Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
WHAT HAS NOW BECOME OF SIN?
This is the meaning of the words by Saint Paul, "Christ was raised for our justification." Here Paul turns my eye away from my sins and directs them to Christ, for if I look at my sins, they will destroy me. I must, therefore, look unto Christ, who has taken my sins upon himself, crushed the head of the serpent, and become the blessing. Now, they no longer burden my conscience, but rest upon Christ, whom they desire to destroy. Let us see how they treat him. They hurl him to the ground and kill him. O God; where is now my Christ and my Savior?
But then God appears, delivers Christ, and makes him alive; and not only does he make him alive, but he translates him into heaven and lets him rule over all. What has now become of sin? There it lies under his feet. If I then cling to this, I have a cheerful conscience like Christ, because I am without sin. Now I can defy death, the devil, sin, and hell to do me any harm. As I am a child of Adam, they can indeed accomplish it that I must die. But since Christ has taken my sins upon himself, has died for them, has suffered himself to be slain on account of my sins, they can no longer harm me, for Christ is too strong for them; they cannot keep him; he breaks forth and overpowers them, ascends into heaven (takes sin and sorrow captive), and rules there over all throughout eternity.
Now I have a clear conscience, am joyful and happy, and am no longer afraid of this tyrant, for Christ has taken my sins away from me and made them his own. But they cannot remain upon him; what then becomes of them? They must disappear and be destroyed.
This then is the effect of faith. He who believes that Christ has taken away our sin, is without sin, like Christ himself, and death, the devil, and hell are vanquished as far as he is concerned, and they can no longer harm him.
-- Martin Luther
(Hendrickson Publishers: Through the Year with Martin Luther, 355:9)
