Sin and not despair?

to sin and not to despairIt is very surprising that in a letter to his friend Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther admonishes him: "Be a sinner and let sin be mighty, but more powerful than sin be your trust in Christ and rejoice in Christ, that he is the sin, has overcome death and the world.

At first glance, the request seems incredible. In order to understand Luther's admonition, we need to take a closer look at the context. Luther does not describe sinning as a desirable action. On the contrary, he was referring to the fact that we are still sinning, but he wanted us not to become discouraged because of fear that God would withdraw His grace from us. Whatever we have done when we are in Christ, grace is always more powerful than sin. Even if we have sinned 10.000 times a day, our sins are powerless in the face of God's overwhelming mercy.

That's not to say that it doesn't matter whether we live righteously. Paul knew immediately what was in store for him and answered the questions: “What should we say now? Are we then to persevere in sin so that grace may be all the more powerful? answered as follows: Far be it! How should we want to live in sin when we died? " (Romans 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


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