ACC ~ John 8 v21 - 22

WILL UNBELIEF SEEK JESUS?

ORIGEN: Someone will object: If he said this to those who persist in unbelief, how does he say to such people, “You will seek me”? It is good to seek Jesus, since it is the same as seeking the Word, the truth and wisdom. You may answer that “seeking” was also said of those who plotted against him…. There are differences between those seeking Jesus. Not all seek him legitimately for their salvation or benefit. People seek Jesus with countless motives that fall short of the good. Only those who seek him in a right way find peace. They may be said to seek him in a right way who seek the Word that was in the beginning with God, who seek him that he might lead them to the Father. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.71-74. [1]

[1] FC 89:184-85**; SC 290:90-92.

TWO WAYS OF PURSUIT

AUGUSTINE: “I go away,” he said, “and you shall seek me,” not from any longing for me but in hatred. For after his removal from human sight, he was sought for both by those who hated him and those who loved him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of seizing him. … Accordingly, because the former sought it in this wrong way, with a perverted heart, what did he add next? “You shall seek me, and”—not to let you suppose that you will seek me for good—“you shall die in your sin.” Dying in one’s sins happens to those who seek Christ wrongly. It happens to those who hate the one through whom alone salvation could be found. For while those whose hope is in God should not render evil even for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced to them beforehand and in his foreknowledge uttered the sentence that they should die in their sin. And then he adds, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He said the same to the disciples also in another place. [1] And yet he did not say to them, “You shall die in your sin.” But what did he say? He said the same as he did to these men: “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He did not take away hope but foretold delay. For at the time when the Lord said this to the disciples, they were not able to come where he was going, yet they were to come afterwards. But these men would never come. And so in his foreknowledge he said to them, “You shall die in your sin.” TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.2. [2]

[1] Jn 13:33.

[2] NPNF 1 7:217-18*. Origen asks if it is possible that those who persist in unbelief seek Jesus; see Commentary on the Gospel of John 19.71 (FC 89:184-85).

THE WORD THREATENS TO DEPART

ORIGEN: If the Word is not received when present, he threatens to go….

As long as we preserve the seeds and principles of truth that have been sown in our souls, the Word has not yet departed from us. But if we utterly destroy them with a flood of wickedness, he will say to us, “I go.” And then, even if we seek him, we will not find him but will die in our sin, overtaken in our sin and swept away by it….

And we must not pass over without noticing the expression “you will die in your sins.” If it is taken in the ordinary sense, it is clear that sinners will die in their sin and the righteous in their righteousness. But if “you will die” is taken in relation to death, the enemy of Christ, [1] since the one who dies has committed a sin that leads to death, then it is clear that those to whom this is spoken have not yet died….

Those to whom the Word had not yet come had not committed sin that leads to death. Still, they were spiritually sick, a sickness tending toward death. The Physician, seeing that they were deadly ill, after he had despaired of healing them, said, “I go, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.”…

Perhaps the statement “where I go you cannot come,” attached to “you will die in your sin,” will be clearer. For whenever someone dies in his sin, he cannot go where Jesus goes, for no one who is dead can follow Jesus: “For the dead do not praise you, O Lord.” [2] COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.74, 78-81, 83. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 15:26.

[2] Ps 115:17 (113:25 LXX).

[3] FC 89:185-87**; SC 290:92-98.