And the paragraphs just before
that read:
In the next
sentence, he says, “On the contrary, he who trusts in Christ exists in Christ;
he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as he.” The Christian
never exists in himself or herself. Our identity is given to us in Christ; it
is not something we forge for ourselves. Most people believe Luther’s
favourite text was Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” He certainly
loved that one, but as a matter of fact his favourite was Colossians 3:3, “your life is hid with Christ in God.” Our
identity before God is found in Christ, known to the Father, and reflected
back to us; he sees us in our being of righteousness only as we are found in
Christ. This is of immense significance theologically, and hence also
psychologically. There are days when the man of sin is so evident in my
friend that it is all I can do to affirm that he is even a Christian. Still, I
understand that our identity in Christ is vouchsafed to all of us however much
we appear to contradict it at times. If we want others in the church to
acknowledge that in us, we had better be prepared to acknowledge it in them.
When Luther says,
“having the same righteousness as he,” his point is that Jesus is ever the Son
with whom the Father is well pleased--especially in the dereliction,
when Jesus not only feels he is but is, in fact, God-forsaken. In that moment
he remains the Son with whom the Father is well pleased, since his obedience
did not stop short of dereliction. And it is because of his forsakenness that
you and I are never God-forsaken. We all have terrible moments when we think
we are forsaken by God, and what keeps our heads above water then, according
to Luther, is our awareness that we are still, thanks to our identity in
Christ, that son with whom the Father is well pleased; we are as much a child
of God now as we can ever be. Because the Father is
pleased with the Son, he is pleased with us in the Son. Indeed, that is
the only way he can be pleased with us. It is clear from this how
determinative Christology is in the theology of the
reformers.
D
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