Sin Boldly!
“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.” – Martin Luther
This is a very solid reminder of what grace is and how important living transparent lives are. Luther challenges us to be “Bold” in our sin, not to disregard it but to break from it. We are freed from sin and it’s consequences through Christ yet sin is still a struggle for us because we are human. Our freedom is in our hearts where the Holy Spirit resides replacing our old desires and repairing the damage that is left there. So how do we sin boldly but not take advantage of grace? Simple we live! If we are truly repentant sinners while we struggle with the sins of our past they will become less and less. Thus our boldness to live in the world is not match by our boldness to not be of the world. Luther says God does not save imaginary sinners because we have to real with ourselves and acknowledge that we are broken. It is our job to take that sin to God but leave it there, no longer carry it. Christianity is not about sin management. It is a about freedom from that which keeps us in bondage! The reason Luther tells us to be bold is that we should live our lives with out fear and walk in the presence of God being free to go anywhere. We are to seek the presence of the Lord with even a greater boldness!
So what is we fall? What if our boldness catches us slippin? This is where we need other Christians to help us back on our feet. The idea of accountability scares us because we think of punishment but that is not the case. That is based in fear. 1 John 4:18 ”There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” That is the love of God, it is without fear of punishment. Our repentance is not out of guilty penance but of honor to our God. When we walk in faith our eyes should always be focused on Christ and where his Spirit guides us. Though human we will fall into temptation and sin, that is the hard part of living. The good thing is we are forgiven and already set free so the sins that we think have us in bondage really do not. Those sins are not our problem anymore so we have to get to a point where we truly believe that in order to walk away for it. This does not come from guilt but from understanding the character of God. Jesus defeated sin so when we are still trapped in it there is a way out but sometimes it is hard to see through our own lens. When we look through God’s eyes we see the freedom, the grace and the redemption that is already on us. Luther says in this sermon that even if you sinned 1000 a day you could not lose the salvation and grace that is on you. This is beauty of God, his gift cannot be re-gifted. We can’t give back what we did nothing to receive in the first place. All God hopes is that we understand that and walk in it before this world drags us under with its sinful death. Paul sums up our security in Christ in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That is our security so live your lives in the world just strive to not be of it. Be accountable to someone who knows you well enough to not let you hurt yourself further. Do not wallow in guilt but pick up your head and walk in freedom. To often Christians, we live life like we are in a cell built of our sins and guilt and we just rot there. The reality of this senario is the cell door is open and there is nothing keeping us there but our own self image and fear of walking free. Embrace the freedom that is found in Christ, it is yours!
Amen.
