Sinner Saints concept.
Paul’s Letter of Romans
In Romans 7:14-25, Paul faces a dilemma: “I do not know what I am doing. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I, myself who do it, but it is sin living in me…. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Reflection
Martin Luther described a Christian as one who is simultaneously justified and a sinner. Can we confidently say that the church today, filled with flawed members consist of those clothed in Christ’s righteousness and consecrated to a holy living can be referred to as sinners? Would it therefore be correct to call the church holy? The secular world does not consider the Christian church holy. The reason is not far-fetched as we are witnessing regrettably, several scandals that have characterized the Christian communities in recent times. The world laughs at us. Nothing sums up the identity of a Christian better than the phrase: Simul iustus et Peccator. The Christian is, at the same time, wholly a sinner, who deserves God’s temporal and eternal punishment, and wholly righteous before God on account of Jesus’ merit. And, as St. Paul writes in Romans 8:1-2.
St. Paul doesn’t say “I was” in the past tense, but “I practice the very evil that I do not want,” in the present. I’m an active sinner in fact, not in theory. The apostle confesses that in his flesh he’s a slave to the law of sin and death, yet at the same time, in the present tense, through the Spirit he’s a slave to Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:5). St. Paul isn’t alone in this either. David also writes, “And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous” (Psalm 143:2). Then, he concludes, “Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake of Your name, O Lord, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble” (Ps 143:10b-11).
Finally, to Timothy, St. Paul writes, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim 1:15). However, despite this, “…for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16).
Later, Martin Luther repeats St. Paul’s teaching. Luther put it this way: “The saints in being righteous are at the same time sinners; they are righteous because they believe in Christ whose righteousness covers them and is imputed to them, but they are sinners because they do not fulfil the law and are not without sinful desires.” (LRC).
Without this “simul” distinction, theology lapses into moralism. Salvation is reduced to a process of self-improvement in which God and man each contribute their fair share and man’s progress is measured against a scale of increasing holiness. For Luther, this is totally unacceptable as it is incompatible with Scripture.
Beloved, if we must do our part and meet God halfway, or even part of the way, we end up with terrified consciences because the old man in Adam, not the new man in Christ, is running the show.
Luther in his lecture on Galatians in 1535, wrote: these promises, the good news about God’s justification of the ungodly in Christ, that are at the root of the Gospel: “Whatever sins I, you, and all of us have committed or may commit in the future, they are as much Christ’s own as if He Himself had committed them” But, if no man can hope to please God and be saved from sin, death, and the devil, who can be saved?
Gospel
Jesus Himself answers that question for us: “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
Beloved, our righteousness is called, in plain language, the forgiveness of our sins. Or, as it says here: “sins not counted,” “sins covered,” “sins not to be seen.” Here stand the clear plain words: All the saints are sinners and remain sinners. But they are holy because God in His grace neither sees nor counts these sins, but forgets, forgives, and covers them. There is thus no distinction between the saints and the non-saints. They are sinners alike and all sin daily, only that the sins of the holy are not counted but covered; and the sins of the unholy are not covered but counted. By grace alone means that God gives his love freely.
Conclusion
Luther was saying, in our justification we are one and the same time righteous or just, and sinners. Being a saint is not about what I do or don’t do but about who I am in relationship with God. That’s also true of being justified by Christ!
Amen.