Augustine, Sermones 131-137 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

might go ahead of [Him], and, when they announced that He was coming, an ambush might be prepared: I am not going up, He said, to the feast day. He said: I am not going up, so that He might be hidden; He added this, so that He might not lie. Something He put in, something He took away, something He put off: yet He said nothing false, because nothing false proceeds from His mouth. Then, after He had said these things, But when His brothers had gone up: the Gospel speaks; pay attention, read what you were putting to me; see whether the reading itself does not solve the question, see whether I have taken from elsewhere what I was to say. This, then, is what the Lord was waiting for, that they should go up first, so that they might not announce beforehand that He was coming. After His brothers had gone up, then He too went up to the feast day, not openly, but as it were in secret. Why as it were in secret? There He acts as it were in secret. Why as it were in secret? Because not even this was in secret. For He was not truly trying to hide, Who had it in His power when He would be seized. But in that concealment, as I said, He was giving to weak disciples, who did not have the power, an example of guarding against the snares of enemies, when they did not wish to be taken. For He afterwards even went up openly, and was teaching them in the temple, and some were saying: Behold, this is He, behold, He is teaching. Surely our rulers were saying, because they wanted to seize Him: behold, He speaks openly, and no one lays a hand on Him (John 7:25–26).

8. Another solution. Now indeed, if we pay attention to ourselves, if we consider His body, [we see] that He is also we ourselves. For if He were not we ourselves, it would not be true: When you did it to one of the least of Mine, you did it to Me (Matt. 25:40). If He were not we ourselves, it would not be true: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me (Acts 9:4)? Therefore He is also we ourselves, because we are His members, because we are His body, because He is our head (Eph. 1:22), because the whole Christ is head and body. Perhaps, then, He was foreseeing us, because we were not going to keep the feast days of the Jews, and this is: I am not going up to this feast day. Behold, neither Christ nor the Evangelist lied: and if it were necessary to choose one of these two, the Evangelist would grant me pardon; in no way would I set a truthful man before Truth itself; the one sent I would not prefer to Him by Whom he was sent. But thanks be to God, as far as I judge, what was obscure has been laid bare. Your piety will help [me] before God. Behold, as I was able, I have solved the question, both in regard to Christ and in regard to the Evangelist. Hold the truth with me, friend; embrace charity without contention.

Sermon 134. On the words of the Gospel of John, If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, etc., chapter 8, verses 31-34.

Chapter One. — 1. Christ the Teacher of all. To abide in the word of God. Your Charity knows that we all have one Teacher, and that under Him we are fellow disciples. Nor are we your teachers because we speak to you from a higher place: but the Teacher is

of all, Who dwells in all of us. He Himself was just now speaking to all of us in the Gospel, and was saying to us what I too say to you: but He says it concerning us, both to us and to you, If you abide in My word, not, of course, in mine, who am now speaking, but in His, Who was just now speaking out of the Gospel: If you abide in My word, He says, you are truly My disciples. For a disciple it is too little to draw near; rather [he must] abide. So He does not say, If you hear My word; or, If you draw near to My word; or, If you praise My word: but see what He said, If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What do we say, brothers? To abide in the word of God, is it labour or is it not? If it is labour, consider the great reward: if it is not labour, you receive the reward for nothing. Let us therefore abide in Him Who abides in us. We, if we do not abide in Him, fall: but He, if He does not abide in us, has not for that reason lost a home. For He knows how to abide in Himself, Who never forsakes Himself. But far be it from man that he should abide in himself, who has lost himself. Therefore we abide in Him out of need: He abides in us out of mercy.

Chapter II. — 2. The reward of one who abides in the word of Christ. "To be freed" is said in two ways. Now then, if it has been set before us what we ought to do, let us see what we are to receive. For He has enjoined a work and promised a wage. What is the work? If you abide in My word. A short work; short in word, great in deed: If you abide. What is, If you abide? If you build on the rock. O how great a thing this is, brothers, to build upon the rock, how great it is! The rivers came, the winds blew, the rain came down, and they struck against that house, and it did not fall: for it was founded upon the rock (Matt. 7:24–25). What then is it to abide in the word of God, but to yield to no temptations? What is the reward? You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Bear with us, because you perceive that my voice is dulled: help me by quietness. O reward! You will know the truth. Perhaps someone might say: And what does it profit me to know the truth? And the truth will set you free. If truth does not delight you, let freedom delight you. In the usage of the Latin language "to be freed" is said in two ways: and we are most accustomed to hear this word in this sense, that whoever is freed is understood to escape danger, to be rid of troubles. But "to be freed" properly means to be made free: as "to be saved" is to be made safe, "to be healed" is to be made healthy, so "to be freed" is to be made free. That is why I said, If truth does not delight you, let freedom delight you. In the Greek language this sounds more plainly, and it cannot be understood otherwise. And that you may know that it cannot be understood otherwise: when the Lord was speaking, the Jews answered, We have never been slaves to anyone; how sayest Thou, The truth will set you free? That is, The truth will make you free, how dost Thou say it to us, who have never been slaves to anyone? Those whom Thou seest, they say, to be under no bond of servitude, how dost Thou promise them freedom?

