge required. For how many unbelievers do we see perish, to whom the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ serves
only for their greater condemnation, because they trample his sacred blood underfoot and reject the grace offered them? Thus, although our Lord Jesus
Christ is like the serpent that was lifted up on high in the desert, to give healing to all the sick, nevertheless on our part we can have no profit from him except by knowledge of him. For as it was necessary also for the brazen serpent to be looked upon in the desert, and without this look, the bite of the serpents was always mortal, so today the Gospel is to us like a scaffold, so as to lift up our Lord Jesus Christ — or rather it is like a banner, to represent him to us before our very eyes, and to make us look upon him from afar. In short, there is no obscurity (as St. Paul says) when the Gospel is preached; there one contemplates the grace of God that appears in our
Lord Jesus Christ; otherwise, one must have one's eyes bound by Satan.
Whatever the case, we must note well what is said here — that Jesus Christ justifies only by his knowledge. It is indeed true that the substance of our salvation must precede; for when it is said that we are righteous by faith, this is not to exclude Jesus Christ, nor to exclude the mercy of God, but rather it is to lead and conduct us to it.
But to have an even easier understanding of all this, we must note first that we are not righteous in ourselves, since we must borrow our righteousness from elsewhere; for if we could so order our life that in every respect it corresponded to the Law and the will of God, we would then deserve to be accepted by him. And why? He must indeed acknowledge the good, since he is the fountain of it — otherwise he would deny himself. If, then, we could conform our life to the Law of God, and have such perfection as he demands, it is certain we would be righteous by our own works, and then Jesus Christ would be useless to us — as St. Paul also disputes. Thus, on the contrary, when we are compelled to borrow our
righteousness from our Lord Jesus Christ, and to seek it there, this means we are destitute of it ourselves. Let us conclude, then, that the whole world is condemned of sin, and that God shows us that there is in us nothing but curse, when it is said that we must come to Jesus Christ. This for one point.
Now it is true that the ancient Philosophers have spoken much of virtue; it was also a common opinion that one must be agreeable to God by living well — but what has all that profited? For the best among men, and those thought altogether irreproachable, have had nothing but hypocrisy, and others have been given over to every evil; and those thought the ablest and most renowned above others have nevertheless had enormous vices. Thus, let men presume as much as they wish, and think however they like about living virtuously; when they have done all they could, and when many laws and rules have been laid down to guide them, they will nevertheless never by that means be righteous before God. And why? Because sin is rooted in us, and cannot be purged by human remedies. In short, we shall not be justified by going to school to men, however much they teach virtue.
Moreover, behold God publishing his Law, in which true and perfect righteousness is contained — as Moses protests: "Behold, I declare to thee today good and evil; I show thee the way of life and of death." But can it justify us in the meantime? Can it so rule us that God accepts our life as good and holy? On the contrary — for the Law engenders nothing but death; it doubles our condemnation; it inflames the wrath of God. These are the titles attributed to it in holy Scripture.
Since this is so, then, that the Law of itself cannot justify us, how can men, by their doctrine, and by their statutes and rules, bring us to true righteousness? Now if one asks how the Law of God cannot justify, and why — the reason is the one I have already touched on. It is true that God
shows us well enough in his Law how we might and could attain to life, if we were such that we had no hindrance on our own part. The Law of God, then, speaks, but it does not reform our hearts. When God shows us, "This is what I require of you," yet if all our appetites, our affections, and our thoughts are contrary to what he commands, not only are we condemned, but the Law, as I have said, renders us all the more guilty before God. For beforehand we would have sinned through ignorance; but now, knowingly, we resist God, so that it seems we wish to defy him. For we know that the servant who knows the will of his master and does it not shall be beaten with a double stripe. This is why it is said that the Law engenders nothing but wrath — that is, that it inflames the wrath of God still more against us, when we have been taught by it. It brings us death, and how? Because there we contemplate that we are altogether damned and lost. And does it not announce life at all? No — but we cannot attain to it meanwhile. There must, then, be another way of being justified — and that is in the Gospel.
