Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 1:11-13

"He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." — John 1:11-13 (ASV)

1. Having explained the necessity for the incarnation of the Word, the Evangelist then shows the advantage humanity gained from that incarnation.

   1. First, he shows the coming of the light: he came to his own.

   2. Second, its reception by people: and his own did not receive him.

   3. Third, the fruit brought by the coming of the light: he gave them power to be made the sons of God.

2. He shows that the light, which was present and evident in the world (that is, disclosed by its effects), was nevertheless not known by the world. For this reason, he came to his own in order to be known.

   The Evangelist says, to his own, meaning to things that were his own, which he had made. He says this so that you do not think that when he says, he came, he means a physical movement, as if he came by ceasing to be where he was before and newly beginning to be where he had not been previously. He came to where he already was. I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world (John 16:28). He came, I say, to his own. According to some, this means he came to Judea, because it was his own in a special way: In Judea God is known (Psalms 76:1); the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel (Isaiah 5:7). But it is better to say he came to his own, that is, into the world created by him: The earth is the LORD’s (Psalms 24:1).

3. But if he was previously in the world, how could he come into the world?

   I answer that “coming to a place” is understood in two ways. First, that someone comes where he absolutely had not been before. Second, that someone begins to be in a new way where he was before. For example, a king who, until a certain time, was in a city of his kingdom by his power and later visits it in person, is said to have come where he previously was. He comes by his substance where he was previously present only by his power. It was in this way that the Son of God came into the world, and yet he was already in the world. For he was there by his essence, power, and presence, but he came by assuming flesh. He was there invisibly, and he came in order to be visible.

4. Then when he says, and his own did not receive him, we see the reception given to him by people, who reacted in different ways. For some did receive him, but these were not “his own”; therefore he says, his own did not receive him. In one sense, his own are all people, because they were formed by him: The LORD God formed man (Genesis 2:7); know that the LORD is God: he made us (Psalms 100:3). And he made them in his own image: let us make man in our image (Genesis 1:26).

   But it is better to say that his own, that is, the Jews, did not receive him through faith and by showing him honor. I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me (John 5:43), and I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me (John 8:49). Now, the Jews are his own because they were chosen by him to be his special people: The LORD chose you to be his special people (Deuteronomy 26:18). They are his own because they are related according to the flesh: from whom is Christ, according to the flesh (Romans 9:5). They are also his own because they were enriched by his kindness: I have reared and brought up sons (Isaiah 1:2). But although the Jews were his own, they did not receive him.

5. However, some did receive him. Therefore, he adds, but as many as received him. The Evangelist uses this manner of speaking, saying, as many as, to indicate that the deliverance would be more extensive than the promise, which had been made only to his own, that is, to the Jews. The LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us (Isaiah 33:22).

   But this deliverance was not only for his own, but for as many as received him, that is, whoever believes in him. For I say that Christ was a minister to the circumcised, for the sake of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the fathers (Romans 15:8). The Gentiles, however, are received because of his mercy.

6. He says, as many as, to show that God’s grace is given without distinction to all who receive Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the Gentiles (Acts 10:45). And it is not only for the free, but for slaves as well; not only for men, but for women also. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, Jew or Greek, the circumcised or uncircumcised (Galatians 3:28).

7. Then when he says, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, we have the fruit of his coming. Here we see:

   1. First, the grandeur of the fruit, for he gave them power.

   2. Second, to whom it is given: to those who believe.

   3. Third, the way it is given: not of blood.

8. The fruit of the coming of the Son of God is great, because by it people are made sons of God. God sent his Son, made from a woman... so that we might receive our adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4–5). And it was fitting that we, who are sons of God by the fact that we are made like the Son, should be reformed through the Son.

9. So he says, he gave them power to be made the sons of God.

   To understand this, we should note that people become sons of God by being made like God. People are sons of God according to a threefold likeness to God.

