The Lord be with you
To have an incomplete understand of Jesus can be a terrifying thing. While commenting on Galatians 1:4, Luther referred to this problem.
So far as the words [“who gave Himself for our sins”] are concerned, we know all this very well and can discourse on it. But in the struggle, when the devil tries to mar the image of Christ and to snatch the Word from our hearts, we discover that we do not know them as well as we should. Whoever could define Christ accurately then, exalting Him and looking to Him as his sweet Savior and High Priest and not as a stern Judge, would have overcome all evils and would already be in the kingdom of heaven. But to do this in the midst of struggle is the hardest thing there is. I am speaking from experience, for I am acquainted with the devil’s craftiness. Not only does he try to frighten us by inflating the Law and making many logs out of one speck (Matt. 7:3-5), for he is very skillful both at aggravating sin and at inflating the conscience in good works, but he also makes a practice of frightening us by transforming himself into the Person of the Mediator Himself. He cites some passage of Scripture or some saying of Christ and thus strikes our hearts and gives the impression of being Christ Himself. So strong is this impression that our conscience would be re
ady to swear that this is the same Christ whose saying he has cited. So crafty is this enemy that he does not present the entire Christ to us; he presents only a part of Him, namely that He is the Son of God and Man, born of the Virgin. Eventually he attaches something else to this, some saying in which Christ terrifies sinners, like Luke 143:3: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” By adulterating the genuine definition of Christ with his poison he produces this effect, that although we believe that Christ is the Mediator, in fact our troubled conscience feels and judges that He is a tyrant and a tormentor. So Satan deceives us, and we easily lose the pleasant sight of Christ, our High Priest and Mediator. Once this happens, we avoid Christ as though He were Satan.
This is why I am so earnest in my plea to you to learn the true and correct definition of Christ on the basis of these words of Paul, “who gave Himself for our sins.” If He gave Himself into death for our sins, then undoubtedly He is not a tormentor. He is not One who will cast down the troubled, but One who will raise up the fallen and bring propitiation and consolation to the terrified. Otherwise Paul would be lying when he says “who gave Himself for our sins.” If I define Christ this way, I define Him correctly, grasp the authentic Christ, and truly make Him my own.
Luther, Martin Luther’s Works 26 (Lectures on Galatians 1535) 38-39
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor