458. "The word and he who utters it cannot be the same person...

Scanned PDF

"[T]he word and he who utters it cannot be the same person.... [T]wo different things are present, and ... the speaker is not the word and, also, ... the word is not the speaker; but rather ... the word comes from the speaker, and it has its nature not from itself, but from the speaker and... on the other hand, the speaker does not come from the word nor derive his nature from it but from himself" (Martin Luther, LW: 52:43).

1. The speaker is different from the word.

2. The word as entitling is different from the word as empowering.

3. The Christian symbol for the speaker is "Father," while the Christian symbols for the word as entitling and the word as empowering are respectively "Son" and "Spirit."

12 January 2002