8.06.2007

Sin Boldly?

Martin Luther, the humble father of the reformation, penned a tract to his ardent disciple Philip when he was doubting his assurance. As always Luther's words were rather countercultural to moralism and legalism, which was predominant to the Catholic church of his day. He is by no means arguing for antinomianism or a 'sin that grace may abound' gospel. Here are his words:
If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life in not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. . . . Pray boldly-you too are a mighty sinner.

God saves real sinners. (Praise the Lord)

1 comments:

Less Become The :x said...

this is interesting that you bring this topic up. on sunday we had a member of 3nails pry open the subject of measuring spiritual growth.

the harder she tried to be a better person, the more she sinned. this troubled her because her very reason for choosing to accept a faith in Christ was because she thought it would make her a better person. she wanted to see spiritual growth through lack of sin because she couldn't adequately measure whether she was loving people more. she felt that her faith did not enable her, and concluded she was missing something. but we couldn't get her to release her grip on the need to see a lack of sin in her life for her to be a better person.

it was as if she believes that the world is only a better place when people stop swearing at each other or stop taking advantage of each other, etc, etc... at least, that's the best that i understand of what she said. i couldn't relate to this delema. people sin. trying to stop sin is like trying to stop the weather. grace is the only thing keeping us from drowning. that doesn't mean we don't "improve" over time. it means that we discover how deep in you know what that we really are over time, and that the task is beyond and entire race's abilities to even dent.

so i dunno about being a "mighty" sinner, but i'll agree about being an honest and open sinner. i'm still sick like the rest of you, only i know i'm not gonna die in the end, and i might discover some joy in life despite my sickness; all because of God's grace.