The Humanity of God
Via The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther pp. 37-38
Piero di Cosimo, "Incarnation of Jesus"
The view that a person is changed through faith is the view of the Cross. Luther drew many of his concepts regarding the flesh and suffering from the theological mystics. However, his view differs radically from the mystics in that the recovery of true humanity is attained not through the deification of man, but through the humanity of God. “Through the rule of his humanity,” (writes Luther), “or (as the apostle calls it) of his flesh, which occurs by faith, he makes us conform to himself and crucifies us, thus making real, that is, wretched and sinful men, out of unhappy and proud gods. For since in Adam we ascended to God’s likeness, for this reason he descended to our likeness, that he might return us again to knowledge of ourselves. This takes place through the sacrament of the incarnation. ‘This is the kingdom of faith in which the cross of Christ rules, throwing down the divinity we perversely desired and recovering the humanity and despised weakness of the flesh we perversely abandoned.” (WA 5:128, 36) Thus, the journey of man is summed up in the Cross: he remains his own truth and becomes a person who stands before God; a person who recognizes his total and complete humanity and can be blessed with redemption. For, “this is God’s sweetest mercy, that He endures us in our sin and takes upon Himself our ways and our life which are worthy only of rejection until He prepares us and completes us. In the meantime, we live in the cover and the shadow of His wings and escape His judgment through His mercy, not through our own righteousness.” (LW 31:63)