Enemies of The Cross of Christ
by Martin Luther (1483-1546)
The following sermon is taken from volume VIII of, The
Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids,
MI). It was originally published in 1909 in english by The Luther Press
(Minneapolis, MN), as Luther's Epistle Sermons, vol. 3. The original
title of this sermon appears below. This e-text was scanned and edited
by Shane Rosenthal for Reformation Ink; it is in the public domain and
it may be copied and distributed without restriction.
ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST & THE CHRISTIAN'S
CITIZENSHIP IN HEAVEN.
PHILIPPIANS 3:17-21: Brethren, join in imitating me,
and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of
whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god
is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly
things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his
glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things
to himself.
1. Paul immeasurably extols the Philippians for having
made a good beginning in the holy Gospel and for having acquitted themselves
commendably, like men in earnest, as manifest by their fruits of faith.
The reason he shows this sincere and strong concern for them is his
desire that they remain steadfast, not being led astray by false teachers
among the roaming Jews. For at that time many Jews went about with the
intent of perverting Paul's converts, pretending they taught something
far better; while they drew the people away from Christ and back to
the Law, for the purpose of establishing and extending their Jewish
doctrines.
Paul, contemplating with special interest and pleasure
his Church of the Philippians, is moved by parental care to admonish
them--lest they sometime be misled by such teachers--to hold steadily
to what they have received, not seeking anything else and not imagining,
like self-secure, besotted souls who allow themselves to be deceived
by the devil--not imagining themselves perfect and with complete understanding
in all things. In the verses just preceding our text he speaks of himself
as having not yet attained to full knowledge.
PURITY OF DOCTRINE ENJOINED.
2. He particularly admonishes them to follow him and
to mark those ministers who walk as he does; also to shape their belief
and conduct by the pattern they have received from him. Not only of
himself does he make an example, but introduces them who similarly walk,
several of whom he mentions in this letter to the Philippians. The individuals
whom be bids them observe and follow must have been persons of special
eminence. But it is particularly the doctrine the apostle would have
the Philippians pattern after. Therefore we should be chiefly concerned
about preserving the purity of the office of the ministry and the genuineness
of faith. When these are kept unsullied, doctrine will be right, and
good works spontaneous. Later on, in chapter 4, verse 8, Paul admonishes,
with reference to the same subject: "If there be any virtue, and
if there be any praise, think on these things."
3. Apparently Paul is a rash man to dare boast himself
a pattern for all. Other ministers might well accuse him of desiring
to exalt his individual self above others. "Think you," our
wise ones would say to him, "that you alone have the Holy Spirit,
or that no one else is as eager for honor as yourself?" Just so
did Miriam and Aaron murmur against Moses, their own brother, saying:
"Hath Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses, hath he not spoken
also with us?" (Num. 12:2). And it would seem as if Paul had too
high an appreciation of his own character did he hold up his individual
self as a pattern, intimating that no one was to be noted as worthy
unless he walked as he did; though there might be some who apparently
gave greater evidence of the Spirit, of holiness, humility and other
graces, than himself, and yet walked not in his way.
4. But he does not say "I, Paul, alone."
He says, "as ye have us for an example," that does not exclude
other true apostles and teachers. He is admonishing his Church, as he
everywhere does, to hold fast to the one true doctrine received from
him in the beginning. They are not to be too confident of their own
wisdom in the matter, or to presume they have independent authority;
but rather to guard against pretenders to a superior doctrine, for so
had some been misled.
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW IS VAIN.
5. In what respect he was a pattern or example to them,
he has made plain; for instance, in the beginning of this chapter, in
the third verse and following, he says: "For we are the circumcision,
who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have
no confidence in the flesh: though I myself might have confidence even
in the flesh: if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh,
I yet more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews." That is, he commands the
highest honor a Jew can boast. "As touching the law," he goes
on, "a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the Church, as touching
the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit what
things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily,
and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord: for who I suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
is from God by faith."
