Whatever kills you makes you…

Stronger. I know my fingers have an affection for typos, but this is not a typo. I know Miss Clarkson,our nation’s first idol, disagrees. And the thousands who have used the idiom in or out of musical arrangement do not concur either. They contend that “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Apparently it was the famous nihilist Nietzsche who coined the phrased essentially when he wrote, “Out of life’s school of war: what does not destroy me, makes me stronger."

But in terms of our spiritual life, the popular phrase is simply not true. In fact, it is the opposite of truth. When it comes to our spiritual life, it is whatever kills us that makes us stronger. Don’t believe me? Look at these verses from Romans 6?

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life….We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

Baptism killed you. And it made you stronger. The old man is weak, so very weak. But the new man raised up is as strong as God himself for it is Christ’s life that animates the new man that you are. Paul calls the baptized conquerors.

Interaction with the Word kills you. And it makes you stronger. It cuts like a sword. The law shows clearly how bereft of life you really are. But then Gospel there makes you stronger. Robbed of your own righteousness, you rest in Christ’s mighty righteousness.

Confession and Absolution kills you. And it makes you stronger. Confession is nothing other than admitting one’s own death. It is admitting the wages of your actions is rightly eternal death. It is not merely playing dead, but being dead. And yet, Confession is always met with Absolution. Strength is what is left when sins and the guilt they bring are lifted off the dead one’s shoulders. When death is removed, the strength of real life is born.

Communion kills you. And it makes you stronger. Who is this meal for? The one who believes these words, “for you.” Only the dead rightly gather at the rail. And there they are made strong. We say it don’t we? “Now, may this true body and blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in the one true faith unto life everlasting.”

Yes, whatever kills you makes you stronger. Baptism, Confession and Absolution, interaction with the Word, and Communion kill you. And they make you stronger. Stronger in faith. Stronger in life. Stronger.

While Nietzsche might be remembered as a great philosopher, he was a terrible theologian. And he notoriously got statements about death wrong. Remember “God is dead?” Let the people of God confess, “Whatever kills you makes you stronger.”