ACC ~ John 12 v44 - 50

OVERVIEW:

It is through the Son that one believes in the Father (TERTULLIAN), since ignorance of the Son is ignorance of the Father (AMBROSE). Christ, who is begotten of the Father, calls for faith in himself but refers the honor to the one who begat him (AUGUSTINE). He is seeking to move them slowly from contemplating him, who they can see, to the Father with whom he shares his essence in the Godhead (CYRIL), but who they cannot see, at least not in a physical sense (CHRYSOSTOM). He distinguishes himself from the Father as being the one sent even as he in the next sentence identifies himself with the Father (THEODORE). Contrast such an identification with that of Jesus and the apostles who also were sent—but the apostles neither could nor would identify themselves with Jesus in this way because the difference is so great (AUGUSTINE). But perhaps Jesus is also putting forth in a mystical sense a distinction between believing and beholding Christ (ORIGEN).

Christ casts the brilliant beams of his divinity into our hearts to bring us light (ORIGEN). And so, to withdraw from Christ is to enter into darkness (AUGUSTINE). He says here that he did not come into the world to judge, so why do we (AMBROSE)? Those who refuse to hear Jesus and accept saving faith condemn themselves and cannot blame God for such judgment (CYRIL, CHRYSOSTOM). The Word ultimately will serve as judge (AUGUSTINE) revealing the word and will of his Father to us (CYRIL, BASIL). The Father’s goal is in concert with the Son’s, that is, the salvation of everyone (THEODORE). But the Son is not awaiting orders, so to speak, from the Father as if he was in need of instruction, since his own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father (BASIL). He does demonstrate his humility and his oneness with the Father in doing what his Father commands (CHRYSOSTOM) since he is, in effect, the Father’s commandment (AUGUSTINE).

12:44 | Belief in the Sender

SON AND FATHER AFFIRM EACH OTHER MUTUALLY

TERTULLIAN: It is through the Son that one believes in the Father, while the Father also is the authority from which springs belief in the Son. AGAINST PRAXEAS 23.8. [1]

[1] CCL 2:1193; ANF 3:619*

IGNORANCE OF THE SON IS IGNORANCE OF THE FATHER

AMBROSE: The one who confesses the Father believes on the Son. For the one who does not know the Son does not know the Father. For everyone that denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has both the Father and the Son. [1] What, then, is the meaning of “believes not in me”? It speaks not about what you can perceive in bodily form, nor merely on the man whom you see. For he has stated that we are to believe not merely on a man, but that you may believe that Jesus Christ himself is both God and man. This is why, for both reasons, he says, “I came not from myself.” [2] And again: “I am the beginning, of which also I speak to you.” [3] ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5.10.119-20. [4]

[1] 1 Jn 2:23.

[2] Jn 7:28.

[3] Jn 8:25.

[4] NPNF 2 10:299*; CSEL 78:261-62 (On the Christian Faith 5.10.120-21).

DEFERRING HONOR TO THE BEGETTER

AUGUSTINE: What is this we have just heard, brothers and sisters: the Lord saying, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me”? It is good for us to believe in Christ, especially since he himself also said quite plainly what you heard just now, that is, that he had come as light into the world, and that whoever believes in him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

So it is good to believe in Christ. It is a great good to believe in Christ and a great evil not to believe in Christ. But because Christ the Son is whatever he is from the Father, while the Father is not from the Son but is the Father of the Son, that is why the Son does indeed call for faith in himself but refers the honor of it to his only-begetter. SERMON 140.1. [1]

[1] WSA 3 4:403; PL 38:773.

12:45 | Whoever Sees Jesus Sees the Father

FROM THE HUMAN TO THE DIVINE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: [Our Lord] gradually accustoms their minds to penetrate the depth of the mysteries concerning himself, [leading them] not to the human person but to that which was of the divine essence. He does this inasmuch as the Godhead is apprehended completely in the person of God the Father, for he has in himself the Son and the Spirit. With exceeding wisdom he carries them onward, … for he does not exclude himself from being believed on by us because he is God by nature and has shone forth from God the Father. But skillfully (as has been said) he handles the mind of the weak to mold them to godliness in order that you might understand him to say something like this: “When you believe on me—I who, for your sakes, am a man like yourselves, but who also am God by reason of my own nature and because of the Father from whom I exist—do not suppose that it is on a man you are setting your faith. For I am by nature God, notwithstanding that I appear like one of yourselves, and I have within myself him who begat me. Forasmuch therefore as I am consubstantial with him that has begotten me, your faith will assuredly pass on also to the Father himself.” As we said therefore, the Lord, gradually trains them to something better and profitably interweaves the human with what is God-befitting. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 8. [1]

[1] LF 48:162**.

