OneWithChrist

I’m continuing my meditation on Martin Luther’s “The Freedom of a Christian” (1520), Translated by Timothy J Wengert’s The Annotated Luther Study Edition, Fortress Press, 2016.

ML quotes and explicates from Hosea 2:19, and I decided to give you the range of translations from the following versions:

Legacy Standard Bible
And I will betroth you to Me forever; Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion,

Amplified Bible
“And I will betroth you (Israel) to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and loyalty, and in compassion.

Christian Standard Bible
I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion.

American Standard Version
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And I shall betroth you to me for eternity, and I shall betroth you to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in favor and in compassion

I begin my interaction with Wengert’s work in item [51], on The Majesty of the Wedding Garments, where he translates ML, “Who can even begin to appreciate this royal marriage? What can comprehend the riches of this glorious grace? (Echoes from Eph 1:6; 1:7) Here, this rich, upstanding (“outstanding above all”) bridegroom, Christ, married this poor, disloyal little prostitute, redeems her from all her evil and adorns her with all His goodness. For now it is impossible for her sins to destroy her, because they have been laid upon Christ and devoured by Him. In Christ, her bridegroom, she has her righteousness (justification by faith alone through grace alone) which she can enjoy as her very own property.”

ML goes on to add superlative to superlative with this statement, “All that is His is mine and all that is mine is His”. Only a Martin Luther could have articulated 2 Cor 5:21 in his own uniquely profound and stirring manner!

Some points of reflection and application for myself, and the follower of Christ united with Christ by His grace through faith:

1. Simply meditating upon this glorious truth of the gospel, brings renewal upon the heart as the Holy Spirit brings to bear the “kabowd” of the glory and weight of revelation of the Son of God upon the heart. The heart of the believer of Christ is “filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18), as “the word of Christ dwells richly in their hearts in all wisdom” (Col 3:16).
2. The believer of Christ, now being renewed by God’s grace through the gospel, is now, in mystical union with Christ by faith, able to be an agent of renewal to others. Be it in the home, at the workplace, or anywhere he is found in contact with other human beings.
3. This experience I have been living for some months now. I can truly say that I am experiencing what the inspired gospel writer said in John 7:37 “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ ” 39 He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given,e because Jesus had not yet been glorified”.
4. When Christ dwells really and truly in our hearts by faith, our conscious and subconscious experience peace, or settlement, or almost total equilibrium. It is a great space to be in, psychologically. The secret is truly to let Christ kiss our hearts with His unconditional love, the antidote to all the traumatic poisons of the past inflicted upon the human heart by the 1st Adam who fell, and then by the sins of caregivers and others close to us, and finally, from the sins we inflict upon ourselves.
5. When Christ saves us, all of Him not only saves us from our continuing efforts to self-mutilate ourselves on the altar of fallen humankind, He saves us totally, and completely with His own total and complete Self. Christ did not give you and I only a portion of Himself. Gal 2:20 emphasizes the total life and death of Christ being our total experience of union with Him.
6. This union with Christ continues to save us in that Christ continues His amazing grace of separating us from contemporary sin, and the continued effects of sins of the past. As we meditate upon His written word, the Holy Spirit mediates Christ the Living Word to our hearts with all His benefits of unconditional love.
7. As we receive His unconditional love, we exult in Him, we worship Him and let Him live His life of overflowing riches of grace, mercy, love and righteousness, with wisdom, in and through us. We truly become “salt and light” to the world.