Christ continues: Then you will experience how My power, yes, also the Father’s power, will work in you and manifest itself. The sense of life and victory over death will be strong in you and will take over your heart in such a way that no terror will drive you from Me, no death will murder you. On the contrary, you will remain confident of victory, assured that death will be totally subdued and destroyed both in Me and in you, and that in its place pure life will prevail. Then you will be called true Christians; you will remain in Me and I in you. Then neither the devil nor death nor any adversity can have any power over you; then you will be able defiantly to snap your fingers at them. We read that the holy martyrs treated the tyrants and their cruel raging and raving with scorn despite all kinds of pain and torture. Even the young virgins mocked them and rejoiced in torment and suffering, as though they were about to go to a dance. Christians should be aware of and know this. As has been said, they must learn to ignore death, to despise it through Christ, and to fix their thoughts on life alone. No sage, scholar, or saint can acquire this knowledge without Christ. In short, the world will never have and experience it. Indeed, it will not hear and heed this; for it regards it as the greatest folly and heresy. Martin Luther Luthers Works, AE 24:138, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, John 14:20
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 12:12:01 +0000