6. "Behold, this is the picture or pattern,"
he would say, "which we hold up for you to follow, that remembering
how you obtained righteousness you may hold to it--a righteousness not
of the Law." So far as the righteousness of the Law is concerned,
Paul dares to say he regards it as filth and refuse (that proceeds from
the human body); notwithstanding in its beautiful and blameless form
it may be unsurpassed by anything in the world--such righteousness as
was manifest in sincere Jews, and in Paul himself before his conversion;
for these in their great holiness, regarded Christians as knaves and
meriting damnation, and consequently took delight in being party to
the persecution and murder of Christians.
7. "Yet," Paul would say, "I who am
a Jew by birth have counted all this merit as simply loss that I might
be found in 'the righteousness which is from God by faith.'" Only
the righteousness of faith teaches us how to apprehend God--how to confidently
console ourselves with his grace and await a future life, expecting
to approach Christ in the resurrection. By "approaching" him
we mean to meet him in death and at the judgment day without terror,
not fleeing but gladly drawing near and hailing him with joy as one
waited for with intense longing.
Now, the righteousness of the Law cannot effect such
confidence of mind. Hence, for me it avails nothing before God; rather
it is a detriment. What does avail is God's imputation of righteousness
for Christ's sake, through faith. God declares to us in his Word that
the believer in his Son shall, for Christ's own sake, have God's grace
and eternal life. He who knows this is able to wait in hope for the
last day, having no fear, no disposition to flee.
8. But is it not treating the righteousness of the
Law with irreverence and contempt to regard it--and so teach as something
not only useless and even obstructive, but injurious, loathsome and
abominable? Who would have been able to make such a bold statement,
and to censure a life so faultless and conforming so closely to the
Law as Paul's, without being pronounced by all men a minion of the devil,
had not the apostle made that estimation of it himself? And who is to
have any more respect for the righteousness of the Law if we are to
preach in that strain?
9. Had Paul confined his denunciations to the righteousness
of the world or of the heathen--the righteousness dependent upon reason
and controlled by secular government, by laws and regulations--his teaching
would not have seemed so irreverent. But he distinctly specifies the
righteousness of God's Law, or the Ten Commandments, to which we owe
an obligation far above what is due temporal powers, for they teach
how to live before God--something no heathenish court of justice, no
temporal authority, knows anything about. Should we not condemn as a
heretic this preacher who goes beyond his prerogative and dares find
fault with the Law of God? who also warns us to shun such as observe
it, such as trust in its righteousness, and exalts to sainthood "enemies
of the cross of Christ whose God is the belly"--who serve the appetites
instead of God?
10. Paul would say of himself: "I, too, was such
a one. In my most perfect righteousness of the Law I was an enemy to
and persecutor of the congregation, or Church, of Christ. It was the
legitimate fruit of my righteousness that I though I must be party to
the most horrible persecution of Christ and his Christians. Thus my
holiness made me an actual enemy of Christ and a murderer of his followers.
The disposition to injure is a natural result of the righteousness of
the Law, as all Scripture history from Cain down testifies, and as we
see even in the best of the world who have not come to the knowledge
of Christ. Princes, civil authorities in proportion to their wisdom,
their godliness and honor are the bitter and intolerant enemies of the
Gospel.
11. Of the sensual papistical dolts at Rome, cardinals,
bishops, priests and the like, it is not necessary to speak here. Their
works are manifest. All honorable secular authorities must confess they
are simply abandoned knaves, living shameless lives of open scandal,
avarice, arrogance, unchastity, vanity, robbery and wickedness of every
kind. Not only are they guilty of such living, but shamelessly endeavor
to defend their conduct. They must, then, be regarded enemies of Christ
and of all honesty and virtue. Hence every respectable man is justly
antagonistic toward them. But, as before said, Paul is not here referring
to this class, but to eminent, godly individuals, whose lives are beyond
reproach. These very ones, when Christians are encountered, are hostile
and heinous enough to be able to forget all their own faults in the
sight of God, and to magnify to huge beams the motes we Christians have.
In fact, they must style the Gospel heresy and satanic doctrine for
the purpose of exalting their own holiness and zeal for God.
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW OPPOSES THE CROSS.
