31. Jesus therefore said to them again: I go, namely, to the Father through the Passion; and you shall seek me, namely, to persecute me: and you shall die in your sin, and I shall be delivered from your hands. And the reason is added: Where I go, you cannot come, because they could not enter into glory. Hence He threatened them with the death of guilt and the loss of glory. This the Lord said to the Jews; He said something similar to the disciples: "Where I go, you cannot come," below in the thirteenth chapter. But to the Jews He said it by way of threat, to the disciples He foretold it by way of deferral: whence afterwards He said to Peter: "Where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow afterwards."
32. (Verse 22). The Jews therefore said. Here the second point is touched upon, namely, on account of the Jews' doubt, the exposition of the threat. For they doubted concerning what He had said: Where I go, you cannot come: therefore they say: Will He kill Himself, because He says: Where I go, you cannot come? Augustine: "Foolish words, altogether full of senselessness. For if He were to kill Himself, could they not do likewise? If He spoke of death, were not all of them going to die?" On account of this doubt, the Lord sets forth the explanation of His threat; and He had said two things, therefore He explains two things: first, that which He had said: Where I go, you cannot come. For because He had said this concerning going to the Father through glory, to which sinners could not ascend, therefore He says:
33. (Vers. 23.). And he said to them: You are from below: above in chapter three: "He who is of the earth speaks of the earth"; but I am from above, and therefore I go upward: and for this reason where I go, you cannot come: because, as is said above in chapter three, "no one ascends into heaven except he who descended from heaven"; therefore you descend, but I ascend. Again: You are of this world, because you cling to this world through love: but I am not of this world, therefore I leave you in the world, and "where I go, you cannot come"; below in chapter sixteen: "I came forth from the Father and came into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father." Thus he explains what he had said: Where I go: this is to be understood through power, not through weakness. He also expounds what he said: You will die in your sin: whence he repeats this, in order to explain it:
34. (Vers. 24.). I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins, and I explain how I mean it. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sin. But if you believe, you will not die — this is to be understood from the opposites; whence Augustine says: "Hope has been restored to those in despair, an awakening has been made for those who sleep"; above in chapter three: "He who is unbelieving toward the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God remains upon him; but he who believes in the Son of God has eternal life." This he had promised.
35. (Vers. 25.). They said therefore, etc. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the explanation of the things to be believed. For because he had set forth his threat, that without faith in him no one could be freed from death, saying that they would die in sin unless they believed that I am — this indeed he had said implicitly — therefore the Jews seek to have it explained and to be taught in the faith. For this reason they said to him: Who are you? since we cannot be saved unless we believe in you. Similarly they asked of John above in chapter one: "Who are you?" And there follows the response of Christ, by which he instructs the Jews to believe in him: first regarding what pertains to creation made through him; second, what pertains to the person of the Father, at the place: And they did not know. For first he is creator: on account of which he says: Jesus said to them: The Beginning, that is, I am the Beginning who creates: because all things through him received being, as was said above in chapter one: "In the beginning was the Word," and again: "All things were made through him." He is also teacher: who also speak to you; Hebrews chapter one: "In these last days he has spoken to us in the Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the ages." Similarly the Lord responded to the Samaritan woman who asked: "I am he, who speaks to you"; and to the blind man, below in chapter nine.
