11 April 2010

Satan's Inadvertent Suicide

Martin Luther on the practical spiritual help that Christ's deity gives believers in the war against sin and Satan--

[I]f, as God's Son, He sheds His blood to redeem us and cleanse us from sin, and if we believe this, rubbing it under the devil's nose whenever he tries to plague and terrify us with our sins, the devil will soon be beaten; he will be forced to withdraw and to stop molesting us.

For the hook, which is the divinity of Christ, was concealed under the earthworm. The devil swallowed it with his jaws when Christ died and was buried. But it ripped his belly so that he could not retain it but had to disgorge it. He ate death for himself.


This affords us the greatest solace; for just as the devil could not hold Christ in death, so he cannot hold us who believe in Christ.


--Luther's Works, 22:24

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