   1. First, by the infusion of grace; therefore, anyone having sanctifying grace is made a son of God. You did not receive the spirit of slavery... but the spirit of adoption as sons (Romans 8:15). Because you are sons of God, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts (Galatians 4:6).

   2. Second, we are like God by the perfection of our actions, because one who acts justly is a son: love your enemies... so that you may be the children of your Father (Matthew 5:44–45).

   3. Third, we are made like God by the attainment of glory. This includes the glory of the soul by the light of glory—when he appears we shall be like him (1 John 3:2)—and the glory of the body: he will reform our lowly body (Philippians 3:21). Of these two it is said, we are waiting for our adoption as sons of God (Romans 8:23).

10. If we take the power to become sons of God as referring to the perfection of our actions and the attainment of glory, the statement offers no difficulty. In that case, when he says, he gave them power, he is referring to the power of grace. When a person possesses this, they can perform works of perfection and attain glory, since the grace of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). According to this view, he gave them—to those who received him—power, that is, the infusion of grace, to be made the sons of God by acting well and acquiring glory.

11. But if this statement refers to the infusion of grace, then his saying, he gave them power, gives rise to a difficulty. This is because it is not in our power to be made sons of God, since it is not in our power to possess grace.

    We could understand he gave them power as a power of nature, but this does not seem to be true, since the infusion of grace is above our nature. Or we could understand it as the power of grace, and then to have grace is to have power to be made the sons of God. But in this sense, he did not give them power to become sons of God, but to be sons of God.

12. The answer to this is that when grace is given to an adult, his justification requires an act of consent by a movement of his free will. So, because it is in a person's power to consent or not to consent, he says, he gave them power.

    However, God gives this power of accepting grace in two ways: by preparing it and by offering it. For example, one who writes a book and offers it to a person to read is said to give the power to read it. In the same way, Christ—through whom grace was produced, as is said below, and who accomplished salvation on the earth (Psalms 74:12)—gave us power to become the sons of God by offering grace.

13. Yet this is not sufficient, since even free will, if it is to be moved to receive grace, needs the help of divine grace—not habitual grace, but movent grace. For this reason, second, he gives power by moving a person's free will to consent to the reception of grace, as it is written, Convert us to yourself, O LORD—by moving our will to your love—and we will be converted (Lamentations 5:21). In this sense, we speak of an interior call, of which it is said, those whom he called—by inwardly moving the will to consent to grace—he justified, by infusing grace (Romans 8:30).

14. Since by this grace a person has the power to maintain himself in divine sonship, one may also read these words in another way. He gave them, that is, those who receive him, power to be made the sons of God, meaning the grace by which they are able to be maintained in the divine sonship. Everyone who is born from God does not sin, but the grace of God, through which we are reborn as children of God, preserves him (1 John 5:18).

15. Thus, he gave them power to be made the sons of God through sanctifying grace, through the perfection of their actions, and through the attainment of glory. He did this by preparing this grace, moving their wills, and preserving this grace.

16. Then when he says, to those who believe in his name, he shows on whom the fruit of his coming is conferred. We can understand this in two ways: either as explaining what was said before, or as qualifying it. We can regard it as an explanation, as the Evangelist had said, as many as received him, and now, to show what it is to receive him, he adds by way of explanation, those who believe in his name. It is as if he were saying: to receive him is to believe in him, because it is through faith that Christ dwells in your hearts, as in that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). Therefore, they received him, who believe in his name.

17. Origen regards this as a qualifying statement in his homily, The Spiritual Voice. In this sense, many receive Christ, declaring that they are Christians, but they are not sons of God because they do not truly believe in his name. They propose false dogmas about Christ by taking away something from his divinity or humanity, as in every spirit that denies Christ is not from God (1 John 4:3). And so the Evangelist says, as if narrowing his meaning, he gave them—those who receive him by faith—power to be made the sons of God, to those, however, who believe in his name, that is, who keep the name of Christ whole, in such a way as not to lessen anything of the divinity or humanity of Christ.