He is also judge, although now he does not speak words of condemnation, but of instruction and calling. For this reason he says:
36. (Vers. 26.). I have many things to speak about you — about, that is, against you — and to judge, which will not remain unexamined, not out of malice, but out of justice. But he who sent me is truthful, and the things I have heard from him, these I speak in the world: and therefore I judge truthfully; above in the fifth chapter: "As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me." And because he manifested himself in comparison to the creature, he manifests himself in comparison to the person of the Father, which the Jews could not understand: therefore he says:
37. (Vers. 27.). And they did not know that he called God his Father: and because they were unable to understand the loftiness of the generation, he directs them to the weakness of the passion, when he says:
38. (Vers. 28.). Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, namely on the cross: below in the twelfth chapter: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself"; then you will know that I am, namely a distinct person in the Trinity; behold, the personal distinction; Exodus 3: "I am who am." And I do nothing of myself, namely this you will know; but as the Father has taught me, these things I speak, that is, as I have received from the Father, because the Father gives all things to the Son. And in this is shown the emanation of generation from the Father; above in the fifth chapter: "The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he has seen the Father doing." Not only will you know the personal distinction, but also the indivision of essence: therefore he says:
39. (Vers. 29.). And he who sent me is with me, on account of the unity of essence, in which there is no division; below in the fourteenth chapter: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?" And he has not left me alone, through a discordant will: because I always do the things that are pleasing to him. Whence the Son cannot be left by the Father, because he can neither disagree with him nor displease him; Matthew 3: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." On the contrary, sinners are left by the Lord, because they displease him through sins: 2 Chronicles 12: "You have left me, and I have left you."
40. (Vers. 30.). As he was speaking these things. Here is touched upon the fourth point, namely the multiplication of believers in Christ, which came about through this instruction; therefore he says: As he was speaking these things, namely the things said above, many believed in him; because his word had efficacy; above in the fourth chapter: "Many more believed because of his word."
Questions.
41. Question I. But here the first question concerns what he says: You shall die in your sins.
It seems that he revealed to them their damnation, and therefore he was compelling them to despair: and according to this it seems that someone could have foreknowledge of his own damnation.
But this does not seem right; because knowledge and revelation are a gift of piety: therefore it does not compel despair.
To this the response is threefold: that the Lord did not say this by way of revelation, but by way of threat; hence He adds below the condition: unless you believe. Otherwise it must be said that the Lord did not say this to people who would place faith in Him; therefore it did not compel them to despair; hence He said this not to believers, but to unbelievers. In a third way it is said that the Lord was speaking to the multitude; therefore the word was received generally, and no one took it specifically for himself.
42. Question II. Furthermore, since principle denotes the notion of emanation, which first and principally belongs to the Father: whence is it that the Son appropriates it to Himself?
I respond: It must be said that this name principle is sometimes taken essentially, insofar as it denotes a relation to the creature, and thus the whole Trinity is called principle; sometimes notionally, and thus the Father and the Son are one principle of the Holy Spirit; sometimes personally, and thus principle denotes the fontal emanation itself, which is found in the Father. And thus Augustine says that "the Father is the principle of the Divinity."
It must be said therefore that this name principle, insofar as it is essential, is drawn to the person of the Son in two ways: in one way through the property of generation, and thus the Son is called principle from a principle, that is, the begotten one; in another way through the property of the Word, because the Son is the Word, and thus it is drawn here: I am the principle, who also speak to you.
43. Question III. Furthermore it is asked: since truth is appropriated to the Son, whence is it that the Son, speaking of the Father, attributes it to Him?
It must be said that He is called truthful because He speaks true words. Because therefore the Father speaks the Son, who is the true Word, to whom truth is appropriated, truthful by reason of the connoted origin can rightly be appropriated to the Father.
44. Question IV. Furthermore it is asked concerning what He says, that He has not left me alone, because I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
On the contrary: In Matthew twenty-seven the Son said in His passion: God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I respond: It must be said that there is an abandonment of dispensation, of testing, of permission, and of eternal damnation. The first, of dispensation, was to expose the Son to suffering for the salvation of the human race. The second, of testing, is in the just, as the Lord left Job in the hand of Satan. The third is in those sinning in the present life. The fourth is in those eternally damned, which is abandonment without any visitation. The word of the Lord here is therefore understood concerning the abandonment of wrath, not concerning the dispensation of divine wisdom.
45. Jesus therefore said etc. It has been shown that without the teaching and faith of Christ there is perpetuation in sin; here it is shown secondly that through the teaching of Christ there is liberation from the servitude of sin. And this part is divided into three parts: because first, liberation from the servitude of sin through the teaching of Christ is promised: second, the boasting of the Jews is emptied, at the passage: I know that you are sons of Abraham; third, the consequent indignation of the Jews is shown, at the passage: The Jews answered and said to him: Do we not say rightly?