12. The thing seems incredible, and I would not have
believed it myself, nor have understood Paul's words here, had I not
witnessed it with my own eyes and experienced it. Were the apostle to
repeat the charge today, who could conceive that our first, noblest,
most respectable, godly and holy people, those whom we might expect,
above all others, to accept the Word of God--that they, I say, should
be enemies to the Christian doctrine? But the examples before us testify
very plainly that the "enemies" the apostle refers to must
be the individuals styled godly and worthy princes and noblemen, honorable
citizens, learned, wise, intelligent individuals. Yet if these could
devour at one bite the "Evangelicals," as they are now called,
they would do it.
13. If you ask, Whence such a disposition? I answer,
it naturally springs from human righteousness. For every individual
who professes human righteousness, and knows nothing of Christ, holds
that efficacious before God. He relies upon it and gratifies himself
with it, presuming thereby to present a flattering appearance in God's
sight and to render himself peculiarly acceptable to him. From being
proud and arrogant toward God, he comes to reject them who are not righteous
according to the Law; as illustrated in the instance of the Pharisee
(Lk. 18:11-12). But greater is his enmity and more bitter his hatred
toward the preaching that dares to censure such righteousness and assert
its futility to merit God's grace and eternal life.
14. I myself, and others with me, were dominated by
such feelings when, under popery, we claimed to be holy and pious; we
must confess the fact. If thirty years ago, when I was a devout, holy
monk, holding mass every day and having no thought but that I was in
the road leading directly to heaven--if then anyone had accused me--had
preached to me the things of this text and pronounced our righteousness--which
accorded not strictly with the Law of God, but conformed to human doctrine
and was manifestly idolatrous--pronounced it without efficacy and said
I was an enemy to the cross of Christ, serving my own sensual appetites,
I would immediately have at least helped to find stones for putting
to death such a Stephen, or to gather wood for the burning of this worst
of heretics.
15. So human nature ever does. The world cannot conduct
itself in any other way, when the declaration comes from heaven saying:
"True you are a holy man, a great and learned jurist, a conscientious
regent, a worthy prince, an honorable citizen, and so on, but with all
your authority and your upright character you are going to hell; your
every act is offensive and condemned in God's sight. If you would be
saved you must become an altogether different man; your mind and heart
must be changed." Let this be announced and the fire rises, the
Rhine is all ablaze; for the self-righteous regard it an intolerable
idea that lives so beautiful, lives devoted to praiseworthy callings,
should be publicly censured and condemned by the objectionable preaching
of a few insignificant individuals regarded as even pernicious, and
according to Paul, as filthy refuse, actual obstacles to eternal life.
16. But you may say: "What? Do you forbid good
works? Is it not right to lead an honorable, virtuous life? Do you not
acknowledge the necessity of political laws, of civil governments? that
upon obedience to them depends the maintenance of discipline, peace
and honor? Indeed, do you not admit that God himself commands such institutions
and wills their observance, punishing where they are disregarded? Much
more would he have his own Law and the Ten Commandments honored, not
rejected. How dare you then assert that such righteousness is misleading,
and obstructive to eternal life? What consistence is there in teaching
people to observe the things of the Law, to be righteous in that respect,
and at the same time censuring those things as condemned before God?
How can the works of the Law be good and precious, and yet repulsive
and productive of evil?"
17. I answer, Paul well knows the world takes its stand
on this point of righteousness by the Law, and hence would contradict
him. But let him who will, consult the apostle as to why he makes such
bold assertions here. For indeed the words of the text are not our words,
but his. True, law and government are essential in temporal life, as
Paul himself confesses, and God would have everyone honor and obey them.
Indeed, he has ordained their observance among Turks and heathen. Yet
it is a fact that these people, even the best and most upright of them,
they who lead honorable lives, are naturally in their hearts enemies
to Christ, and devote their intellectual powers to exterminating God's
people.
It must be universally admitted that the Turks, with
all the restrictions and austerity of life imposed upon them by the
Koran, a life more rigorous even than that of Christians--it must be
admitted they belong to the devil. In other words, we adjudge them condemned
with all their righteousness, but at the same time say they do right
in punishing thieves, robbers, murderers, drunkards and other offenders;
more, that Christians living within their jurisdiction are under obligation
to pay tribute, and to serve them with person and property. Precisely
the same thing is true respecting our princes who persecute the Gospel
and are open enemies to Christ: we must be obedient to them, paying
the tribute and rendering the service imposed; yet they, and all obedient
followers willingly consenting to the persecution of the Gospel, must
be looked upon as condemned before God.
