Second, that Christ’s suffering and death pertain to the Gospel, yet in His Passion the wrath of God shines forth.
Second, that Christ’s suffering and death pertain to the Gospel, yet in His Passion the wrath of God shines forth.
§ 113. (II) “Christ’s suffering and death pertain to the Gospel, yet in Christ’s suffering and death the wrath of God against our sins shines forth. Therefore the Gospel is, in part, the teaching of wrath.”
We respond. Christ’s suffering and death have two respects. In the first place the gravity and severity of God’s wrath, whose fire could not be extinguished except by the blood of the only-begotten Son, shines forth from it. Bernard (Sermon 3 in natal., ch. 57): “The Son of the Most High God is ordered to be killed so that He may soothe my wounds with the precious balm of His blood. Learn, O man, how serious are these wounds for which it is necessary that Christ be wounded. Had they not contributed to our eternal death, the Son of God would not have died as a remedy for them.” Dr. Luther (Sermon de Pass.): “God had revealed His wrath in various examples: the destruction of Sodom, the flooding of the world, and, finally, to reveal it more clearly, He willed that His only-begotten Son perish because of sins.”
Then there also shone in Christ’s Passion the unspeakable mercy of God and the full and complete satisfaction for our sins. “God commends His love toward us that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Nowhere has it been revealed more clearly that the Lord loved us than in His suffering and wounds. In fact, they are livid with grief, swollen with love. Bernard (Super verba Ego vitis, etc., ch. 3, col. 1600): “Christ’s side was pierced that an entry might be opened to us and that through a visible wound we might see an invisible wound of love. Therefore in the canticle the words ‘You have wounded’ are repeated twice [cf. Song 4:9], that the wound of body and of heart may be revealed.” Anselm (De simil.): “O love, how great is your bond, because you not only have joined the angels to God but also have joined God and man together in a miraculous fashion. You have drawn God to earth; you have bound Him to a post; you have attached Him to a cross; you have closed Him in a tomb; you have drawn Him down into hell. What has done all these things except the love of and thirst for our salvation?”
Therefore, in the first consideration, the Passion of Christ pertains to the Law reductively;10 but in the second, it pertains to the Gospel.