SEEING GOD

CHRYSOSTOM: What then! Is God a body? [1] By no means. The “seeing” of which he here speaks is that of the mind. This demonstrates the consubstantiality. And what does it mean when he says “he that believes on me”? It is as though one should say, “He that takes water from the river does not take it from the river but from the spring that supplies the river.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69.1. [2]

[1] Avoiding anthropomorphisms concerning God is a common theme in patristic commentary.

[2] NPNF 1 14:254*.

A GREAT DIFFERENCE AND A PERFECT SIMILARITY

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: [In verse 44], he said, “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.” He said this because they allege they were prosecuting him in order to avenge God. And so he says in effect, “I refer you to [the Father] because, you see, the one who believes in me is the one who comes to know the Father fully through me.” That is why he said what he did there. On the other hand, “whoever sees me sees him who sent me” seems to contradict what had just been said. The statement in [verse 44] shows the difference between Father and Son, while [verse 45] shows their perfect similarity. Because the first statement showed such great humility, however, he logically concluded the second in order to declare his similarity with the Father. Both statements, however, show that he never stood far apart from the Father. The first he said for the unbelievers. The second was to indicate how precise his likeness was to the Father’s. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 5.12.45. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:249.

APOSTLES ARE SEEN, BUT WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN THEM

AUGUSTINE: There is so little difference between me [i.e., the Son] and him who sent me [i.e., the Father] that he that sees me sees him. Certainly, Christ the Lord sent his apostles … yet none of them dared to say, “He who believes in me.” … We believe an apostle, but we do not believe in an apostle, for it is not an apostle who justifies the ungodly. … An apostle might say, “He who receives me receives him who sent me,” or “He who hears me hears him who sent me,” for the Lord tells them so himself. [1] … For the master is honored in the servant and the father in the son. But then the father is as it were in the son, and the master as it were in the servant. But the Only Begotten could rightly say, “Believe on God, and believe on me,” [2] as what he also says here, “He who believes in me does not believe in me but on him that sent me.” Here he does not deflect the believer’s faith from himself but gives him a higher object than the form of a servant for that faith. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 54.3. [3]

[1] Mt 10:40.

[2] Jn 14:1.

[3] CCL 36:460; NPNF 1 7:296-97**.

BELIEVING AND BEHOLDING

ORIGEN: Notice in the passage before us that there are two aspects about the Savior: first, believing in him, and second, what is above believing, that is, to behold (contemplate) [1] the Word and in beholding the Word to behold the Father. Believing occurs even among the multitude of those who come to religion. [2] But to behold the Word, and in him to regard the Father, does not pertain to all who believe but only to the pure in heart. This is how I understand “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” For it is not the one who applies the power of vision lying in the eyes of the body to Jesus and his body who has seen his Father and God. And I think that time and training were needed in order to see Jesus, and seeing the Son to behold also the Father. [3] …

For one believing on the Son believes not on the Son but on God the Father of all. But one beholding the Word and Wisdom and Truth beholds not this alone but also the Father. And I think that it is in order to show the greatness of the mystery involved first in believing on the Son and secondly in beholding him that it is prefixed, “Jesus cried and said.” For the mystical pronouncement about these things was indeed great. And the Evangelist makes clear elsewhere that it is possible to believe without beholding. [4] FRAGMENT 93 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. [5]

[1] Gk theorein.

[2] Gk theosebeia.

[3] See Jn 14:9.

[4] See Jn 8:31-32.

[5] AEG 5:109-10*; GCS 10(4):556-57.