For in the Gospel God does not say, "Behold, you shall do this and that," but, "Believe that my only Son is your Redeemer; embrace his death and passion as the remedy for all your maladies; plunge yourself into his blood, and it will be your purging, you shall be cleansed by it; rest upon the sacrifice he has offered me, and behold how you shall be righteous."
Since, then, the Gospel brings us back to our Lord Jesus Christ, and commands us to seek in him all righteousness, because by the free mercy of God he has satisfied for us — behold how we shall be justified by knowledge of him. And this is what St. Paul treats in the tenth chapter of Romans; for there he makes a comparison of two righteousnesses, the one of the Law, the other of faith. He says that the Law indeed has righteousness — indeed when it says, "He who shall do these things shall
live in them." For it is true that if we could fulfil all the commandments of God, and our life were so well ordered that there was neither vice nor blemish in it, God has promised us that he would accept us as righteous, that the reward would be entirely assured, and that we would not be frustrated of it. Behold, then, a certain thing as to the righteousness of the Law; but meanwhile, who does what the Law commands? We go quite the opposite way, and it seems (as I have already said) that we wish to defy
God. Behold, then, the door shut to us as regards the righteousness of the Law, and there remains for us nothing but the curse of God. But in the Gospel it is said, "Behold, the Word is in thy heart and in thy mouth." How so? St. Paul, speaking thus, shows us that in order to have the Word in our heart and in our mouth, we must come to Jesus Christ; for it is he who writes by his Holy Spirit and engraves the doctrine of salvation, of which we would otherwise merely have had our ears struck, in vain and without any profit. Since, then, our Lord Jesus Christ places his word in the heart, let us pray him to grant us the grace to have a pure and sincere affection, so as to seek in him all that we lack. Behold how we shall be justified by knowledge of him — for it is not a matter of bringing some satisfaction that would content God; it is not a matter of coming to account, to say, "Lord, we have deserved that thou shouldst receive us"; but rather, "We confess that we are poor sinners, that we are subject to thy judgment, that it is impossible to satisfy it on our part, and that only Jesus Christ ought to be recognised as sufficient to satisfy it." Let us confess this, then, with all humility; let us admit that we are lost creatures, brought to nothing, until our Lord Jesus stretches out his hand to draw us from the abysses and depths of hell. Now, have we confessed this? Let us also recognise that our
Lord Jesus supplies all our defects. If we are soiled and full of filth, his
blood is our washing, by which we shall be cleansed; if we are plunged in debts, not only to God but to Satan as our adversary, the payment has been made in the death and passion of the Son of God; if we are polluted and detestable, the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus offered is of a sweet savour, so that all the evil that is in us is effaced. Behold, then, how we are justified by the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now following this doctrine, firstly we see that we must not seek our righteousness far off, since we shall find it in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in that he clothed himself with our nature and made himself our brother. And this is of great importance, because if we were justified by the divine essence of our Lord Jesus Christ, we would have to be far removed from his righteousness, and could never attain to it. But when it is said that the righteousness he gives us was accomplished in his human nature, behold how we can come to him more intimately. And this is also why
Satan has wished to confuse this doctrine, and there have been fanatics who have dreamed that our Lord Jesus justifies his faithful inasmuch as he is
God. But this would require (as I have already said) that we seek our righteousness far off, and this would serve to make us lose courage and to make us faint before we had come to him. But on the contrary, he calls us to himself, in that he made himself a mortal man, and constituted himself
Mediator, so that there we might seek our righteousness.
Thus, behold one point we must observe; and for the rest let us always come to this knowledge. And since unbelievers shut the door on themselves, and deprive themselves of the good they ought to receive by our Lord Jesus
Christ, let us have our ears attentive to receive the testimony given us in the Gospel. And this is what St. Paul says in the passage we cited yesterday: that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us, and that today this
is accomplished in the Gospel. "We carry the embassy in the name of Jesus Christ" (says St. Paul), "beseeching you that you be reconciled to God." St.
