At PLTS, a popular phrase quoted is two words from Martin Luther. Students will triumphantly announce something like, “Well, Luther tells us to SIN BOLDLY.”
It seems it is more often than not used as an excuse to allow sins (not Sin) to continue in the life of the believer. It has become a license to allow breaking the commandments–behaviors that transgress the way God would have us live as members of the Kingdom of God here and now.
It also appears that the whole sentence where those two words came from has been lost. The phrase is taken out of context, much like the verse from the Bible I see in a lot of church kitchens “Eat, drink, and be merry . . . (for tomorrow we die.”). I think most may not even realize where it comes from.
Here is Luther’s full letter to Melanchthon, with the oft-used quote in it’s original context:
“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.”
So then, this whole letter is doing several things. First, it is an indictment of who we are. Luther is clearly saying to Melanchthon that we (people) are sinners and because of our fallenness, we will continue to sin until the second coming. I believe that Luther is using a hyperbole here in order for us to understand exactly who we are. Our sins are real; they are not unimportant nor minimal…they do matter. Luther is trying to tell those people who think they are pretty good, except for those little sins here or there, that they are in fact really big sinners and should see themselves as big sinners. Hence why he says, “be a sinner.” What I hear in this is an admonition for me to own the state I am in now and a recognition that I am not a saint on my own. Nowhere in here do I hear Luther giving permission to sin–which is the way I hear the quote often used.
Secondly, we need to own our sin and understand it to be real, in order for grace to be real. If we have fake sin, then we don’t need grace. If our sin, however, is real, then we in fact need a grace that is real. What I hear in this is more about God’s grace to forgive and continually seek me out rather than doing whatever I want (or as it is more popularly summarized: SINNING BOLDLY!)
Lastly, what is missed in not quoting the whole phrase Luther uses is the admonition to let our trust in Christ be stronger than the sins we commit. Luther is telling Melanchthon (and us) that our trust in Christ is of first importance. It is to be stronger than our sin, and it is to cause us to rejoice in victory. This is important because I often I hear a defeatism in Lutheranism that keeps continually reminding people that we are sinners (which we are), but doesn’t in the same breath remind us that we are in fact freed from sin in Christ whom overcame.
So what we can get with the Sin Boldly mentality is a ho-hum approach that mimics the affect of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, (read in an Eeyore voice) “We all sin. Nothin’ we can do about it. Might as well not even try.” But, we should take instead for the affect of Paul who said both, “I do not understand what I do for I do not do what I want to do but what I hate to do…it is not I that lives, but the sin that lives in me” (Rom 7:15-17) and ” I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). We as Lutherans concentrate on Romans and not Galatians. This is unhealthy, unscriptural, and unhelpful in living the Good News in the world.
So then, as Lutherans, let us only quote the whole phrase now and use it in context to show that we are dependent on Christ. Let us never use it again to try to prove that sinning is acceptable and endorsed by God. The reason God forgives our sins is because we did something wrong. If there was no wrong-doing, then no forgiveness is needed. Sin Boldly is in fact not a freedom to flagrantly sin, but to wholly depend on Christ when we do sin.
-jpserrano
Hey Jeremy, definitely agree with your notion that Luther meant this statement to be an exclamation of who we are (sinners) rather than an excuse to do whatever we want. My favorite quotation of his on the topic: “When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”
Jeremiah that is a great statement by Luther.
Most of my Christian life I lived under guilt of sin, always lived under accusation of the enemy that I have to try hard next time not to masturbate..and I am always failed and thought God doesn’t love me..he left me. I am a failure..guilt ..degrading myself, when I read Bible every I feared judgement verses …came to believe all those verses are set against me and I am lost…I lived miserably..slowly I believed I am unfit to preach Jesus as I am sinning and God doesn’t love me at all. My passion foe preaching declined out of fear that God doesn’t love me as I am not a saint like other Christains …. this words of Luther is making a lot of sense to me and in the light of these words when look at the scripture I see Grace of God in New light ..pls pray for me
A friend posted the “sin boldly” quote on Facebook. Being of the Southern Baptist persuasion, I had no idea what Martin Luther was saying. Quick Google search and here I am. Thank you for helping me understand.
Acknowledging our sinful nature is so critical to living the abundant life, don’t you think? It seems that only when I came to a full understanding of how I had fallen short of the glory of God was I able to appreciate the gift of salvation and look forward to eternal life.
My struggle with sin is not over but knowing and accepting that I continue to fight my flesh makes me seek God even more. Love the blog. Thanks!
Kathy thank you for your kind words. I agree that it is critical to acknowledge our sinful nature. It is the first steps to understanding why we need a Savior. I’m glad my post was helpful.
I am not afraid to own up to the fact that I am a sinner; it is obvious. Perhaps I do not count every sin I do, but I have lied, stolen, coveted, and treated people with injustice. Often, I can feel the sinful nature within me, as a invisible force. I am aware of my shortcomings and, in some way, I suppose this is a good thing. What does sinning bravely mean to me? Well, if I am a sinner for life, the best I wonder I can do is live my life with is to be connected with love as much as possible. I guess this isn’t a perfect ‘tweet’, but I do believe that I am being true to myself.
