#14 The Lie

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

John 7 verses 37 through 38. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Therefore He in whom these things have not taken place, bears the marks and seal of unbelief upon him, and unbelief is the principal sin (John 16), from which all other sins originate, as fruit on a tree. He is the liar and anti—Christ who denies the Father and the Son, for in the denial of the Son lies also the denial of the Father.

The harm of Adam has therefore not been made good by the death of Christ for those, nor has it been healed in them, who remain in sin and the lie, but there the harm has first become really incurable, for the lie is not a single word or deed, nor a thousand, but is instead a spirit, which must be driven out so that the Spirit of Truth and the Life of Christ may take its place, and Christ lights His candle only for the reason that it may give light in the darkness of this world, that men may learn to know God (Matthew 5; Philippians 2) by His children.