ACC ~ John 15 v22 - 25

OVERVIEW:

Jesus’ enigmatic statement, “If I had not come, they would not have sin,” has been understood in a number of ways: some believe it refers to those who have not yet come to the age of reason (ORIGEN). Others see Jesus pointedly challenging the world about its sin of unbelief (AUGUSTINE), implying that ignorance is now no excuse because he has become incarnate (AMBROSE).

Christ calls the Father “my Father,” not only asserting a claim to a type of sonship no one else can claim, but also demonstrating that anyone who hates him also hates his Father (HILARY). Even though Jesus had just said that the Jews did not know his Father, their hatred of the Father is still evident because they have constructed a picture of the Father that has no basis in reality—a reality that is evident in the Son and his works (AUGUSTINE). Jesus’ words and works testify to his close relationship with the Father (CHRYSOSTOM). By saying he did works that no one else had done before him, he meant that the scope and breadth of his works were much greater than anything that had happened before (AUGUSTINE). Notice how Jesus here extends the preaching of salvation to those who insulted him; we should do no less (CYRIL). And yet, his opponents display an irrational ignorance of the prophecy regarding the Gentiles (THEODORE) and even descend into deliberate and willful sin in their denial of the gospel to the Gentiles (GREGORY THE GREAT).

15:22 | If I Had Not Come, They Would Not Have Sin

THE AGE OF REASON

ORIGEN: That declaration in the Gospel, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin,” makes it clear to all who are rational just how long a time a person is without sin and just when he is liable to sin. By participating in the word or reason, people are said to have sinned, that is, from the time they are capable of understanding, from the time that the reason implanted within them suggests to them the difference between good and evil. After they have begun to know what evil is, they are liable for any sin they commit.

This is the meaning of the expression that “people have no excuse for their sin,” namely, that from the time the divine word or reason has begun to show them internally the difference between good and evil, they ought to avoid and guard against evil: “For to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” [1] ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6. [2]

[1] Jas 4:17.

[2] ANF 4:254*; GCS 22(5):57.

JESUS REFERS TO THE SIN OF UNBELIEF

AUGUSTINE: Christ spoke to the Jews only, not to any other nation. In them then was that world that hated Christ and his disciples. And not only in them, but even these latter [i.e., the Gentiles] were shown by him to belong to the same world. What, then, does he mean by the words “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not have sin”? Were the Jews then without sin before Christ came in the flesh, because Christ had not spoken to them? Only the greatest fool would think so. By sin here he means not every sin but a certain great sin which includes everyone and which alone hinders the remission of other sins, that is, the sin of unbelief. They did not believe in Christ, who came that they might believe in him. This is the sin, then, they would not have had if Christ had not come. His advent has become as much fraught with destruction to unbelievers as it is with salvation to those who believe. …

“But now they have no excuse for their sin.” If those to whom Christ had not come or spoken had no excuse for their sin, why is it said here that these had no excuse, because Christ had come and spoken to them? If the first had excuse, did it do away with their punishment altogether or only mitigate it? I answer that this excuse did not cover all their sin but only this one, that is, that they did not believe in Christ. But they are not of this number to whom Christ came by his disciples and to whom he spoke by them, as he also does at present. For by his church he has come, and by his church he speaks to the Gentiles. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 89.1-2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:357-58**; CCL 36:548-49.

THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD THE GOSPEL HAVE NO EXCUSE

AUGUSTINE: It remains for us to inquire whether those who, prior to the coming of Christ in his church to the Gentiles and to their hearing of his gospel, have been or are now being overtaken by the close of this life—can they have such an excuse? Evidently they can, but this is no reason for them to escape damnation. “For as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the law. And as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law.” [1] … Such an excuse not only brings them no help but even becomes an additional aggravation. For those who excuse themselves because they did not hear are the ones who “shall perish without the law.”

Paul’s discourse was not distinguishing between unbelievers and believers, but between Jews and Gentiles, both of whom are most certainly lost if they do not find salvation in the Savior who came to seek what was lost. [2] Although, one might say that some will have lighter, others more severe punishments in their damnation. Whoever is punished with an exclusion from that happiness that is given to the saints is lost to God. But there is as great a diversity of punishments as there is of sins—although how this is settled is a matter known only to divine Wisdom, something too deep for human conjecture to examine or express. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 89.3-4. [3]

[1] Rom 2:12.

[2] Lk 19:10.

[3] NPNF 1 7:358**; CCL 36:549-50. See also his Sermon 143.2 (WSA 3 4:426).

IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE

AMBROSE: The mystery of Christ is so great that even angels stood amazed and bewildered before it. This is why, then, it is your duty to worship him and, as a servant, this is why you should not detract from your Lord. You cannot plead ignorance because establishing your faith is why he came down in the first place. If you do not believe, he has not come down for you or suffered for you. “If I had not come,” says the Scripture, “and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also.” Who, then, hates Christ, if not the one who speaks to his dishonor? For just as it is love’s part to render honor, so it is hate’s part to withdraw honor. The one who hates calls into question Christ’s honor; the one who loves, pays reverence. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.2.27. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:265**; CSEL 78:165 (On the Christian Faith 4.2.26). See also Jacob and the Happy Life 1.4.14; FC 65:129).

