Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Romans 4:25 Christ was raised for our justification.
THE LORD LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL
Here Paul turns my eyes away from my sins and directs them to Christ, for if I look at my sins, they will destroy me. Therefore I must look to Christ who has taken my sins upon himself, crushed the head of the serpent and become the blessing. Now these sins no longer burden my conscience, but rest upon Christ, whom they try 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 Saviour? 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, sin does indeed lead to my death. 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 hold him. He breaks forth and overpowers them, ascends into heaven, taking 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 they are concerned and they can no longer harm us.
- Martin Luther
