Death of the “I”
Via Hans Iwand, The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther
Jheronimus Bosch, "The Carrying of the Cross" (1510)
Let us remember this: the Law pushes the “I” together so closely that they become one form, one flesh and one will. God’s righteousness transforms the “I” in faith to become one with Christ so that they become one form, one flesh and one will. To the “I” falls the decisions with whom it will become one, since a neutral state in the middle is not possible, because death lurks behind sin and life in righteousness. That is the ‘decision’ of faith to which Luther calls us. He found that the sign of the decision of faith does not lie alone in teaching and in dogma (these are both able to deceive), but rather that the decision falls to the “I” of the person and to the attitude of the person to his own works. But, the decision falls in such a way that two things preclude each other like mortal enemies: faith in Christ and the desire to be something before God by virtue of one’s own works. That is why Luther hated what he called “historical” faith; an empty, neutral knowledge of Christ that does not place a person and his life in a position of deciding between righteousness by the law and righteousness by faith – a knowledge that is not won or grasped in the hour of the death of the “I.” For faith should so affect me that I know that Christ is He who stands in for me at God’s judgment – Christ is for me! – or I don’t know Him at all, I just know about Him. [Luther writes] “Such believers use faith no better than the demons and the damned. The one who assumes faith says: ‘I believe that the Son of God suffered and was raised – and there it ends. But true faith says: I believe that the Son of God suffered and was raised and all of it for me, for my sins, and of that I am certain!” Luther sees here a difference between one kind of faith and a faith that cannot be contained by a formula, since, seen from the point of view of Dogma, both say the same thing. The difference lies in this critical point: the one that is a truth for itself is not a truth, but the other receives truth in God’s “for you” and so your life becomes one with the Truth. [Luther writes] “Accordingly, that ‘for me’ or ‘for us’ if it is believed, creates that true faith and distinguishes it from all other faith, which merely hears the things done. As I often warn, therefore, the doctrine of justification must be learned diligently. For in it are included all the other doctrines of our faith; and if it is sound, all the others are sound as well.”
