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TOO MUCH GRACE
Just to show that the road to trouble is
paved with good intentions, consider this. I received the following
quote by e-mail:
“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. 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.” On the day of the Feast of St. Peter the
Apostle, 1521, Martin Luther
Now this appeared to me
so perspicuous, so nailed down on the point, and so encouraging,
that I sent it out to a group of folks by e-mail. It seemed so
clear to me that no human being could possibly misunderstand it,
much less any Christian. Luther is saying that God forgives sins,
real sins, and that before you can grasp or appreciate the grace of
God in Christ and its power, you must first understand the depth of
your sin, and the (from our standpoint) unbridgeable chasm it places
between us and God.
Whoa!
It seems that either folks can’t read, or this is not a message many
Christians appreciate. I didn’t get a lot of hate mail back, but
several charges of heresy did appear.
Contrary to what you
might think, I find this very encouraging. It must be just about
time for another and greater Reformation. I know that, because the
first came when the Church’s understanding of God’s grace had
reached an all-time low. Now, evidently, that low has been
out-bottomed, and today’s Christians hardly understand grace at all,
except as a toothless shibboleth. Imaginary sins, imaginary grace.
Come quickly,
reformation!
-- F. Sanders
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