Paul places there a double reconciliation. The one is that which was made in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was sacrificed for us. The other is that which we obtain each day by faith, when God declares to us that if we have angered him, he is always ready to forget all our faults, and to put them under his feet, provided that we accept the good he offers us.
Let us learn, then, to prize the knowledge of the Gospel better than we do, and to recognise that it is to make us partakers of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we are grafted into his body, we are made his members, and all that he has is made common to us, and is made proper to us by the Gospel; and this is also why St. Paul says that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all believers — showing thereby that if we refuse to be saved by the Gospel, it is as if we rejected the salvation God willed to acquire for us in the person of his Son, and to which he daily invites and exhorts us. Behold, in sum, what we must observe.
Now all the more must we prize the Gospel, when we see that in the Papacy this has been obscured, indeed altogether effaced, so that poor souls remain always famished. For although preaching there is done after a fashion, nevertheless poor people are always left in doubt and in scruple; one is never certified that God is gracious. And the Papists even say it would be presumption if we were assured of the love of God, and that we must have of it only some conjecture. But this is to annihilate the fruit of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us learn, then, to profit so thoroughly by the Gospel that we may be certified that God loves us, and accepts us as his own children. And therefore (as I have already said) let us
prize and magnify this grace all the more, when we see that most of the world is so far removed from it.
Now there remains also what the Prophet adds, that he laid down his soul for many. By this he signifies that we are not justified by faith through having some vain imagination merely to believe that there is a God, and to know in a confused way and by a general apprehension that Jesus Christ suffered death and passion — but rather that by faith we are made partakers of the sacrifice that was offered, so that God might be favourable to us, and no longer impute our faults and iniquities to us. The Papists are so dull and brutish that when they wish to show we are not justified by faith alone, they argue: We are justified by the mercy of God — therefore it is not by faith alone; then, We are justified by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ — therefore it is no longer by faith alone; as one who would say, We are warmed by heat, therefore it is not by the sun; we are illumined by light, therefore it is not by the sun. Now let us note that when faith is spoken of, it is to bring us back to the Gospel; for (as I have said) there are two kinds of righteousness here. By the Law it is said that we shall be righteous when we have fulfilled all that God commands us there. Now it is impossible to attain to it — we are, then, stripped of this righteousness; we are altogether cut off from it. There is the other righteousness, namely that which we find in Jesus Christ, when, having well examined ourselves, we are convicted of our malice, and have nothing but dread, since we feel that God is armed in vengeance against us, so that nothing remains but for him to strike us down and overwhelm us. When, then, we have come to this point, and to so great an extremity, behold Jesus Christ, who gives us the remedy to soften all our sorrows — namely, that he certifies to us that he alone will suffice for us to
attain the salvation he has acquired for us. Behold how we are justified by faith.
We see, then, that the Prophet speaks in exactly the same way as St. Paul spoke after him. It is that firstly we must come to the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and contemplate him there crucified for us; and then, that by the Gospel we may be assured that what Jesus Christ did and suffered belongs to us today, and is applied to us, since the Father does not wish that this death should have been useless, but that it should be a sacrifice of full power and effect, which bears fruit daily in us. Behold, in sum, what we must retain from this passage.
Meanwhile let us note that this knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is not an idle thing — as many, when told of the knowledge of the Gospel, understand it to mean that it is enough to conceive by some fleeting thought what is taught; but it is that we hold our Lord Jesus Christ for the sole cause of our salvation. Which cannot be done unless we feel to the quick that we are lost in ourselves, and then that God, according as he once willed to receive us into mercy, today makes this prevail in us. And indeed, it is impossible for us to attain to this knowledge unless we are illumined by the Holy Spirit — which, when we have it, is already an infallible sign that God wills to work in us, so as to put us in possession of his righteousness, from which before we were far removed. Behold, then, God who will indeed cause the Gospel to be preached; but this is not enough — we shall understand nothing but gibberish (as one says) until we are touched within by his Holy Spirit (behold whence faith proceeds); and then we are good and true disciples of Jesus Christ, to feel the fruit of this doctrine. This is what is shown us here by the Prophet.
