I came across the following Luther quote on Rev. Matthew Harrison's blog:
Therefore my dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to
pray to him, and despairing of yourself say: "Thou Lord Jesus art my
righteousness, but I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken upon Thyself what is
mine, and has given to me what is thine. Thou hast taken upon Thyself
what Thou wast not, and has given to me what I was not." Beware of
aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a
sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners.
Wow … that blows me away. I am Christ's sin. Luther has a way of shocking one into a deeper understanding of the love of God. What he says in the above quote is counterintuitive to most forms of Christianity in America today.
It's just another example of my experience of Lutheranism – that every word of the preaching and theology, every song and chant and action in the Divine Service, is about Christ and Him crucified. And it all seems to say in my ears, "Yes … even for you." Christ is for me, even though I have nothing to bring Him but my sin. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt. 9:13).
If that's not a mind-blowing thought, I'm not sure what is …
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.