Martin Luther declared that Christians are simul justus et peccator – simultaneously righteous and sinner. Another popular way of saying this is that Christians are “saved sinners.” Just what did Luther mean? Is it appropriate for Christians to see themselves as sinful saints?
When reading Luther we should keep in mind that his theology must be understood in the context of his criticisms of medieval Roman Catholic theology which was popularly understood as works righteousness – that salvation is earned by our good works. I find many similarities between this medieval Catholic understanding of salvation and the Pentecostal works righteousness I’ve heard most of my life. But I digress.
Luther was often given to hyperbolic statements like “love God and sin boldly.” He was not embracing antinomianism – the teaching that grace nullifies God’s moral law. After all, he wrote two catechisms that emphasized the value of the Ten Commandments for Christians. Luther’s “sin boldly” statement was an attempt to demonstrate the power of God’s grace to forgive any and all sin. But he never suggested that Christians could be presumptuous sinners, that is, grace protects Christians from deliberate and reckless sinfulness.
When he taught “simultaneously sinner and saint” Luther was not suggesting that Christians could practice sin, or live sinful lives. He was not suggesting that Christians suffer from a dual personality disorder – saint and sinner. Instead, he was suggesting that justification did not remedy the human inclination towards sin. In other words, even the justified were subject to the continuous torment of temptation. For Luther, the presence of this sinful inclination was itself sin. Therefore, temptation was evidence of sinfulness. Hence, Christians are sinners and saints.
However, Luther did not mean to suggest that Christians were powerless against the inclination to sin. He believed that justification and sanctification were concomitant works of divine grace. Luther wrote,
But when Christ comes through faith, He redeems us. . . makes us free, and gives us the power to do good. . . Afterward, the whole effort of our lives should be to clean out of our bodies and souls the unrighteousness of the graceless, worldly conduct, so that our whole lives until death should be nothing other than a purification.*
So, the popular understanding of Luther’s doctrine of justification is actually a popular misunderstanding. With Paul, Luther declares,
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2).
So, should Christians see themselves as sinful saints? No! In Christ we are saints empowered by God’s grace to resist the power of sin. While it is true that as long was we live in this present age, in our mortal bodies, sin remains; it is also true that through the Incarnation of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the power of sin is overcome by the saving work of God. We await the day of glorification, that day when even the presence of sin will be destroyed.
Instead of saved sinners or sinful saints, in Christ we should see ourselves as “graced saints” awaiting New Creation.
*From Luther’s Works volume 75 © 2013 Concordia Publishing House.