Now he speaks again of how Jesus Christ bore the sins, to show that satisfaction is in him, and that our sins would be a burden to overwhelm us into the depths of hell, were we not relieved of it by our Lord Jesus Christ.
For what does sin carry with it, but the wrath of God? If God merely lifts his finger, it is enough to destroy and ruin the whole world — as it is said that at his mere breath the rocks melt, the mountains dissolve, and flow away like wax. If, then, God gives the least sign of his fury and his wrath, there is nothing so firm in the world that it does not melt away; and what shall become of us, who are such fragile creatures, when God shows us a rigorous face as Judge, and calls us to account? We shall not even need to hear the voice of his mouth — merely the sign he gives to summon us will be an abyss to swallow us up. Thus, our sins must indeed be an unbearable burden to us. Now there is an infinite number of them in us, and we do not have shoulders to sustain them and to remain standing beneath them. But as for Jesus Christ, although he suffered in the weakness of his flesh, he was always sustained by the power of the Spirit given him. And behold how he made his triumphs even upon the cross, as St. Paul speaks of it to the Colossians. Thus, we must always come back to what the Prophet says — as also St. Peter is a good expositor of it in his first Canonical Epistle, saying that on the tree he bore our sins. It is true that it was not the power of the tree that helped our Lord Jesus Christ to bear our sins; but he says he bore them on the tree, in that, being crucified, he was as one accursed of God, and received all the curse in which we would have been plunged. He received all this, then, so as to make us feel the fruit of it, and to make us enjoy the victory of which today he has made us partakers. Thus, if we are burdened within ourselves, let us come to Jesus Christ, so as to be relieved; and let us recognise the means — namely, that we are acquitted by him of
all our debts, so that we must no longer imagine that we could bring any satisfaction or payment when coming to account before God. We must, then, always begin at this end — to be utterly confounded — and for the rest, let us not doubt that we are now discharged, since our Lord Jesus has borne our burden; and that we may hold our heads high, knowing that we are freed from the judgment of God.
This, then, is in sum what we must retain here — that since we have once been sanctified by the sacrifice Jesus Christ offered, when he dedicated himself to the service of God, as he then protested — today we must discharge our sins upon him, seeking in him full righteousness; and to do this, that we should lend our ear to the Gospel, knowing that there God invites us to himself with a gracious voice, and does not require of us what would be impossible for us, and which could only lead us to despair — as it was said by the Law, "Cursed be he who does not fulfil all these things"
(which was to exclude us altogether from salvation) — but that here it is declared to us that if we are poor sinners, God applies to us the fitting remedy — namely, that we be justified in our Lord Jesus Christ, coming there like poor beggars, so as to be relieved in such want as we are in. And furthermore, let us know, when our Lord is named "righteous," that this is to show that he justifies us, in that he took our nature, so that we might have private access to God to enjoy such a good; and let us not say, "Who shall ascend above the clouds?" as St. Paul, citing this passage from Moses, shows that when the Gospel is preached to us, we must no longer make long discourses to know whether God is near us. For that would be to tear Jesus
Christ from his heavenly throne. Likewise let us no longer allege, "Who shall descend into the abyss?" For Jesus Christ has descended there, so that we might be assured he has drawn us out of it, and that now he still
performs the office of Mediator, and wills to make us so fully partakers of his righteousness that he wills us to be clothed with it, to possess it, that it should dwell in us, and that by it we should be raised up in full confidence unto God his Father, so that we might invoke him without any doubt.
Now let us prostrate ourselves before the majesty of our good God, in acknowledgment of our faults, praying to him, etc.