Saturday, September 17, 2011

Luther and "omne trium perfectum"

I never get tired of reading Luther. Today I noticed in ONE paragraph he used the "rule of 3" 11 times. That would be: "omne trium perfectum" (everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete). I'd never heard of that rule, but figured it must be out there, so I googled it and found it. Luther's article was on "Christian Freedom" and I assume it was written in Latin, then translated to German, then to English, so that's 3 also!
  • victory, salvation and redemption
  • has neither sinned nor died and is not condemned
  • he cannot sin, die or be condemned
  • his righteousness, life and salvation are unconquerable
  • [in the wedding ring of faith] he shares in the sins, death and pains of hell of his bride [the church]
  • makes them [sins] his own and acts as if they were his own, and as if he himself had sinned
  • suffered, died and descended into hell
  • his righteousness is greater than the sins of all men, his life stronger than death, his salvation more invincible than hell
  • [believer] is free from all sins, secure against death and hell and is endowed with eternal righteousness
  • by faith in the Word of life, righteousness and salvation
  • he marries her in mercies, righteousness and justice
And those groups of three were inside a power of faith, also three.

John records that "King of the Jews" was written in 3 languages and posted on the cross: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek--the language of the Jews--God's chosen people, the language of the political power of the world--Rome, and the language of literature, art, history, philosophy, science, mathematics, drama and all educated people.

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