I Am He Who Comforts You

… washing away of sin, that is, the washing that comes through faith in Christ. Where there is the supply and grace of the Holy Spirit, the honor of adoption, the enjoyment of unending good things, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, there surely we must rejoice, and pain, grief, and groaning have fled away (Isaiah 51:11). For what place will pain have, and over what could there be groaning, where there is no cause at all for groaning and pain, but rather hope prevails, hope of exultation and gladness, of delight that cannot be lost, and of joy?

“I am, I am he who comforts you. Know who you are, that you were afraid of a mortal man and of a son of man, who have withered like grass. And you forgot God who made you, who made heaven and founded the earth, and you were always afraid, all the days, of the face of him who afflicts you. For just as he planned to take you away, so now where is the fury of him who afflicts you? For in your being saved he will not stop, nor will he delay” (Isaiah 51:12-14).

Here “I am” means “I live and exist”; for he himself is He Who Is (Exodus 3:14). This is a title fitting for God and surpassing all others. For being and living belong only to the nature that is beyond all things, which did not receive them from another by participation, nor holds them as a gift, but rather is itself life.

So he says, “I am he who comforts you,” that is, he who gives every spiritual comfort, and holds you up with his help so that you stand firmly fixed, ready to go with courage straight toward every virtue. Or perhaps you will understand the comfort here in another way too. For through the Gospel proclamations the Savior was calling people to the washing away of sin through faith in him, I mean, to a share in the Holy Spirit, and to the boast and glory of adoption.

But you, O Israel, he says, did not stand in awe of me, who am, but looked down on me and despised him who calls you to life; yet you were afraid of a perishable man and of a son of man, who have withered like grass. Then you forgot God who made you, who fashioned heaven and established the earth, and you feared the face of him who afflicts you.

Here God accuses the leaders of the Jews, who persisted to the end in opposing the Savior's glory, and, as far as it lay with them, declared it to be nothing at all. He worked wonders in many ways, but they poured out astonishingly bitter words on his divine signs; for they said that he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons (Matthew 12:24). With his teaching that went beyond the Law he often charmed those who heard him; but they slid into such impiety that on those who praised him they …