“Faith, Luther insists, has to do with things not seen. In order that there be room for faith, therefore, it is necessary that everything that is to be believed should be hidden. And the deepest form of hiddenness is when it is hidden under its opposite… Thus when God makes alive he does so by killing, when he justifies he does so by making us guilty, when he exalts to heaven he does so by bringing down to hell, and so on. So, Luther says, the Scripture speaks: ‘The Lord kills and brings to life, He brings down to Sheol and raises up (1 Sam: 2:6).'”

– Gerhard O. Forde, “The Captivation of the Will” (42-43)