A Jagged Contention: His Wounds Are Your Sins

You cast your sins from yourself on onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sins, to be borne and paid for by him, as we read in Isaiah 53[:6], “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” St. Peter says, “in his body has he borne our sins on the wood of the cross” [I Pet. 2:24]. St. Paul says, “God has made him a sinner for us, so that through him we would be made just” [II Cor. 5:21]. You must stake everything on these and similar verses. The more your conscience torments you, the more tenaciously you must cling to them. If you do not do that, but presume to still your conscience with our contrition and penance, you will never obtain peace of mind, but will have to despair in the end. If we allow sin to remain in our conscience and try to deal with it there, or if we look at the sin in our heart, it will be much too strong for us and will live on forever. But if we behold it resting on Christ and [see it] overcome by his resurrection, and then boldly believe this, even it is dead and nullified. Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that “Christ died for our sin and rose four our justification” [Rom. 4:25]. That is to say, in his suffering Christ makes  our sin known and thus destroys it, but through his resurrection he justifies u and delivers us from all sin, if we believe this.

– Martin Luther, “A Meditation on Christ’s Passion” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, ed. Timothy Lull, pg. 170-171.


God grant you a blessed Holy Week and a glorious celebration of the resurrection, knowing that Christ suffered, died, and rose all for you.