12:46 | Faith Brings Us Out of Darkness

THE TRUE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS

ORIGEN: When the Savior of the world came, he made the true light shine. But they did not want to gaze on it, nor were they willing to walk by the radiance of his teaching. Consequently, darkness overtook them and demanded a penalty for the wickedness that had preoccupied them. And this [darkness] might be said to have reasonably blinded and hardened them. And, just as it follows that the one who has chosen to walk in the light also knows where he is going, so it follows that the one who has not chosen to walk in the light walks in darkness and travels wretchedly along the road of the blind. …

For just as the visible sun shoots out its bright beams in order to enlighten those who have ailing eyes, so also does the spiritual Sun, the Light that has no setting or evening, come to the world and through his divine and ineffable miracles cast the brilliant gleam of his deity far and wide. FRAGMENT 94 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. [1]

[1] AEG 5:110-11*; GCS 10(4):557-58.

TO WITHDRAW FROM CHRIST IS DARKNESS

AUGUSTINE: He says in one place to his disciples, “You are the light of the world” [1] … but he did not say to them, “You have come as a light into the world, that whosoever believes on you should not abide in darkness.” … All saints are lights, but they are illuminated by Christ through faith, and everyone that becomes separated from him will be enveloped in darkness. But that light that enlightens them cannot become separated from itself. For it is altogether beyond the reach of change. We believe, then, the light that has thus been lit is the prophet or apostle. But we believe him for this end, that we may not believe on that which is itself enlightened, but, with him, on that light that has given him light. Then we too may be enlightened, not by him, but along with him by the same light as he. And when he says, “That whoever believes on me may not abide in darkness,” he makes it sufficiently clear that all have been found by him in a state of darkness. But so that they do not remain in the darkness in which they have been found, they ought to believe on that light that has come into the world, for that is how the world was created. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 54.4. [2]

[1] Mt 5:14.

[2] NPNF 1 7:297**; CCL 36:460-61.

12:47 | Not Judging, but Saving

HE DOES NOT JUDGE, DO YOU?

AMBROSE: He judges not, and do you judge? He says that “whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness,” that is, that if he is in darkness he may not remain that way but may amend his error, correct his fault and keep my commandments. For I have said, “I do not desire the death of the wicked, but their conversion.” [1] I said above that he who believes on me is not judged, and I keep to this: “For I have not come to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through me.” [2] I pardon willingly, I quickly forgive. “I will have mercy rather than sacrifice,” [3] because by sacrifice the just is rendered more acceptable, by mercy the sinner is redeemed. CONCERNING REPENTANCE 1.12.54. [4]

[1] Ezek 33:11.

[2] Jn 3:17.

[3] Hos 6:6.

[4] NPNF 2 10:338; SC 179:98-100.

CONDEMNATION IS SELF-INFLICTED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Those who refuse to hear Jesus and accept saving faith will condemn themselves, for he who came to illumine came not to judge but to save. Therefore, he who disobeys and subjects himself to the greatest miseries can only blame himself as justly punished. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 8. [1]

[1] LF 48:163-64**.

12:48 | The Word as Judge

THE WORD THAT WILL JUDGE

CHRYSOSTOM: The word that I have just said shall be their accusers and deprive them of all excuses. The same word that I have spoken will be the word that will judge them. And what word is this? “That I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who sent me told me what I should say and what I should speak.” All these things were said on their account so that they might have no pretense or excuse. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:255**.

JESUS IS THE WORD WHO WILL JUDGE

AUGUSTINE: In the meantime, while they were waiting to know who this [judge] was, he went on to add, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day.” He makes it sufficiently clear that he himself will judge at the last day. For the word that he speaks is himself. He speaks himself, announces himself and sets himself as the gate where he enters as the Shepherd to his sheep. [1] We gather too from these words that those who have not heard will be judged differently from those who have heard and despised it. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 54.6. [2]

[1] See Jn 10:2.

[2] NPNF 1 7:297**; CCL 36:461.

12:49 | Jesus Speaks by the Father’s Authority

JESUS REVEALS THE WILL OF GOD THE FATHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Since Jesus was the living and personal [1] Word of God the Father, he is necessarily the medium of interpreting what is in the Father. Thus, by saying that he has received a commandment, Jesus means that he brings to light that which is, as it were, the set will and purpose of his own Father. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [2]

[1] Or, hypostatic.

