I Believe According to the Scriptures: Simultaneously Saint and Sinner - Romans 7:13-25

In this episode of Faith Comes By Hearing, Dr. Larson explores the Lutheran teaching of simul justus et peccator—that Christians are simultaneously saints and sinners. Drawing from Romans 7, he candidly describes the daily struggle against sin, emphasizing that we cannot free ourselves, but are justified by God’s grace as a gift through faith in Christ’s atoning death and resurrection.

Information about The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC) can be found at www.taalc.org

Transcript

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In the cascading layers of noise in our ever-changing world, discovering a space for reflection and inspiration is increasingly rare. Welcome then to Faith Comes by Hearing, a unique podcast series that cuts through the clamor, carrying the timeless messages of the gospel into our lives with renewed relevance. Join Dr. Carrie Larson, the presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, as he ventures into the challenges of everyday life and the deep need to hear the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith, through Christ Jesus alone. Each episode is an invitation not just to listen, but to truly hear and embrace the good news of Christ Jesus for you and for all.

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Those who imagine themselves humble are proud. Or those who are truly humble know they are proud. It even works for courage and patience. For courage and patience are never held by fallen men and women apart from fear and frustration. And so it is with us Christians. So anyone who thinks he is a saint is a sinner. And only actual saints are those who know they are sinners. Let us pray. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Dear brothers, dear sisters in Christ's grace and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. So as we continue in this series, we believe according to the Scriptures, we focus on this teaching that the Scriptures bring forward to us from Old Testament and New, that we are simultaneously at the same breath, saint and sinner. And that doesn't logically seem to compute. But we know, we know that this is the case. And so we struggle with these things. But yet we have to turn to Scripture for validation and to ensure that this is indeed something that the Scriptures find. And why we need Jesus Christ. Just as what was read to you just moments ago, for I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, mainly good things. But I do the very thing I hate, the bad things. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. I confess that I am in bondage to sin, and I cannot free myself. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have a desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil that I do not want to do, I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin who dwells in me. So I find it a law that whenever I want to do right, evil, evil is right there, close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind. And makes me captives to the law. The law of sin. It dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body, this stinking corpse of death? Saying God for Jesus Christ. We are all sinners. Every one of us. We struggle with our sinful nature every day. Every day that we draw breath. And just because I'm wearing a collar, I'll tell you right now, I can't go a day. I can't go a day without doing it my way, Lord. Which is called sin. We say we're conf in our confessions that it's so bad that we we can't even free ourselves. The old Adam fights to live. He's drowned in the waters of baptism, but boy, this bugger's a good swimmer, and he keeps bobbing his head up every day. Every day. I must confess, there are days of things that come from me. I'm reminded when I was a boy when I did some things that I knew I wasn't supposed to do. And dad catches me in the act, and dad says, What is going through your head? And the best thing that I can muster is, I don't know. And what makes matters worse, I'm beat up pretty heavily. And so I can't justify myself. Well, I haven't killed anybody lately. Yeah, but you've done other things. James, the apostle of Jesus Christ, writes, For whoever keeps the whole law but fails at one point has become accountable for it all. For he who says, Do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. I teach our kids in confirmation. You break one, you break them all. Ah, but Pastor, it was a white lie. Most of it was true. You break one, you break them all. Yeah, but I looked at him with lust in my heart, but I was just window shopping. I didn't act it on it. You break one, you break them all. Yeah, I know it's gossip. But do you see how he lives? You break one. You break them all. Because when I decide not to do the other nine, it always points to the first commandment. I have told God I know better. I don't know about you. But on those dark nights, when the devil and my sinful flesh and the world works against me, the only thing I can see is the cross. Oh blessed cross. Or my precious Jesus was crucified. Who will save me? You know what the cross says? Nothing. It's empty. Ah, but that wood is blood stained. I know what happened there. Just as that illuminated cross over my shoulder reminds you, in a land far away on a mount called Calvary, your Savior bled and died for you on a cross. Our sins, my sins. Caused his suffering. Our sins, my sins. Wretched man that I am. Who will save me? Perhaps one of the best things as a Christian and what we teach and confess, and boy, you better hear it teached and confessed. Because if all it is, is that empty cross, knowing that your sins is what put that man up there, the God man Jesus, if that's all you hear, you're sunk. Because God will not let you wallow in your sin. Earlier in this book called Romans, Paul writes this, inspired by the Holy Spirit. But now the righteousness of God that has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace. As a gift. