Sin and not despair?
It is quite astonishing that Martin, in a letter to his friend Philip Melanchthon, admonishes him: Be a sinner and let sin be powerful, but more powerful than sin be your trust in Christ and rejoice in Christ that he has overcome sin, death and the world.
At first glance, the exhortation seems unbelievable. To understand Umher's admonition, we must look more closely at the context. Umher is not describing sinning as a desirable action. On the contrary, he was referring to the fact that we still sin, but he wanted us not to become discouraged because we fear that God will withdraw his grace from us. Whatever we have done, if we are in Christ, grace is always more powerful than sin. Even if we were to sin 10.000 times a day, our sins would still be powerless in the face of God's overwhelming mercy.
This is not to say that it doesn't matter whether we live righteously. Paul knew immediately what was coming and answered the questions, "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?" as follows: "By no means! How can we, who died to sin, continue in it?" (Römer 6,1-2).
In following Jesus Christ we are called to follow Christ's example to love God and our neighbors. As long as we live in this world, we must live with the problem that we are going to sin. In this situation, we should not let fear overwhelm us so much that we lose confidence in God's faithfulness. Instead, we confess our sins to God and trust God even more in his grace. Karl Barth once put it this way: Scripture forbids us to take sin more seriously or even nearly as seriously as grace.
Every Christian knows that sinning is bad. However, many believers need to be reminded how to deal with when they have sinned. What is the answer? Confess your sins without reserve to God and ask sincerely for forgiveness. Step into the throne of grace with confidence and trust courageously that it will bestow you with his grace, and more than enough.
by Joseph Tkach