18. Similarly does Paul speak concerning the righteousness
of all the Jews and pious saints who are not Christians. His utterance
is bold and of certain sound. He censures them and, weeping, deprecatingly
refers to certain who direct the people to the righteousness of the
law with the sole result of making "enemies to the cross of Christ."
19. Again, all the praise he has for them is to say
that their "end is perdition"; they are condemned in spite
of strenuous efforts all their lives to teach and enforce the righteousness
of works. Here on earth it is truly a priceless distinction, an admirable
and noble treasure, a praiseworthy honor, to have the name of being
a godly and upright prince, ruler or citizen; a pious, virtuous wife
or virgin. Who would not praise and exalt such virtue? It is indeed
a rare and valuable thing in the world. But however beautiful, priceless
and admirable an honor it is, Paul tells us, it is ultimately condemned
and pertains not to heaven.
HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS IDOLATROUS.
20. The apostle makes his accusation yet more galling
with the words "whose god is their belly." Thus you hear how
human righteousness, even at its best, extends no higher than to service
of the sensual appetites. Take all the wisdom, justice, jurisprudence,
artifice, even the highest virtues the world affords, and what are they?
They minister only to that god, carnal appetite. They can go no farther
than the needs of this life, their whole purpose being to satisfy physical
cravings. When the physical appetites of the worldly pass, they pass
likewise, and the gifts and virtues we have mentioned can no longer
serve them. All perish and go to destruction together--righteousness,
virtues, laws and physical appetites which they have served as their
god. For they are wholly ignorant of the true and eternal God; they
know not how to serve him and receive eternal life. So then in its essential
features such a life is merely idolatrous, having no greater object
than the preservation of this perishable body and its enjoyment of peace
and honor.
21. The fourth accusation is, "whose glory is
in their shame." That is all their glory amounts to. Let wise philosophers,
scrupulous heathen, keen jurists, receive the acme of praise and honor--it
is yet but shame. True, their motto is "Love of Virtue"; they
boast strong love of virtue and righteousness and may even think themselves
sincere. But judged by final results, their boast is without foundation
and ends in shame. For the utmost their righteousness can effect is
the applause of the world--here on earth. Before God it avails nothing.
It cannot touch the life to come. Ultimately it leaves its possessor
a captive in shame. Death devours and hell clutches him.
22. You may again object, "If what you say it
true, why observe temporal restrictions? Let us live in indulgent carelessness
following our inclinations. Let pass the godly, honorable man; the virtuous,
upright wife or virgin." I answer, By no means; that is not the
design. You have heard it is God's command and will that there be temporal
righteousness even among Turks and heathen. And later on (ch. 4, 8)
Paul admonishes Christians to "think on these things," that
is, on what is true. He says: "Whatsoever things are honorable,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things." And continuing,
in verse 9, he refers them to his own example, saying, "which ye
both learned and received and heard and saw in me."
FRUITS OF FAITH.
23. With the believers in Christ, them who have their
righteousness in him, there should follow in this life on earth the
fruits of upright living, in obedience to God. These fruits constitute
the good works acceptable to God, which, being works of faith and wrought
in Christ, will be rewarded in the life to come. But Paul has in mind
the individuals who, rejecting faith in Christ, regard their self-directed
lives, their humanly-wrought works, which conform to the Law, as righteousness
availing in the sight of God. His reference is to them who so trust,
though wholly ignorant of Christ, for whose sake, without any merit
on our part, righteousness is imputed to us by God. The only condition
is we must believe in Christ; for he became man, died for our sins and
rose from the dead, for the very purpose of liberating us from our sins
and granting us his resurrection and life. Toward the heavenly life
we should tend, in our life here walking in harmony with it; as Paul
says in conclusion: "Our citizenship is in heaven [not earthly
and not confined to this temporal life only]; whence also we wait for
a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
If we have no knowledge, no consciousness, of this
fact, it matters not how beautiful and praiseworthy our human, earthly
righteousness may be, it is merely a hindrance and an injury. For flesh
and blood cannot help relying on its own righteousness and arrogantly
boasting in this strain: "We are better, more honorable, more godly,
than others. We Jews are the people of God and keep his Law." Even
Christians are not wholly free from the pernicious influence of human
holiness. They ever seek to bring their own works and merits before
God. I know for myself what pains are inflicted by this godless wisdom,
this figment of righteousness, and what effort must be made before the
serpent's head is bruised.
