Click here to watch on YouTube.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is not uncommon for us Lutherans to speak of ourselves as being simultaneously saints and sinners. If you want to get real fancy with it, the old Latin phrase for this doctrine used to be called simul justus et peccator, which literally translates to, “at the same time justified and a sinner.” While it might sound paradoxical to say that you can be two different things at the same time, that’s what the Bible tells us, so that what we Christians confess.

We have been declared righteous before God in heaven on account of Jesus who made atonement for our sins on the cross. That’s an objective truth. Furthermore, in Holy Baptism, the Bible says also that, we’ve put on Christ, and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, along with new and godly desires. And yet, while the guilt of our sin has been forgiven, and the righteousness of Jesus credited to us through faith, still, our sinful nature remains. Even though we’ve been truly regenerated and made new by the washing of water and the Word, this work has only been begun, not completed, and our Old Adam continues to cling to us. Case in point, we do not always live a morally perfect life. We don’t not always fulfill those holy desires, which have been given to us by the Holy Spirit. At times we give into temptation. At times we stumble into sin. At times we do the very things that we don’t want to.

This is the reality that Saint Paul describes for us in our Epistle lesson today from Galatians chapter 5. As he writes, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” So, believers have the Holy Spirit, and they have a sinful flesh. We’re saints and sinners at the same time.

Now, like all of the teaching of God’s Word, ultimately this doctrine is supposed to give us comfort. When used correctly, it’s supposed to encourage us, especially when we are fighting against our sin and it’s not going that well. But like every teaching of the Bible, and certainly one as fundamental as this, that means it’s going to be subject to abuse. Because it’s paradoxical, and stands against our reason to say that you can be two different things at the same time, people are constantly getting it wrong by not letting the tension stand and trying to resolve it. 

First, there are those who try to resolve the paradox of simul justus et peccator by getting rid of the sinner part and saying that real Christians are only saints. We call that the heresy of perfectionism. It’s the idea that by discipling yourself and studying God’s Word enough, eventually it’s possible to reach a point in your life where you never sin anymore. Worse than that, though, people who advocate for perfectionism also tend to give the impression those who haven’t reached that state yet, probably aren’t even really Christians yet, and more than likely they won’t be saved. 

But not only does this false doctrine turn people into hypocrites and liars, worst of all, it completely overlooks the cross, and our ongoing need for Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. As Saint John clearly tells us in 1 John chapter 1, something that we said at the beginning of our service today, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The Bible never tells us that we Christians can reach a point in this life where never struggle with sin anymore. In fact, it states the exact opposite. Another obvious defense of this truth can be found in words of the Lord’s Prayer. There Christ teaches us that one of the things that we should pray for daily as the people of God is that He would “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Now, why would Jesus tell us to ask for our trespasses to be forgiven, if we didn’t have any trespasses that needed forgiving at all? That doesn’t make any sense. Or what about the Lord’s Supper? On the night that Jesus was betrayed He told His disciples that we should do this often “in remembrance of Me.” The “do this” that Jesus was talking about was eating and drinking His Body and Blood for the forgivness of our sins. So, again, why would we even keep on having Communion in Church if we didn’t think we had any sins that needed to be forgiven?  

Perfectionism is wrong not only because its unbiblical, and denies the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit that wages war within us, but also because it attacks the very Gospel itself. But being a Christian doesn’t mean that someone is without sin. It means that we’re sorry for our sins and we trust in Jesus to forgive them. 

The other way that people try and resolve the tension of the saint and sinner paradox is by getting rid of the saint part. We call that the heresy of antinomianism or lawlessness. It’s the idea that true Christians remain the exact same way that they were before, prior to their conversion, and that they still sin deliberately and on purpose. They still do sinful things without remorse and without repentance. I’ve talked a lot about the heresy of antinomianism as of late because I’m conceived that this is the most common error of our time. You don’t meet a lot of people in our circles who don’t think that they sin anymore, but you do meet a lot of people that are living in sin and acting as if it is no big deal. All the time, even in the Church, you encounter those who have totally embraced something the Bible calls sinful, but claim that they’re no different than anyone else, because doesn’t everybody else sin too?

But that’s not the full story. Something is missing there. Listen again to the words of Saint Paul from our Epistle lesson. First, he tells us to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” What he means is that those who are truly led by the Holy Spirit, as in, those who are true believers, will not seek to live a sinful life on purpose. They won’t try and gratify their sinful desires. They’ll try and fight against them. And even if they sometimes fail, which we Christians often do, they won’t make excuses for their sins and continue in them, they’ll quickly repent, and take up the battle once more. As Paul also says, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” So, everyone who is joined to Jesus by a true living faith, wants to do what Jesus says. And those who don’t want to do what Jesus says, and won’t repent of something He tells them not to do, are not disciples of Jesus, no matter what they say.

