Luther's Theology of the cross-5

God assaults man in order to break him down and thus to justify him.(P.151)

by experiencing the delicious despair of Anfechtung, the sinner learns to trust only in God, as known in the cross of Christ, and thus comes to be justified. As Luther remarks, Anfechtung,in so far as it takes everything away from us, leaves us nothing but God: it cannot take God away from us, and actually brings him closer to us.(P.152)

The opus alienum is the destruction of human preconceptions of divine justice, wisdom and strength; the opus proprium is the establishment of the righteousness, the wisdom and the power of God within man in their place.Before God can build, he must first destroy.(P.156)

the 'righteousness of God' really is revealed in the cross of Christ, but it can only be discerned by the eye of faith.(P.158)

In the one unitary event of revelation in the cross, God's wrath and mercy are revealed simultaneously — but only Faith is able to recognise the opus proprium as it lies hidden under the opus alienum; only faith discerns the merciful intention which underlies the revealed wrath; only faith perceives the real situation which underlies the apparent situation.(P.165)

In a sermon delivered on 24 February 1517, Luther remarked: 'Man hides his own things, in order to conceal them; God hides his own things, in order to reveal them.... his opus proprium under his opus alienum; the future glory of the Christian under his present sufferings.(P.167)

In a remarkable sermon, delivered on 30 November 1516, Luther points to the crucifixion as a paradigm for the relation between faith and sense-perception: just as Christ was raised up from the ground upon the cross, so that his feet did not rest upon the earth, so the faith of the Christian is denied any foothold in experience.(P.168)

Christian life is characterised by the unending tension between faith and experience.(P.169)

the theologian of the cross recognises the presence and activity of the 'crucified and hidden God'... who is not merely present in human suffering, but actively works through it.(P.175)

The 'crucified and hidden God’ is the God whose strength lies hidden behind apparent weakness, and whose wisdom lies hidden behind apparent folly. The theology of the cross is thus a theology of hope for those who despair, then as now, of the seeming weakness and foolishness of the Christian church.(P.181)

It is not we who can sustain the church, nor was it those who came before us, nor will it be those who come after us. It was, and is, and will be, the one who says: 'I am with you always, even to the end of time.' As it says in Hebrews 13: 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever.' And in Revelation 1: ' Who was, and is, and is to come.' Truly he is that one, and no one else is, or ever can be.(P.181)

後記：歷經40多天，終於把麥葛福的Luther's Theology of the cross這本書給看完，其中算是一種突破與收穫，是對於拉丁文單字的學習瞭解，讓我更清晰瞭解作者對於路德神學思想所要強調的重點是什麼，當然，在書中也提到不同時代的人物，面對不同處境時，對路德十架神學思想的回應，包括被人所熟悉的Jürgen Moltmann.