To the end therefore that is should not hold me captive, I am dead to it, and this death purchaseth unto me the life of another, even the life of Christ: which life is not mine by nature, but is given unto me by Christ through faith in Him.
Secondly, this objection might have been made. How can this be? We see thy flesh, but we see not Christ. Wouldst thou delude us with enchantments? He answereth: “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” As Christ saith: “Thou hearest the sound of the wind, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth” (St. John 3:8), even so thou seest me speaking, eating, labouring, sleeping, and yet thou seest not my life. I live indeed in the flesh, but not through the flesh, or according to the flesh, but through faith, and according to faith. This new life “I live by the faith of the Son of God.”
Martin Luther, Kregel, Galatians 2:20, p. 91f.
