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.

“Come 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 infinite value and merit to Your suffering for sin, so that God might ransom me—me, a miserable sinner—with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

Your bleeding wounds are my only remedy; let them sustain me. Let Your most holy passion be my defence. Let Your merit, my last refuge and the only remedy for my sins, be my comfort and my support.

What You have suffered, O Christ, You have suffered for me. What Your sufferings have merited, they have merited for me, and are set over against my unworthiness. God therefore “shows His love for us in this”— and it is confirmed by the testimony of all men, indeed, it even surpasses the comprehension of the angels—“in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Who is there who does not wonder at this? Who is not struck with deep amazement, that unasked by anyone and even hated by men, the most merciful Son of God intercedes forsinners and for His enemies? And not only intercedes, but renders a perfect satisfaction for their sins to divine justice, by His poor and humble birth, by His holy life, and by His most bitter sufferings and cruel death.

O blessed Lord Jesus, You who interceded for me, who suffered for me, who died for me, before I ever showed any desire for Your merit and passion, and before I ever asked You to pay the ransom for my redemption... could You now cast me away from Your face? Could You deny me the blessed fruits of Your holy passion, when I cry to You out of the depths of my sin (Psalm 130:1), and with tears and groans appeal to You for mercy? I was Your enemy by nature; but since You have died for me, I have become Your friend, Your brother, Your child, through grace. You had regard for me while I was yet an enemy and before I ever uttered a prayer to You. Could You now disregard me when with tears and prayers I come to You as Your friend?

No, if I come to You, You will not cast me out (John 6:37), for Your Word is truth itself. You have spoken to us in spirit and in truth, and we have received from You the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Give ear, O my soul, and take courage. Formerly we were sinners by nature, but now we are justified by grace. Before, we were His enemies; now we are His friends and brothers. At first, our help was in the death of Christ; now it is in His life—for once we were dead in our sins, but now we are made alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).

Oh, the immeasurable love of God! Oh, the exceeding riches of His grace, through which He makes us to sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus. “O, the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Daypsring has visited us from on high” (Luke 1:78)! Now, if the death of Christ has brought justification and life to us, what shall His life secure for us? If the Saviour by His death paid such a precious ransom for us, what will He accomplish for us by His life and active intercession? For Christ lives and dwells in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17); if only we cherish in us a lively remembrance of His most holy merit.

Draw me, O Lord Jesus, that I may possess both in deed and in truth that to which I look with an unwavering hope. Let me be with You as Your servant, I pray You, and let me behold Your glory, which the Father has given You (John 17:24). Let me at length come to dwell in that mansion which You have gone to prepare for me in Your Father’s house (John 14:2). Blessed are they that dwell in Your house, O Lord; they shall praise You forever and ever (Psalm 84:4).