Re: Briefly on Luther and Holiness -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 22:43:55 03/22/04 Mon
Author: mt. healthy mountaineer
Subject: Re: Briefly on Luther and Holiness
In reply to: Abba's Son 's message, "Briefly on Luther and Holiness" on 15:55:54 03/22/04 Mon

I find your comments interesting, most likely from my own Lutheran worldview. I'm going to use bold font to distinguish my comments from your own. I think you may find them interesting.

First, I like Luther, for the most part. My biggest problem with him is his theology of simultaneously being a saint and sinner.

This struck me as I read it. Up above you say that you cannot be sinner and saint at the same time. Yet down in the paragraph that follows you note that you sin every day and that every day you must die daily to sin. To my ear, those are the exact same concept. You are a saint because you are forgiven (this is a very Lutheran concept as well -prior to him it was considered inappropriate for anyone but the ordained to take on the work of the church) but since you are human, you sin. If you sin, you are a sinner.

I think you are taking Luther's term "sinner" too seriously. Luther taught that everyone except for Jesus is a sinner. The difference is faith in Christ. This makes me and all people equal in that respect. I am no better than the pedophile, the wife-beater or the man who commits adultery. Why? Because I sin as well. The only difference is the faith that I have that my sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ. Saintly acts do not help or hurt that status.(Although that brings up a whole other can of worms about the role of works in Christianity - not really germaine to this discussion - just wanted you to know that I know that we're treading on some other ground here as well)

I do not think that Paul's struggles with sin (especially as he writes in Romans 7)is the expected experience of the Christian. If you take Romans 6-8 as a whole you get this: Put sin to death, this was my struggle before I became a Christian, live in the freedom of the Holy Spirit. (I have written a paper on The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer in Romans 8 if you are interested.)

Romans fascinates me. I'd love to find the time to seriously get into it. I bought a (really big) workbook to go through it but I haven't yet. If its on a word document e-mail it to me at: Darlage@postmark.net

I'll be glad to read it. Maybe I'll review it ;)

God expects holiness. Do I sin? Absolutely! Is God pleased with my sin? Absolutely not. That's why, in Paul's words, I must die daily to to sin.

Am I a hypocrite? Lord, I hope not!

I'd say you're only a hypocrite if you deny you ever sin. We all know church members who act as if they haven't sinned in years.

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