Trust me, my comment is friendly. Did Paul ever write to sinners saved by grace? He wrote to saints. Christians are not described as those who continue in sin, but if we do, we have an advocate with the Father. No matter how I read the above explanation of Luther’s statement to sin boldly, I am left disturbed by implication of excuse to continue to sin. The grace of God that appeared to all men teaches otherwise…
They (we) are not saints because we stopped sinning. We are saints because of the substitutionary death of Christ and our faith in Him. The danger is the secret lives Paul describes in Romans 2 where we judge the sin of others and hide our own rather than confessing and repenting of it. My tendency and that of other Christians I know is to put on a sinless face and try to deal with our sin privately, this is not how scripture tells us to deal with sin. Our culture views Christians as bigoted, hateful, hypocrites. This is because many Christians, with a just desire to express anger at sin, are far more angry at others sin than our own. As it also says in Romans 2, we will be judged by our actions. The greatest saints I know are plagued by their sin and are constantly choosing the way out that Paul describes rather than sinning and then sometimes they fail. They are in a battle as we all are, but they have a healthy view of sin-they confess and repent. They understand the weight of sin and understand that we are all in the process of trying to put away the old self and put on the new through submission to the Father, but they also understand that that transformation will not be complete until the day they meet the Father face to face. There is a reason Gandhi said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” It is not because we sin and He did not. It is because we act like we don’t and proclaim our glory rather than His. Lose the “sin boldly” phase if you must and get to the sentiment-Face your sin and repent-stop justifying, rationalizing and acting like it doesn’t exist. Turn away, run, find the way of escape, and when you fail, confess and repent, stop hiding from it. It does not just go away, it festers, it hardens you, it weakens your resolve, it keeps you trapped. Paul dealt with a similar tension at the end of Romans 5 and moving into 6. Because grace increases when we sin, we should not sin to increase grace. I believe the failure to recognize and deal with sin in our own lives is one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual growth in Christians in America today.
Well said, Dean. Your last paragraph echoes what is, and has been, on my heart for years. In your last sentence I would change your wording on only this: “…spiritual growth in “those who call themselves” Christians…”
Not all who claim the name are on the narrow path.
Have you dug deeply into the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518? It might provide some insight into Luther’s understanding of the tension inherent in simul sanctus et peccator. Gerhard Forde’s “On Being a Theologian of the Cross” is helpful, and posits the need to hold both Romans and Galatians together, but perhaps in our conscious understanding of what’s going on, to live this side of eternity in to the Romans passage as you note we as Lutherians tend to do.
You are being too easy on Martin Luther. While there is an element of calling us to be mindful of our sinful natures in his statement concerning sinning boldly, there is much that is morally and Scripturally egregious in that passage. He says that we must continue to sin as long as we are in the flesh, but that we can always trust in God’s grace if we have faith. Such a sentiment is born of moral laxness, and is a temptation to unbelief, which imperils our salvation. Christ taught us to pray that the kingdom on earth should be as it is in heaven, and that we should strive to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect (that we should be the sons of God in act, and not by mere profession). St. Paul decries anyone who thinks that it is possible to return to our sins after having believed in Jesus Christ, and to think that they will not have earned for themselves the wrath of God. The remedy for sin is confession of sin, repentance, and continuous observance of the commandment of love (love of God and neighbor), strengthened through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and succoring of the afflicted. Faith without works is dead, and does not justify. Faith without love is nothing. Luther had a vicious tongue, and even excused lying in a good cause. He was a moral midget in comparison with a true saint like Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Could anyone ever imagine Mother Teresa uttering such an impure thought as “sin boldly, but believe more boldly”? Only a worldly minded person could utter such an ungodly epithet, even by way of illustration. Did Christ or any of the holy apostles ever teach that we must sin as long as we are in the flesh? God forbid. From that incipient error the whole of Luther’s theology of salvation proceeds, which excuses all manner of ungodliness (he believed that the beatitudes did not apply to the dealings of kings and princes, for example). By our fruits we are known. We should not so lightly excuse Martin Luther for putting God’s justice to the test.
In that case, the more you sin, the stronger is your belief.
Salvation comes only from faith, not by good deeds.
A true believer in this concept would sin deeply and continuously to show that he really believes in this without any doubt.
If he does good deems and gets salvation, he will not be sure whether this salvation comes from his good deems or faith.
Paradox.
Where is recognition of Romans 6:1 — “Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!”
Yeah everyday I tell my kids, “You know I love you. Go out there and sin boldly and show you trust in my love that I will forgive you!”