All too often we hear it said that people who are living in open unrepentance and willful disobedience to God’s Word can still have faith and be saved. But that is not what the Bible actually teaches. It does not teach us that you can still have faith even if you’re not sorry for your sins and don’t want to stop doing them. Just keep reading on in Galatians chapter 5. Saint Paul gives a whole list of different kinds of unrepentant sins that no true Christian can embrace without it destroying their faith. “Now the works of the flesh are evident,” he writes, “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” How could the Word of God be any more clear? You can’t live in those sins and still go to heaven. It’s right there in the Bible.

For example, Saint Paul says that those who embrace sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is the very first thing on the list. He doesn’t mean that everyone who has ever committed a sexual sin before is automatically going to hell, but he does mean that those who choose to live in those sins and refuse to put them away absolutely will.

This passage from Galatians 5 is always one of the ones that I go to when I’m trying get couples who have moved in together before marriage and are fornicating with each other to quit. The problem is not that they’ve done something sinful, which we all have, it’s that they’re refusing to recognize it and make it right. They aren’t repentant over their sin. They’re letting their sin rule over them. But if we let our sin rule over us, then the Holy Spirit isn’t. For He does not remain in the hearts of those who don’t want Him there and stubbornly refuses to listen to Him. That’s why we pray in Church those famous words from the Psalmist, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” It’s because we don’t want that to happen.

And no, that doesn’t just happen because of unrepentant sins against the sixth commandment. It can happen through any sin that we’re not sorry for and refuse to give up. Paul mentions drunkenness. That’s a very common one. It’s one thing to accidently drink a little bit past your limit because you weren’t paying attention. It’s another thing entirely to plan to get drunk or high every day and never do anything to stop it. You can’t live that way. Drunkards won’t inherit the kingdom of God. I don’t mean people who are fighting alcoholism and trying to get clean. I mean people who have no desire to change at all and think that doing those things is no big deal. The Spirit isn’t leading them, the flesh is. Or what about some of the other stuff on that list like fits of anger, dissensions, and divisions. What does that stuff mean? Well, it means you can’t be a jerk who refuses to forgive people, and never takes accountability for your actions, and still be a Christian. Christians forgive as Christ has forgiven them. Christians confess their sins and seek reconciliation. When they get angry and say mean stuff, they say sorry. When they aren’t getting along with someone they seek to do their part to make it right. 

Our calling as the people of God is never to embrace our sin and act as if its no big deal. It’s to quit our sin and look to Christ for mercy. That’s not a one-time thing, by the way. That’s something that we need to do every day of our lives. We never stop fighting against our sinful nature and putting it to death by daily contrition and repentance. We never stop turning away from our sin and looking to the One who gives us healing. 

There is only one reason why you should be here in church today. You don’t go to church just to get a false sense of security because you like your sins too much to give them up. You go to get real forgiveness. You go to have Christ, the Lamb of God, take away from you that which you could never take away from yourself, so you can learn fight that corrupted part of yourself even more. That’s why you go to church, and that’s what it actually looks like to be a saint and sinner at the same time.

You can’t resolve the paradox of simul justus et peccator. Whenever someone tries to do that, they always get it wrong. When you teach that Christians can reach a state of total perfection where they never sin anymore in this life you take away the need for Christ and the comfort that comes from the Gospel. And when you teach that Christians can live in willful sin and do sinful things on purpose without any intention of stopping, you undermine the need for Jesus too. You make a mockery of what He did on the cross, and turn His atoning sacrifice into that which gives instead of that which takes your sin away. It’s only through confessing both of these realities, the saint and sinner part, that we Christians stay on the narrow path that leads to salvation. 

So don’t try and be something different than the Bible says you are. Live in the tension of being a saint and sinner at the same time, and use that teaching in the way God intended. Don’t be terrified that you are not yet morally perfect and you can’t stop sinning. But don’t stop fighting against your sin either. Be a walking paradox, who walks by the Spirit. Trust in Christ, who is your life and salvation. Receive His forgiveness through His Word and Sacraments. And put your Old Adam to death by daily contrition and repentance. Do that every day of your life, and at the end of your life you won’t have to do it ever again. Someday Jesus will make good on His promise, complete the work He started in your Baptism, and you won’t be a saint and sinner anymore at all. You’ll only be a saint. Clothed in the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, finally free from everything that your Savior has already forgiven. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.