[2] LF 48:170*.

THE WORD GIVES KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER

BASIL THE GREAT: Through all these words [Jesus] is guiding us to the knowledge of the Father and referring our wonder at all that is brought into existence to him, to the end that “through him” we may know the Father. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.19. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 8:13*.

SALVATION OF ALL IS THE GOAL OF FATHER AND SON

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: We need to consider the purpose of the words. Indeed he means This is the purpose of my advent—salvation for all. You who do not believe will be condemned—but not by me because this is contrary to my passion, and it is not your condemnation I am after. Because of your [evil] mind you will be condemned by my own words which leave no excuse to the unbelievers on judgment day. These are the words that I spoke many times. In other words, I want nothing that is against the will of the Father, nor do I intend to establish a congregation for myself alone. I always led you all to the Father with my words by telling you that I was sent by him and that it was from him that I received the command to tell you the right words. Therefore I spoke to you words that were in agreement with his will. And this same thing I testify now to you: By those same words you will be condemned. Indeed you will not be able to come up with any excuses, as if you were defending the honor of God, because I always led you to him. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 5.12.47-50. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:251-52.

THE SON IS NOT GIVEN ORDERS BY THE FATHER

BASIL THE GREAT: It is not because Jesus lacks deliberate purpose or initiative, nor is it because he has to wait for some prearranged signal, that he employs language of this kind. His purpose is to make plain that his own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father. Let us not then understand that what he calls a “commandment” is a peremptory mandate delivered by organs of speech, and giving orders to the Son, as to a subordinate concerning what he ought to do. Let us rather, in a sense befitting the Godhead, perceive a transmission of will, like the reflection of an object in a mirror, passing without note of time from Father to Son. … Everything the Father has also belongs to the Son. The Son does not acquire it piecemeal. Rather, he has it all at once. Among people, the workman who has been thoroughly taught his craft through long training and experience is able to work for his own future, utilizing that training he has received. And are we to suppose that the wisdom of God, the Maker of all creation, he who is eternally perfect, who is wise without a teacher, the Power of God, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” [1] needs piecemeal instruction to mark out the manner and measure of his operations? … If you consistently follow this line of reasoning, you will turn the Son into an eternal student who is never able to graduate since the Father’s wisdom is infinite. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.20. [2]

[1] Col 2:3.

[2] NPNF 2 8:14.

12:50 | Just as the Father Has Told Me

THE HUMILITY OF JESUS

CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the humility of the words? For he who has received a commandment is not his own master. Yet he says, “As the Father raises up the dead and enlivens them, even so the Son enlivens whom he will.” [1] Does he have power then to enliven whomever he wants, and does he not have the power to say what he wants? What he intends then by the words is this: It is not possible that he [the Father] should speak one set of words and I should utter another. “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting.” He said this to those who called him a deceiver and who asserted that he had come to do harm. However, when he says “I judge not,” he shows that he is not the cause of their destruction. By this he all but plainly testifies (when he is about to remove himself from them and leave) that “I converse with you, speaking nothing on my own but everything as from the Father.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69.2. [2]

[1] See Jn 5:21.

[2] NPNF 1 14:255*.

THE SON IS THE COMMANDMENT OF THE FATHER

AUGUSTINE: If life everlasting is the Son himself and the commandment is life everlasting, what is this but saying, “I am the commandment of the Father”? And in the same way in the following, “Whatever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to me, so I speak,” we must not understand “said to me” as if words were spoken to the only Word or that the Word of God needed words from God. The Father spoke to the Son in the same way as he gave life to the Son. It was not that the Son was ignorant or did not [already] have life. Rather, it was simply because the Son was what he was. What, then, is meant by “as he said to me, so I speak” but that I am the Word who speaks. The Father is true, the Son is truth: the True begat the Truth. What then could he say to the Truth if the Truth was perfect from the beginning and no new truth could be added to him? That he spoke to the Truth then means that he begat the Truth. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 54.8. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:298**; CCL 36:462-63.