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This is how God shows his righteousness because in his divine forbearance he has passed over the former sins, and it was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be justified and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. An earlier text that we always hear, especially as we remember those who have died in Christ, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Papa Luther called it the sweet exchange. Through the waters of baptism, mine, yours, filthy rags, rags of sin. In the Old Testament, they were called menstrual garments. Exchanged for a king's robe, his righteous robe. And thus he has declared you by his blood, by his suffering and death, and by his glorious resurrection a saint. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be come like wool. But Pastor, if this is true, why do I keep struggling? It's hard for us to get our heads around this. And in fact, the very verses that Gwen read to you and I read to you, it is so hard for some people to understand this business of simultaneously saint and sinner. They'll want to read into this their own theology that once you have received Jesus in your heart, you are no longer a sinner. And so what they take when Paul's words, that the very thing I do not want to do, I do. Oh no, no, no, no, no. That was before his conversion. Trouble is, is when you look in the English and when you look in the Greek, the tense of the verbs are present tense. This is happening to the apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul. This is happening to you. We use an expression that Paul would talk about, the here and the not yet. You have been proclaimed free, but you don't know that complete freedom now. And you struggle. And the struggle is real. It's the Fourth of July weekend. I'm reminded of the struggle of this nation. I'm also reminded that this temperature and these humidities is very much akin to what happened in Gettysburg on July 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. My great-great-grandfather, Nels Larsen, an immigrant from Norway, my guess is Nels probably spoke little at all English. But in his new country, his new country was tearing itself apart, namely because that all people were not seen as children of God and equal. His new country was not going to fall apart on his watch. As a young Lutheran Christian, he believed that all men were created equal and all men were to be free. And so he enlisted. President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, almost a year prior, declaring the end of slavery. And yet slavery did not end with the signing of that proclamation. It required war. And even when the war was declared to be over, Nels and the 35th ended up in Texas because they held out down there. Along the Rio Grande. To ensure peace, to ensure liberty. For all people. When it comes to your slavery to sin, the declaration is true. You are freemen. Sin has nothing on you. The proclamation of the devil is flies. Lies. It's on like flies. Lies. He has nothing on you. But we cooperate with this devil. We cooperate with the world. But we are declared free. Free. And so we examine ourselves, we confess our sins, and we do our best to follow the law of God, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and we fail. This is more than just a mulligan, my friends, a do-over. This grace that you receive is costly. It required blood and sacrifice. God needed to come and die for you. But you are a saint. A saint in Jesus Christ by the faith that He has placed in you. You are seen through Jesus Christ as a precious child of God. You are seen as redeemed. You are seen as one who is heaven-bound. We are sinners. But we're saints. The ancient philosopher Socrates, and I'm not much into it, but I found this interesting as I read that he discerned that all people are fools, even the wise. Difference is that some fools knew that they were not wise, thus making them wise. The knowledge doesn't stop from fools. It's delivered to them and it's entrusted to them. It goes beyond reason and common sense that no matter what, at the end of the day, we're fools. On that last day, when you breathe your last and you rest in the arms of your Christ, and when he proclaims your name and your body comes out of its tomb, we know the war is indeed over. And we will truly, truly know true liberty, true freedom, freedom from decay, freedom from sin, freedom. And we will no longer be fools or sinners, but the wise and saints.