Chapter III. — 3. The servitude of sin. They heard what they ought: but they did not do what they ought. What did they hear? Because I said, The truth will set you free; you paid attention

to yourselves, because you are not slaves to a man, and you said, We have never been slaves to anyone. Everyone, Jew and Greek, rich and poor, honoured and private, emperor and beggar, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Everyone, He says, who commits sin is a slave of sin. If men acknowledge their slavery, they will see whence they may receive liberty. Someone freeborn is taken captive by barbarians; from freeborn he has been made a slave: a compassionate man hears of it, considers that he has money, becomes a redeemer, goes to the barbarians, gives the money, redeems the man. Clearly he has restored liberty, if he has taken away iniquity. But who has taken away iniquity? man for man? He who was a slave among the barbarians has been redeemed by his redeemer: and there is a great difference between the redeemer and the redeemed; yet under iniquity as mistress they are perhaps fellow-slaves. I ask the redeemed man: Do you have sin? I have, he says. I ask the redeemer: Do you have sin? I have, he says. So neither should you boast yourself redeemed, nor you exalt yourself as redeemer: but flee, both of you, to the true Liberator. It is not enough that those who are under sin have been called slaves; they are also called dead. What a man fears captivity may do to him, iniquity has already done to him. For what? because they seem to live, did He therefore err who said, Let the dead bury their dead (Matt. 8:22)? So all under sin are dead, dead slaves, dead by being slaves, slaves by dying.

4. From the slavery of sin and from death none frees but Christ. The likeness of sinful flesh in Christ. Who then frees from death and from slavery, but one free among the dead? Who is free among the dead, but one without sin among sinners? Behold, the prince of the world comes, says our Redeemer Himself, our Liberator: Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in Me he will find nothing (John 14:30). He holds those whom he deceived, whom he seduced, whom he persuaded to sin and death; in Me he will find nothing. Come, O Lord; come, Redeemer, come: let the captive acknowledge Thee, let the captor flee Thee; be Thou my liberator. He found me lost, in Whom the devil found nothing that the flesh does. The prince of this world found flesh in Him, he found it: and what kind of flesh? Mortal flesh, which he could hold, which he could crucify, which he could kill. You err, deceiver; the Redeemer is not deceived: you err. You see in the Lord mortal flesh; it is not the flesh of sin: it is the likeness of the flesh of sin. For God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. True flesh, mortal flesh: but not the flesh of sin. For God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh. For God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin: into flesh, yet not into the flesh of sin; but into the likeness of the flesh of sin. For what reason? That by sin, of which there was certainly none in Him, He might condemn sin in the flesh: that the justice of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Rom. 8:3–4).

Chapter IV. — 5. Sins, sacrifices for sins. If

therefore it was the likeness of the flesh of sin, not the flesh of sin; how then [is it said], That from sin He might condemn sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3)? A likeness is also accustomed to take the name of the thing of which it is the likeness. A man is called true; but even if you point to one painted on a wall and ask what it is, the answer is, A man. So the flesh having the likeness of the flesh of sin was called sin, so that it might be a sacrifice for sin. The same apostle says in another place: Him who had not known sin, He made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Him who had not known sin: who is it that had not known sin, except Him who said, Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in Me he will find nothing (John 14:30)? Him who had not known sin, He made sin for us: that very Christ, who knew no sin, God made sin for us. What is this, brothers? If it were said, He made sin in Him, or, He made Him have sin, it would seem intolerable: how do we tolerate what has been said, He made Him sin, so that Christ Himself is sin? Those who know the Scriptures of the Old Testament recognize what I am saying. For it was said not once but several times; very often sacrifices for sins were called sins. There was offered for sin, for example, a he-goat, a ram, anything whatever: the very victim that was offered for sin was named sin. So the sacrifice for sin was called sin: so much so that somewhere the Law says that the priests must lay their hands upon the sin (Lev. 4:29, according to the Septuagint). Therefore, Him who had not known sin, He made sin for us: that is, He was made a sacrifice for sin. Sin was offered, and sin was blotted out. The blood of the Redeemer was shed, and the bond of the debtor was blotted out. This is the blood which was shed for many for the remission of sins.

Chapter V. — 6. Conclusion. Why is it, then, that you foolishly exulted, my captor, because my Liberator had mortal flesh? If He had sin, look: if you have found anything of yours in Him, hold on to it. The Word was made flesh (John 1:14). The Word is creator, the flesh is creature. What is yours there, enemy? Both the Word is God, and the soul of man is a creature, and the flesh of man is a creature, and mortal flesh is God's creature. Look for sin. But why should you look? The Truth speaks: The prince of this world will come, and in Me he will find nothing (John 14:30). So it is not that he did not find flesh, but he found nothing of his own, that is, no sin. You deceived the innocent, you made them guilty. You killed the Innocent One; you slew Him whom you were not owed: give back what you were holding. Why then did you exult for an hour, because you found mortal flesh in Christ? It was your mousetrap: what you rejoiced at, by that you were caught. Where you exulted that you had found something, there you now grieve that you have lost what you had possessed. Therefore, brothers, we who believe in Christ, let us remain in His word. For if we remain in His word, we are truly His disciples. For not only those twelve, but all of us who remain in His word are truly His disciples. And we shall know the truth, and the truth will