Essay 37 (7-10-04)

 

BE A SINNER AND SIN BOLDLY

 

               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. — Martin Luther

 

I remember a Lutheran scholar at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis saying that probably no one has understood Paul's doctrine of justification by faith in the book of Romans as well as Martin Luther. That may well be true, but one can at least say that Luther was profoundly affected by the apostle's teaching on sin in Romans. Luther's "conversion" from a doctrine of salvation by works of law to a view of justification by faith only was based in part on his understanding of the nature of sin. Once he saw the perditious character of sin in his own life he was able to appreciate the magnanimity of grace. He took sin very seriously — as the above quotation shows — and he is saying that one cannot be forgiven who has a casual attitude about sin.

 

  The "fictitious" view of sin that Luther refers to might be illustrated by the response of a fashionable lady at a garden party when told there was an escaped lion nearby. "Oh, really?," she said, as she took another bite of her cucumber sandwich. It isn't so much that the world rejects the reality of sin, but that it ignores sin. Even though sin is basic to human history — and is largely responsible for the miseries and woes that have afflicted humankind — it is viewed as irrelevant. No one's troubles these days are attributed to sin. They are caused by dysfunctional homes, lack of education, a poor environment, or poverty, but not to sin. Dr. Karl Menninger was right in raising the question, Whatever happened to sin?

 

  Luther is saying that God will not forgive one who doesn't believe that he is all that much of a sinner. He must believe that he is not only a sinner but that he sins boldly. Luther saw sin as four "stages of perdition" that turn one away from God — ingratitude, vanity, willful blindness, and idolatry. Our pride and self-centeredness blind us to such sins in our lives. Who wants to face the fact that he's greedy or ignorant or an ingrate?  Whatever sin is, it is deceitful. Once we are deceived as to who and what we really are, sin can do its dirty work. But the power of sin is such that we choose to be deceived.  We don't want to know the truth about ourselves. Sin deceives us, and we accept it. Luther is saying that that is serious. It can shut the door to the grace of God.

 

  Luther was especially gifted in practicing what he preached. He sinned boldly, surprisingly boldly. Martin Marty, an American church historian who published a book on Luther just this year, describes Luther's vicious anti-Semitism — even to calling for the destruction of Jewish homes and synagogues if they did not accept Christ — as revolting. While Luther condemned both pre-marital or extra-marital sex, he did believe that polygamy was acceptable. He argued that it is never condemned in the Bible. He told a German prince that it was sinful for him to cheat on his wife, but that it was OK for him to take the "other woman" as a second wife. But he was to keep it a secret since bigamy was against German law!

 

  Such antics hurt Luther's reputation at a time when he was seeking to reform the church. As did his often repulsive language, and his persecution of the Anabaptists who did not see things the way he did. And his often violent temper. But his violence turned on the Devil himself, with whom he had an ongoing confrontation. He once threw an inkwell at him!

 

  So the reformer knew what it was to sin boldly — and in turn to believe in and rejoice in the grace of God. It just shows the kind of sinners — like ourselves! — that God can use to carry out his purposes in human history. Without Luther there would have been no Reformation, and without the Reformation it would be a much less free world today.

 

  Paul anticipated Luther's problem. After laying down the proposition "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom. 5:20), he had to address the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Rom. 6:1) While his answer was, "Certainly not!" the precious truth remains that the more overwhelming the sin the more overwhelming the grace.

 

  What both Paul and Luther mean is that yes, of course, we are to disdain sin and avoid it like a plague, and yet we are to realize that we are gross sinners. And the more conscious we are of our sin — admitting that we sin boldly — the more God forgives and the more abundant his grace.

 

  Jesus deals with this subject in Luke 7:36-47. He was invited to dine with a Pharisee named Simon. While they were at table a woman "who had a bad name in the town" (New Jerusalem) came in and proceeded to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. When Simon sees this he says to himself: "If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what kind of person it is touching him and what a bad name she has." Knowing Simon's thoughts, Jesus poses a question.

 

  A creditor had two clients who owed him money. One owed 500 denarii, the other only 50 denarii. When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Question: "Which of them will love him more?" Simon's answer: "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." Jesus makes the application. While Simon had not shown Jesus the courtesies usual extended to a visitor, the sinful woman had showered him with tender loving care. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven," Jesus says, "because she loved much." Then he makes the riveting statement which described Simon and us all: But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

 

  There is something of a paradox in this story. We would have expected Jesus to say that the woman loves much because she was forgiven much — not that she was forgiven because of her love. That is the point of the story: the less one is forgiven the less he loves; the more one is forgiven the more he loves. Perhaps our Lord is saying both are true. One might be forgiven because of his great love (works?), and the more one is forgiven the more he will love. In the first love is the cause of forgiveness; in the other love is the effect of forgiveness.

 

  But for our point here, Jesus is saying what Luther said — when one sins abundantly and is forgiven the more he will love and rejoice; if he takes sin fictitiously, as Luther puts it, or casually, and therefore doesn't see the grossness of his sinfulness, he is forgiven little, and therefore loves little.

 

  That was Simon's problem. His sins — pride, arrogance, self-righteousness — were bolder than the prostitute's, but he was blind to it, willfully blind. The woman — whose sins were more of the flesh than of the heart — was the lesser sinner. But she was so conscious of her sins, so serious about them, so remorseful that she saw them as bold. As Luther would put it, she saw herself as a sinner who sinned boldly. She was therefore forgiven more — and consequently loved and rejoiced more.

 

  Few theologians have seen this as profoundly as Reinhold Niebuhr, who rejected the common view that sensuality (such as adultery) is the primal sin. Whether among angels or men, the primal sin, he said, is pride. He pointed to the pride of power and knowledge, and even the pride of virtue and religion. Sensual sins such as drunkenness and sex, he said, are an escape from the grosser sins of pride and self-conceit. Long before Niebuhr, Augustine talked about "animosities" — sins of the heart — as being far more serious.

 

  There is a lesson here for us good, virtuous, religious, law-abiding Christians whose lives are full of good works and kindly deeds. Look at us! We are good people, aren't we? Yes, of course, we may not be perfect, but we certainly aren't bold sinners. Our sins are not really serious — sins of neglect and omission maybe.

 

  Let's face it. Are we more like Simon the Pharisee, who didn't love all that much because he wasn't forgiven much? He was not really all that much of a sinner. Or are we more like the street woman who loved much because she had forgiven much? As she saw it, her sins were very serious.

 

  We will do well to listen to Luther. If we take sin lightly, God may not forgive us. But once we look deep within ourselves and see our selfish pride, and recognize that we are sinners who sin boldly, then we can really believe and rejoice in the grace of God and the love of Christ.

 

   Where there is no God there is no sin, and that is the measure of our post-modern world.  The world ignores sin because it ignores God, and it cannot accept a loving and gracious God without recognizing its blatant and grievous sins. It chooses rather to be deceived. It is a bill of goods that we dare not buy.

 

  One cannot be forgiven who has a casual attitude about sin! It is a disturbing proposition to ponder.