It’s impossible for our adversaries to understand the forgiveness of sins because they are immersed in their notion of quality. The Holy Scriptures call Christians saints and the people of God. It’s a pity that it’s forgotten that we are saints, for to forget this is to forget Christ and baptism. (In Psalm 86 [:2] the Hebrew for ‘I am a saint,’ chasid, means the opposite, ‘I am cursed.’) So it comes about that those who are truly sinners don’t want to be considered sinners, and those who are saints don’t want to be called saints either. The latter don’t believe the gospel which comforts them and the former don’t believe the law which accuses them.
You say that the sins which we commit every day offend God, and therefore we are not saints. To this I reply: Mother love is stronger than the filth and scabbiness on a child, and so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us. Accordingly, although we are sinners, we do not lose our filial relation on account of our filthiness, nor do we fall from grace on account of our sin.
You object that we are always sinning, and where there are sins the Holy Spirit does not dwell; therefore we are not saints because the Spirit sanctifies. I reply: The text says, ‘The Spirit will glorify me’ [John 16:13, 14]. Therefore, where Christ is, there is the Holy Spirit also. Besides, sins do not separate Christ from sinners who believe. The God of the Turks helps only to the extent that one is godly. This is also true of the pope’s God, but when a papist begins to doubt, as he must, that he has made enough satisfaction, he becomes alarmed. Such is the faith of the pope and the Turks. But the Christian says: I believe and cling to him who is in heaven as a Savior. If I fall into sin I rise again but don’t continue to sin. I rise up and become the enemy of sin. Thus the Christian faith differs from other religions in this, that the Christian hopes even in the midst of evils and sins. Without the Holy Spirit natural man can’t do this. He can only seek refuge in works. To say, ‘I am a child of God,’ is accordingly not to doubt even when good works are lacking, as they always are in all of us. This is so great a thing that one is startled by it. Such is its magnitude that one can’t believe it.
Luther, M. (1999, c1967). Vol. 54: Luther's works, vol. 54 : Table Talk (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
1 comment:
I'd say you're right; we are forgiven of sins, though we keep on sinning the Holy Spirit will not leave our own. We are all feeling the embrace of the Spirit, never the less we keep on sinning while trying to keep hold of God in this world of doubt.
You stick with the Bible, I watch from a safe distance. The forgiving of sin is the foundation of today's Christianity; we are all sinners we have all fallen from Grace, but we may be saved just by accpeting the hand of God, reaching out. How easy is that? You're right when saying that unbelieving the forgivness of sin is denying Christ; that's what Christ was for, He was born to die, to redeem His people.
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