15:23 | Whoever Hates the Son Hates the Father

THE SON IS FROM THE FATHER BY HIS BIRTH

HILARY OF POITIERS: “Hates my Father also.” This my is the assertion of a relation to the Father that is shared by no one else. … He condemns the man who claims God as his Father and does not love the Son as using a wrongful liberty with the Father’s name, since he who hates him, that is, the Son, must hate the Father also. And none can be devoted to the Father except those who love the Son. For the one and only reason that he gives for loving the Son is his origin from the Father. The Son, therefore, is from the Father, not by his advent but by his birth. And love for the Father is only possible to those who believe that the Son is from him. ON THE TRINITY 6.30. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:109*; CCL 62:233.

THOSE WHO HATE THE SON

AUGUSTINE: He had just said a little before, “They will do these things to you because they do not know him who sent me.” [1] A question arises here that cannot be overlooked: How can they hate someone they do not know? If they hated God, believing him to be something else instead of God, this was not hatred of God. … If the Jews were asked whether they loved God, they would have replied that of course they loved him, not intentionally lying but only erroneously thinking they did. For how could those who hated the Truth love the Father of the Truth? They had no desire to have their conduct condemned, and yet it is the task of truth to condemn such conduct. And so, they hated the Truth even though at the time, they did not know he was the truth who came to condemn them. Therefore, they hate what they do not know. And hating it, they certainly cannot do anything else but hate him from whom he was born. Because they do not know the truth who is condemning them as the one who is born of God the Father, it is certain that they not only do not know the Father but also hate the Father himself. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 90.1, 3. [2]

[1] Jn 15:21.

[2] NPNF 1 7:359-60**.

15:24 | Unique Works Testify

WORDS AND WORKS TESTIFY FOR JESUS

CHRYSOSTOM: Jesus proclaims ahead of time that there will be no small punishment against them. For, since they continually pretended that they persecuted him on account of the Father, to deprive them of this excuse he says: I gave them doctrine, I added miracles, which, according to Moses’ law, should convince all if the doctrine itself is good also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else had ever done, they would have had no sin. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 77.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:283**; PG 59:416.

HAD NO ONE ELSE DONE THESE THINGS?

AUGUSTINE: Their [i.e., those who hate Christ] sin was in the fact that they did not believe him, notwithstanding his doctrine and his miracles. … But why does he add, “which no one else ever did”? Christ did no work greater than the raising of the dead, which we know the ancient prophets did before him. [1] … Is it that he did some things that no one else did? But others also did what neither he nor anyone else did. … True. Yet none of the ancient prophets that we read of healed so many bodily defects, sicknesses, infirmities. For to say nothing of single cases, Mark says … that wherever he entered, into villages, or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets and asked that they might touch just the border of his garment. And any who touched him were made whole. [2] … Such works as these no one else had done in them. In them, he says, meaning not among them or before them but directly in them because he healed them … for which they surely ought to have returned him with love and not with hatred. … The wicked hate the Lord, but he is loved by the righteous gratuitously [gratis, freely,] inasmuch as they expect no other gifts beyond himself, for he himself will be all in all. … But even where particular works, like some of these, had been done before, whoever worked such things did not really do them, for he [i.e., Jesus] did them through them, whereas Jesus performs these miracles by his own power. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 91.1-4. [3]

[1] Augustine then cites many examples of miracles in both the Old and New Testament.

[2] Mk 6:56.

[3] NPNF 1 7:361-62**; CCL 36:553-55.

15:25 | Hate Without Cause

PREACHING TO THOSE WHO HATE US

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here our Lord clearly shows that he is not unaware of the stubborn temper of the Jews [1] but rather, he had foretold and knew in advance how they would respond. However, he still treated them with mildness and forgiveness as was befitting his divine nature. For he set before them the Word that called them to salvation even though they were ill disposed to receive it. And if any of them did have a good and suitable disposition, he even confirmed their faith by miracles. Here too he gives his disciples considerable benefit, with the goal that in a forgiving spirit they might extend the preaching of salvation even to those who offered them insults and might even in this be seen to walk in the path of excellence which was first revealed in Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.2. [2]

[1] Cyril is referring to those Jews, specifically, with whom Jesus is interacting.

[2] LF 48:429-30**.

IGNORING THE PROPHECY IS IRRATIONAL

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: [Jesus says], If I was not engaged in dialogue with them in deed and in word, they would have something to say. But now, since they do not accept my words, they are clearly condemned for their enmity toward me and the Father. Through the prophecy [1] he also shows that their hatred of him was irrational. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.15.25. [2]

[1] See Ps 35:19 (34:19 LXX); 69:4 (68:5 LXX).

[2] CSCO 4 3:287.

DELIBERATE, WILLFUL SIN

GREGORY THE GREAT: It is one thing not to do good, another to hate the teacher of goodness since there is a difference between sudden and deliberate sins. Our state generally is that we love what is good but from infirmity cannot perform it. But to sin on purpose means not doing or desiring what is good. As, then, it is sometimes a heavier offense to love sin than to do it, so is it more wicked to hate justice than not to do it. There are some in the church who not only do not do what is good but even persecute it and hate in others what they neglect to do themselves. The sin of these people is not that of infirmity or ignorance but deliberate, willful sin. MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 25.11.28. [1]

[1] LF 23:119-20**.