THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS OUR LIFE BY JOHANN GERHARD
Editor’s Note: First published in 1606, Johann Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations quickly became one of the great devotional classics of the Christian Church. At the time of the book’s publication, Gerhard was a young Lutheran pastor, just 23 years of age. And yet his words—so deeply moving and theologically profound they are—continue to be a wonderful resource for Christian prayer, reflection, consolation, and growth to this day. The following article is the eleventh meditation in Sacred Meditations, and is there titled “The Satisfaction for our Sins.” The text has been lightly updated from C.W. Heisler’s 1896 translation. For those wishing to read more of Sacred Meditations (and I encourage it), you can find Heisler’s full translation online for free. A more recent translation by Wade R. Johnston is also available from Magdeburg Press, and can also be read for free online.
“C
ome to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28); these are the precious words of our Saviour. Truly, my dear Lord Jesus, I am burdened beyond measure, and I groan under the awful weight of my sins. But I hasten to You, the fountain of living waters. Come unto me, O Lord Jesus, so that I may be able to come unto You. I am coming to You because You have first come to me. I am coming to You, my dear Lord Jesus, and I desire You most ardently, because I can find no good in myself at all; if I could find anything good in me, I would not so anxiously long for You. Truly, O Lord Jesus, I “labour and am heavy laden.” I dare not compare myself to any of Your saints, nor even to any repentant sinner—unless, perhaps, to the penitent thief on the cross. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, You who showed Yourself so merciful to that repentant criminal!
Wretchedly, wretchedly, have I lived; my life has been one of sin. But, oh, how I desire to die the death of the godly and the righteous. But godliness and righteousness are far from my heart, and so in Your godliness and in Your righteousness I take refuge. You gave Your life, O Lord Jesus, as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28); let that come to my aid in my distress. Your most holy body You gave up to be scourged, to be spit upon, to be beaten, to be lacerated with thorns, and to be crucified—and all for me; O let that come to my help in my distress. Let Your most precious blood, which You shed so freely in Your bitter sufferings and cruel death upon the cross, and which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7), be my help. Let Your most sacred divinity come to my assistance in my distress—that divinity which sustained Your human nature during Your passion, which refrained from the exercise of its glorious power while the wonderful mystery of my redemption was being worked out, and which gave THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN March/April 2020
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