18. We can also refer this to formed faith, in the sense that he gave power to be made the sons of God to all... who believe in his name, meaning those who do the works of salvation through a faith formed by charity. For those who have only an unformed faith do not believe in his name because they do not work toward salvation.

    However, the first exposition, which takes it as explaining what preceded, is better.

19. Then, when he says, who are born, not of blood, he shows the way in which so great a fruit is conferred on humanity.

    Since he had said that the fruit of the light’s coming is the power given to people to become the sons of God, he says not of blood to prevent the supposition that they are born through a material generation.

    Although the word “blood” has no plural in Latin, it does in Greek. The translator ignored a rule of grammar to teach the truth more perfectly, so he does not say “from blood” in the Latin manner, but from bloods. This indicates whatever is generated from blood, which serves as the matter in carnal generation. According to the Philosopher, semen is a residue derived from useful nourishment in its final form. So “bloods” indicates either the seed of the male or the menses of the female.

    The cause moving one to the carnal act is the will of the man and woman coming together. For although the act of the generative power itself is not subject to the will, the preliminaries to it are. Therefore, he says, nor of the will of the flesh, referring to the woman, and nor of the will of man, as the efficient cause, but they are born of God. It is as if he were saying: they became sons of God not carnally, but spiritually.

    According to Augustine, flesh is taken here for the woman, because as the flesh should obey the spirit, so the woman should obey the man. Adam said of the woman, this, at last, is bone of my bones (Genesis 2:23). Augustine also notes that just as the possessions of a household are wasted if the woman rules and the man is subject, so a person is wasted when the flesh rules the spirit. For this reason, the Apostle says, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (Romans 8:12). Concerning the manner of this carnal generation, we read, in the womb of my mother I was molded into flesh .

20. Alternatively, we might say that the moving force for carnal generation is twofold: the intellectual appetite (that is, the will) on the one hand, and the sense appetite (which is concupiscence) on the other. So, to indicate the material cause, he says, not of blood. To indicate the efficient cause with respect to concupiscence, he says, nor of the will of the flesh, even though the concupiscence of the flesh is improperly called a “will” in this sense: the flesh lusts against the spirit (Galatians 5:17). Finally, to indicate the intellectual appetite, he says, nor of the will of man. Therefore, the generation of the sons of God is not carnal but spiritual, because they were born of God. Every one who is born from God conquers the world (1 John 5:4).

21. Note, however, that the preposition “from” always signifies a material cause, as well as an efficient and even a consubstantial cause. Thus, we say a blacksmith makes a knife from iron, and a father generates his son from himself, because something of his substance contributes in some way to the begetting. But the preposition “by” always signifies a moving cause. The preposition “of” is understood as a common term, since it implies an efficient as well as a material cause, although not a consubstantial cause.

    Consequently, since only the Son of God, who is the Word, is of the substance of the Father and is indeed one substance with the Father, while the saints, who are adopted sons, are not of his substance, the Evangelist uses the preposition “of,” saying of others that they are born of God. But of the natural Son, he says that he is begotten of the Father.

22. Note also that in light of our last exposition of carnal generation, we can discern the difference between carnal and spiritual generation.

    For since the former is from blood, it is carnal; but the latter, because it is not from blood, is spiritual. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit (John 3:6). Again, because material generation is from the desires of the flesh, that is, from concupiscence, it is unclean and begets children who are sinners: we were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Again, because the former is of the will of man, that is, from man, it makes children of men; but the latter, because it is of God, makes children of God.

23. But if he intends to refer his statement, he gave them power, to baptism, by virtue of which we are reborn as sons of God, we can detect in his words the order of baptism. The first thing required is faith, as shown in the case of catechumens, who must first be instructed in the faith so that they may believe in his name. Then, through baptism, they are reborn not carnally from blood, but spiritually from God.