Very helpful explanation, your clarification by including the rest of the quote that Luther was addressing the common human trait to rationalize away some sins because they are viewed as relatively trivial, while convincing ourselves we are good because we don’t do the bigger sins. I used to think this way until I realized Luther was absolutely right, all sins MUST be considered equally bad, otherwise, self-serving, sinful human nature kicks right in to rationalize away some sins because we don’t do the really bad stuff and we also do enough “good works” in our thinking to cancel out what we consider the trivial ones. You end up with a state where you might as well not even mention certain sins at all, since no one’s going to stop doing them. In thinking of God attitude to us as His children, it’s kind of like us telling our kids you shouldn’t do this but it’s not that much of a big deal, however, I really don’t want you doing that, which means you’ve just given them the green light to go ahead and do the first thing.
FYI, I was thinking that Luther was saying with humor (obviously, since it’s physically impossible to fornicate thousands of times a day), to not let Satan, through ignorance, convince you that your inability to resist sinning puts you beyond redemption, so therefore you might as well just enjoy yourself.
Luther was a blasphemer. To believe in Christ means to believe in Him as Lord. Those who show contempt for the moral Law demonstrate that they do not believe in Christ. What has Christ to do with Belial?
I am no expert on Luther, but I would be careful of passing judgement. Luther did not minimize sin. He spent hours in confession under the weight of sin. I believe “sin boldly” was not his response in advance of sin, but in reflection. I believe he spent years seeing others not sensing the gravity of their sin, minimizing or excusing it. Maybe a better quote without hyperbole would be “stop saying your sin is not so bad, understand sin for what it is, worthy of death” (even the pride of “I don’t struggle with sin”, this means you don’t recognize sin-Paul wrote half of the New Testament and struggled). Your small sins are real, do not shy away from that truth. Sin boldly is reflection of past sin-real-worthy of death-forgiven. Christ is greater than your sin. To think Luther is encouraging sin is to misunderstand what he was saying.
As Christians are we under the law? I think not.
Dale: I put in parenthesis clarity on what Martin Luther said in modern words and scriptural context.
13. If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but
the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the
true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only
imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let
your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the
victor over sin, death, and the world.(admit you are a sinner but rejoice
in Christ being stronger in you than the sin and overcome sin through God
in you/the Holy Spirit of God Who indwells those whose spirit man has
been reborn/recreated. “You must be born again— not of flesh but of
Spirit.) We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a
place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are
looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.
It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who
takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if
we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you
think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager
sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.
In simplicity don’t hide sins nor deny them but face them with trust in God and let God help you overcome the sins. Boldly come to the cross for forgiveness. Have a heart to have God help you overcome and He will give you the ability to overcome.
Satan/Lucifer encourages and motivates us to sin then condemns us for doing so. What a scum bag. God KNOWS we are sinners and loves us despite sins, laying our sins on Jesus to set us free from sin’s domination over us and free to be with Him in Heaven. God is NOT IN THE CONDEMNATION BUSINESS but the SALVATION BUSINESS. Salvation – think of a junk yard. A man looks at the junk, leftovers of abuse and worn out, and sees value. He restores the old car or device or machine through hard work to call it his own. Same with God restoring fallen man.
We should run to God rather than excuse our sins to get forgiveness, let God love and restore us and help us overcome sin. Some things in this world we may never reach total victory over but should trust God, desire to improve – God knows if we live a lie or not – and seek His Face to be changed more and more into the Image of God like JESUS.
God knows our struggles and our pains and failures and sins but LOVES US AS WE ARE and He strives with us against those things that want to separate us from His love. Anything we put above God is a false god. God NEVER abuses us NEVER but He corrects/chastens us with His Word or by letting us do things on our own apart from His will and face consequences.
Salvation from God – once we have our spirit recreated by TRULY with our whole being trusting Jesus for salvation is rewarded with God placing His Holy Spirit in us to teach us and guide us. Accepting the Gifts of the Spirit or not we are His, the gifts are gifts to more accurately pray and have God’s anointing stronger than ever. When our spirit man is recreated our spirit is changes totally from rebellion with God to embracing God letting Him live in us. KEEP IN MIND, our carnal mind then is at warfare with our new mind God gives our eternal spirit’s mind. As we study God’s Word and learn more and more to obey God willingly and cheerfully then our carnal mind is RENEWED by God’s Word it receives. It ceases to be a struggle to follow God to become a desire. The struggle then is over our carnal flesh against our own spirit.
Paul said at one point, “what I want to do (mind wanting to cooperate with his renewed mind that is in communion with God’s Holy Spirit) that I don’t do. What I don’t want to do I do. What a mess I am in.” That is our human struggle as Christians exemplified. Paul matured and said “I no longer condemn anyone nor myself”.
Condemnation is not godly and only lead to more sin. Love, don’t condemn both self and others.
This stuff, these parabiblical things are why my Lutheran relatives are so full of their culture, and not Jesus. Pharasism. Unloving, unkind, oblivious. Very bold and getting bolder to be ugly and drag others into it. No human confrontation, even setting boundaries. They love their sins. The Bible, rightly interpreted, would clean them up, as it has me. God pity those who put human ideas over the Bible!