24. Now, this is the situation and there is no alternative:
Either suffer hell or regard your human righteousness as loss and filth
and endeavor not to be found relying on it at your last hour, in the
presence of God and judgment, but rather stand in the righteousness
of Christ. In the garment of Christ's righteousness and reared in him
you may, in the resurrection from sin and death, meet Christ and exclaim:
"Hail, beloved Lord and Saviour, thou who hast redeemed me from
the wretched body of sin and death, and fashioned me like unto thy holy,
pure and glorious body!"
GOD'S PATIENCE WITH HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
25. Meantime, while we walk in the faith of his righteousness,
he has patience with the poor, frail righteousness of this earthly life,
which otherwise is but filth in his sight. He honors our human holiness
by supporting and protecting it during the time we live on earth; just
as we honor our corrupt, filthy bodies, adorning them with beautiful,
costly garments and golden ornaments, and reposing them on cushions
and beds of luxury. Though but stench and filth encased in flesh, they
are honored above everything else on earth. For their sake are all things
performed--the ordering and ruling, building and laboring; and God himself
permits sun and moon to shine that they may receive light and heat,
and everything to grow on earth for their benefit. What is the human
body but a beautiful pyx containing that filthy, repulsive object of
reverence, the digestive organs, which the body must always patiently
carry about; yes, which we must even nourish and minister to, glad if
only they perform their functions properly?
26. Similarly God deals with us. Because he would confer
eternal life upon man, he patiently endures the filthy righteousness
of this life wherein we must dwell until the last day, for the sake
of his chosen people and until the number is complete. For so long as
the final day is deferred, not all to have eternal life are yet born.
When the time shall be fulfilled, the number completed, God will suddenly
bring to an end the world with its governments, its jurists and authorities,
its conditions of life; in short, he will utterly abolish earthly righteousness,
destroying physical appetites and all else together. For every form
of human holiness is condemned to destruction; yet for the sake of Christians,
to whom eternal life is appointed, and for their sake only, all these
must be perpetuated until the last saint is born and has attained life
everlasting. Were there but one saint yet to be born, for the sake of
that one the world must remain. For God regards not the world nor has
he need for it, except for the sake of his Christians.
27. Therefore, when God enjoins upon us obedience to
the emperor, and godly, honest lives on earth, it is no warrant that
our subjection to temporal authority is to continue forever. Instead,
God necessarily will minister to, adorn and honor this wretched body--vile
body, as Paul here has it--with power and dominion. Yet the apostle
terms human righteousness "filth," and says it is not necessary
to God's kingdom; indeed, that it is condemned in the sight of God with
all its honor and glory, and all the world must be ashamed of it in
his presence, confessing themselves guilty. Paul in Romans 3:27 and
4:2 testifies to this fact when he tells how even the exalted, holy
fathers--Abraham, and others--though having glory before the world because
of their righteous works, could not make them serve to obtain honor
before God. Much less will worldly honor avail with God in the case
of individuals who, being called honorable, pious, honest, virtuous--lords
and princes, wives and husbands--boast of such righteousness.
28. Outwardly, then, though your righteousness may
appear dazzlingly beautiful before the world, inwardly you are but filth.
Illustrative of this point is the story told of a certain nun regarded
holy above all others. She would not fellowship with anyone else, but
sat alone in her cell in wrapt devotion, praying unceasingly. She boasted
special revelations and visions and had no consciousness of anything
but that beloved angels hovered about and adorned her with a golden
crown. But some outside, ardently desiring to behold such sights, peeped
through holes and crevices, and seeing her head but defiled with filth,
laughed at her.
