saint and sinner

This is another article composed for the church newsletter...

One of my favorite illustrations in the Lutheran Handbook published several years ago by Augsburg Fortress is labeled “How to Tell a Sinner from a Saint” (if you’ve never paged through a copy, look it up—it’s a rare combination of hilarity and truth).  The image on the left is a nondescript woman wearing a striped t-shirt and carrying a purse.  The image on the right?  A nondescript woman wearing a striped t-shirt and carrying a purse.

And there, in a nutshell, you have the central paradox of the Lutheran faith.  We are all simultaneously saints and sinners. 

Uncle Marty himself once told his friend, Philip Melanchthon (no, there will not be a pronunciation quiz) to “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.”  Jesus came to save sinners.  That means you.  And me.  Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are saved.  Because we are human, salvation isn’t a magic elixir that keeps us from sinning ever again.

Paradox.

As Lutherans we are a people of the long-winded explanation—because life, and love, and faith just aren’t simple enough to be contained in a pithy statement.  We are saved by grace through faith… our whole lives through.  Salvation is a journey, not a mile marker.  

Luther understood this well, because he struggled throughout his life with the feeling that he could never be good enough to earn salvation.  He prayed and he fasted, self-flagellated and confessed, and yet nothing he did seemed to rid him of his guilt.  Eventually, through careful study and contemplation of the Word he realized there was a reason for this.

He couldn’t earn salvation because salvation can’t be earned.

He couldn’t stop sinning because he was human, and therefore not perfect.

Luther’s light-bulb moments are a legacy that helps us understand we are all freed, through faith, from the destructive powers of sin and death despite our sinful natures.  We receive the gift of grace as a gift, and not as a reward for our achievements.

This paradoxical, complicated insight—this reality that we are simultaneously saints and sinners—is the most freeing Word we could possibly receive.

We are okay.  We are going to be okay.  We are loved, just as we are, even when we have trouble loving ourselves.

Does this mean we can abandon ourselves to our sinful natures, confident that this gift of grace is our eternal get-out-of-jail free card?

Uncle Marty helps us understand this, too: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said, ‘Repent’ [in Matthew 4:17] he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”  We can’t be perfect, but we are called to live lives of repentance, obedience and thanksgiving. 

Thanks be to God for the complexity that helps us see we are saved to live lives of thanksgiving, free to rest secure in the promises of faith even when we make mistakes.  Look in the mirror.  The face looking back is a sinner—but it’s also one of God’s precious saints!  And that, my friends—that saint in each of you—that is the side of us God sees.