Monday, January 17, 2011
Luther's famous sin boldly quote
"If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and 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 [in this world] we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness, but, as Peter says, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God’s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is important to view this quote in its proper context. Luther is writing to a young Philip Melanchthon, who was filled with guilt and self doubt against the backdrop of Roman Catholic legalism. Luther is saying you are sinner, you are going to sin, and stop letting the guilt of sin weigh you and your laity down. You are a sinner and nothing you can do will ever justify you before God. But you must look to Christ and his perfect righteousness. For only under Christ can you be declared perfectly righteous. Nothing you can do, no matter how good you think it is, can ever bear any merit for you before God. It is Christ's Righteousness not yours that will justify your salvation.
ReplyDeleteLuther unlike many Christian today, put sin in the proper context. I have heard Reformed baptist pastors preach that while you will sin it will be only rarely and the holy spirit will bring you right back to the righteous path. While it is correct to say that a true Christian will be guided by the spirit and be repentant of his sin. I think those who say that true Christians will only rarely sin do not in fact understand the true nature of sin. In many ways it sound like they have a Pharisaic way of understanding sin. Luther himself rightly says that we commit murder and fornication many times a day, even if it only in our hearts. James 2:10 says that " For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. God requires perfection, and that can only be obtained through the Son Jesus Christ. For only he was truly perfect. Rather then look into ourselves and what we can do, we must look to Christ and what he has done.
Now this is not saying that we have permission to sin all we want, so that grace may abound. But that we are sinners, we will sin, by God's grace through sanctification we will be able to become more righteous. But we will never reach the perfection, at least in this temporal life that God requires of us.