29. Notice, the reason Paul calls the righteousness
of the Law filth and pollution, is his desire to denounce the honor
and glory claimed for it in God's sight; notwithstanding he honors before
the world the observance of the Law by styling it "righteousness."
But if you ostentatiously boast of such righteousness to him, he pronounces
his sentence of judgment making you an abomination, an enemy of the
cross of Christ, and shaming your boasted honor and finally casting
you into hell. Concerning the righteousness of faith, however, which
in Christ avails before God, he says: "Our citizenship [conversation]
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body."
30. We who are baptized and believe in Christ, Paul's
thought is, do not base our works and our hope on the righteouness of
this temporal life. Through faith in Christ, we have a righteousness
that holds in heaven. It abides in Christ alone; otherwise it would
avail naught before God. And our whole concern is to be eternally in
Christ; to have our earthly existence culminate in yonder life when
Christ shall come and change this life into another, altogether new,
pure, holy and like unto his own, with a life and a body having the
nature of his.
THE CHRISTIAN A CITIZEN OF HEAVEN.
31. Therefore we are no longer citizens of earth. The
baptized Christian is born a citizen of heaven through baptism. We should
be mindful of this fact and walk here as if native there. We are to
console ourselves with the fact that God thus accepts us and will transplant
us there. Meantime we must await the coming again of the Saviour, who
is to bring from heaven to us eternal righteousness, life, honor and
glory.
32. We are baptized and made Christians, not to the
end that we may have great honor, or renown of righteousness, or earthly
dominion, power and possessions. Notwithstanding we do have these because
they are requisite to our physical life, yet we are to regard them as
mere filth, wherewith we minister to our bodily welfare as best we can
for the benefit of posterity. We Christians, however, are expectantly
to await the coming of the Saviour. His coming will not be to our injury
or shame as it may be in the case of others. He comes for the salvation
of our unprofitable, impotent bodies. Wretchedly worthless as they are
in this life, they are much more unprofitable when lifeless and perishing
in the earth.
33. But, however miserable, powerless and contemptible
in life and death, Christ will at his coming render our bodies beautiful,
pure, shining and worthy of honor, until they correspond to his own
immortal, glorious body. Not like it as it hung on the cross or lay
in the grave, bloodstained, livid and disgraced; but as it is now, glorified
at the Father's right hand. We need not, then, be alarmed at the necessity
of laying aside our earthly bodies; at being despoiled of the honor,
righteousness and life adhering in them, to deliver it to the devouring
power of death and the grave--something well calculated to terrify the
enemies of Christ: but we may joyfully hope for and await his speedy
coming to deliver us from this miserable, filthy pollution.
"According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all
things unto himself."
THE GLORIFIED BODY OF THE CHRISTIAN.
34. Think of the honor and the glory Christ's righteousness
brings even to our bodies! How can this poor, sinful, miserable, filthy,
polluted body become like unto that of the Son of God, the Lord of Glory?
What are you--your powers and abilities, or those of all men, to effect
this glorious thing? But Paul says human righteousness, merit, glory
and power have nothing to do with it. They are mere filth and pollution,
and condemned as well. Another force intervenes, the power of Christ
the Lord, who is able to bring all things into subjection to himself.
Now, if he has power to subject all things unto himself at will, he
is also able to glorify the pollution and filth of this wretched body,
even when it has become worms and dust. In his hands it is as clay in
the hands of the potter, and from the polluted lump of clay he can make
a vessel that shall be a beautiful, new, pure, glorious body, surpassing
the sun in its brilliance and beauty.
35. Through baptism Christ has taken us into his hands,
actually that he may exchange our sinful, condemned, perishable, physical
lives for the new, imperishable righteousness and life he prepares for
body and soul. Such is the power and the agency exalting us to marvelous
glory--something no earthly righteousness of the Law could accomplish.
The righteousness of the Law leaves our bodies to shame and destruction;
it reaches not beyond physical existence. But the righteousness of Christ
inspires with power, making evident that we worship not the body but
the true and living God, who does not leave us to shame and destruction,
but delivers from sin, death and condemnation, and exalts this perishable
body to eternal honor and glory.