way that is from 153! Many of you, however, know what I am going to say;
SERMON 229M 317 mandment, he says, and through it slew me (Rom 7:7.11); and, Law crept in, that transgression might abound (Rom 5:20). Add the Spirit: The fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:10). But where does love come from? The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).
That the Holy Spirit is suggested by the number 7 anybody knows who can read. But listen anyway, those of you who read carelessly, or perhaps can't read. This is how God presents the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit, he says, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God (Is 11:2-3). This is the sevenfold Spirit who is also called down upon the newly baptized.11 The law is the decalogue; the ten commandments, you see, were written on tablets, but stone ones still, because of the stubborn hardness of the Jews. After the Spirit came, what does the apostle say? You yourselves are our letter, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:2-3). Take away the Spirit, the letter kills, because it finds the sinner guilty, doesn't set him free. That's why the apostle says, For we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant, not in the letter, but in the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit brings to life (2 Cor 3:5-6). So add seven to ten, if you wish to fulfill all justice.12 When you are commanded by the law to do something, ask the Spirit to help you.
How the number 17 is related to the number 153 of the fish caught
3. We have been drawing your attention to ten and seven, 17; but what a long way that is from 153! Many of you, however, know what I am going to say; those who do must put up with the delay. When two people are walking along the road, one quick and one slow, it's in the power of the quick one for them to walk along together, if he waits for the other. So the one who knows what I am going to say is the quick walker; but he should wait for his slower companion, until he too is informed about the 17. You get 153 if you count the 17 in such a way, that you begin with 1 and add all the other numbers, until you reach 17. Well, if you just start saying "One, two three, four'' you reach ten—and you won't find on your fingers any more than ten. But if you count like this: 1 and 2, that's now 3; and 3, it's now 6; and 4, it's now 10; and 5, it's now 15; and 6, it's now 21; and 7, it's now 28; and 8, it's now 36; and 9, now makes 45; and
10, it's now 55. There you are, we're now getting closer, and we've some hope of getting there, because we have got so far. So add 11, it makes 66; add 12, it makes 78; add 13, it makes 91; add 14 as well, it makes 105. Now the slow ones are hard on the heels of the quicker ones. So add 15 too, it makes 120; add 16, it makes 136; add 17, it makes 153. So that's where all of them will be who run at the rate of 17, who carry out the law of God with the help of the Holy Spirit.13