Identity Crisis
In my Lutheran tradition, we have a saying, Simul Iustus et Peccator, which means simultaneously saint & sinner. I think it is a pretty rad sounding saying. I think my dad was in a band called Saints and Sinners, and no they weren’t a cheesy Christian band from the ’80s trying to sound all hard and cool. I think they were probably trying to sound like Bon Jovi by the looks of their hair at the time.
Now, this saying may seem like a paradox and that is because it is a paradox. How can a person be two things at one time? How can a person be a saint and a sinner at the same time? This was a huge deal for Luther, who I believe coined this term. Luther spent much of his life trying to be perfect hoping it would appease a wrathful God. Then one day through the reading of Scripture he came to discover the good news that all of his works weren’t actually making God pleased with him. The reality was that God was already pleased with him because of what Christ had done for him on his behalf. This good news freed Luther from a life of endless penance to living a life that was devoted to telling everyone he could about the freedom he had come to receive in Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that Luther wasn’t aware of his shortcomings. Hence, the paradox. Before God, he was totally perfect, righteous, and holy. Luther and God were all good, thanks to Jesus. Yet he still wrestled with the world, his flesh, and the devil. Did Luther stop sinning? By no means. If you read Luther, you will see that he was still pretty salty. But his sin did not cripple him and cause him to lie in the fetal position, hiding from a wrathful God. His sin drove him to Jesus, day in and day out, to be reminded that he was no longer defined by his sin.
So, I really do appreciate this fancy Latin saying. But I wonder if over the 500-plus years since the reformation, we have let it form us in an unhelpful way.
As I have started serving in my new role at Bethany in Austin, I am having fun learning how to lead the traditional liturgy. On the weeks I am not preaching I get up and lead our 7:45 AM service…
yes, you read that right…
7:45 AM… Lord, have mercy,
in confession. I didn’t grow up with this traditional liturgy but I have always respected it, and I am really enjoying the repetition of it every week. It is making its way into my bones and spirit. But as I have been leading the church in confession, I have started to think through how it is forming us. Each week we confess,
O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner.
I wonder how a statement like this has formed the person who has been saying it every Sunday morning for a lifetime. I say that because as I have discipled people over the years this is what I hear at the end of many conversations about spiritual formation and growth. “I can’t do that. I’ll never be perfect. I am just a poor miserable sinner.”
My anecdotal evidence seems to show that most people who have grown up in our tradition have really only clung to the sinner part of this paradox. Their identity is still that of a sinner, not a saint. I am seeing that this has shaped and formed them into people who really aren’t living in the freedom of Christ and not living into the abundant life Jesus has promised them in John 10:10.
I had a professor in seminary beat into us that when we step into the pulpit to preach we must remember that we are preaching to saints. He backed this up by reminding us that all of the epistles in the New Testament begin with a greeting to the saints in so and so city, not the sinners in Galatia or Corinth. Yes, even the people of Corinth were greeted as saints! If you know anything about the church in Corinth this should surprise you because they were doing some things that even the pagans thought were a bit taboo. Yet, Paul saw them as God did, as the beloved children of God. Paul knew that their identity was rooted in what Jesus had done for them. Were they still messing up pretty radically? Sure. Did Paul have some harsh words for them and expect them to knock it off? He sure did. But this did not change their identity as God’s beloved children.
I have come to believe that the most difficult thing any human can ever do is fully embrace that he or she is deeply loved by God.
Every day we have to remind ourselves of who we are in Christ. This is why Luther was so keen on remembering his baptism. Paul writes about this in Romans 6. Our baptism reminds us of who we really are. The old Adam, the sinner, has been drowned and as we arise from the water we are raised from death to a new life in Christ.
Our identity is no longer sinner but saint.
Now, I am not arguing that we should change our liturgy or that we should stop confessing our sin. I am a huge advocate for confession. It is the most freeing thing we can do as humans. Once we get that junk off our chest, we get to be reminded of who we really are in Jesus, beloved children of God.
I want to encourage you to take some time this week and think through what your primary identity is, sinner or saint, and how it has shaped you as a human. Think about how your identity has shaped how you view God and how you view and interact with other people. I pray that this week the Holy Spirit begins to remind you who you are in Christ. A beloved child of God. You, my friend, are a saint. May we all learn to embrace this reality.
Grace and peace till we rise in glory.
