Justification of Sin, Not the Sinner
Most Christians don’t knowingly begin their day by thinking of Reformation theology, but revisiting the mind of Martin Luther through the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer can be illuminating and can actually change our thoughts and behavior. Take for example the Bonhoeffer statement regarding Luther’s reason for leaving the life of an Augustinian Monk.
“Luther’s reason for leaving the monastery was not justification of the sin, but justification of the sinner. Costly grace was given as a gift to Luther. It was grace, because it was water onto thirsty land, comfort for anxiety, liberation from the servitude of a self-chosen path, forgiveness of sins. The grace was costly because it did not excuse one from works. Instead, it endlessly sharpened the call to discipleship. But just wherein it was costly, that was wherein it was grace. And where it was grace, that was where it was costly. That was the secret of the Reformation gospel, the secret of the justification of the sinner.” [1]
Bonhoeffer quite often spoke of justification of the sin rather than the sinner. In his context of the early 20th century German Evangelical Church, [Lutheran] it could be easily identified. Discipleship, as Bonhoeffer saw it, was daily following a living Christ who is active right now, today, and would reveal to you His plan for your life. The German church was largely about thinking, creeds, and celebrating in very rigid rituals the grand truths of the past. The growing pressure in Bonhoeffer’s church was what to do about the Jews. An even larger issue was would the church step up and stand in the breach between the oppressive Nazi ideology and the Jews? Would they be independent of the state? Would they be disciples of Christ or disciples of the Third Reich? The answer to these questions became the failure of the German church and, ultimately, the German people. They did not stand up to the government; they gave in to the prevailing cultural mood and opinion. They played it safe and thought they were right not to go to war with those who would make their lives hard. As long as it was the Jews and not them, they were safe. In protest, Bonhoeffer and many others formed their own church, the Confessing Church, which declared its independence from any government and thus was free to preach and live out the gospel.
At the base, the German church’s errors were two. The first was they had become progressive, they had deconstructed both the Bible and traditional interpretations of biblical texts. They had left Martin Luther far behind, and had become the mistress of the Enlightenment, of rationalism and disciples of the critical theory. The critical theory was based on Hegel’s dialectic that saw truth as an evolving entity. The second was their abhorrent application of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. They focused on justification by faith as a doctrine, part of a creed, and then declared themselves forgiven based on agreement with that doctrine and separated any behavioral result from it.
Therefore, they justified their continued sin against the Jews and their lack of obedience in daily life as covered by the great Reformation message of justification by faith. Justification by faith alone has to do with the sinner, not the sin. For the German church, it provided cover for the sinners to continue to sin. Justification is something that happens to a person who is saved from their sins. It is merely a forensic status applied to a repentant sinner with a new nature now dedicated to discipleship, one who has begun to follow Christ. This was both the excuse of the German church for not obeying and the reason as well.
In other words, their mistakes and sins were hidden from them by their theology and culture. Their sins became subtle, benign, little sins, little lies, a bit of gossip here, a dash of avoiding need there. After all, it’s not impacting our lives. It did impact their lives however. Slowly, the Nazis dictated everything about the church. It even named their Bishop, churches displayed Swastika banners in their churches, and clergy fully robed thrust out their arms in homage to their Fuhrer . The country went to war, six million Jews were exterminated, and in May of 1945 Germany lay in ruins. There was a time early in Hitler’s administration that the church had the power to resist, but they didn’t.
The 21st Century American Version or the Sad Result of the Gospel Americana
The German mistake has been repeated again and again, but nowhere more successfully than in the United States and Anglophone countries. We would describe it in theological slang as the separation of salvation into conversion and discipleship. What is meant to be one thing, salvation which includes both conversion and discipleship, turns into a subtle but deadly belief that makes conversion necessary, but discipleship optional. When something is considered optional, it is rarely done. And if done, it is done sporadically because life can go on without it.
Just as the German church had trouble seeing their sin, we do as well. We justify the sin, but not the sinner as well. I like the way Larry Alex Taunton describes it.
“Most of the evil committed in this world is of a subtle nature. It’s committed by the Kempkas, that is, the many people who aren’t the architects of evil, they are just indifferent to it unless it affects them at a personal level. Who are, I wonder, the army of people who don’t actually kill babies, they just make the abortion clinics run efficiently? What of the myriad bureaucrats who daily obstruct, ignore, or inflict hardship on the people they are meant to serve? This is evil, subtle, but evil nonetheless. How many of us who have “never intentionally done anybody any harm” turn a blind eye to the poor, the sick, the elderly—those whom Jesus called “the least of these”? How many of us ignore the larger narrative of evil—the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters, the wicked curriculums being taught to our children in our public schools, the systematic suppression of dissenting voices—but are quick to note a slight?” [2]
I think this is what Hannah Arendt meant by the banality of evil that she saw in Adolf Eichmann, the former Nazi bureaucrat who made sure the trains ran on time fully loaded with Jews for their extermination in the camps. Eichmann, as Arendt contended, was not able to think, had little self-awareness, and was not particularly different than most people. He is what the Bible would say is a sinner, a person in need of salvation, but was not endowed or cursed with any peculiar or special dose of evil. This makes us all uncomfortable because we want to assign the worse evil to a special category of lower humanity. We desperately need, in our self-justification and claim on innocence, to dissociate ourselves from it.
As Christians, we don’t want to be called names, and we are directly in the line of fire in today’s cancel culture. I think the dissociation desire and claim on innocence is becoming common in both the legitimate church and the newest church start, The Woke Church. You might hear statements like,
“Yes, we know that amongst us white Christians there are racists, but not me! I’ve confessed my sins, I’ve fired all my racist workers, I’ve stopped supporting them and I’ve started supporting the right causes.”
“Most white, rich people don’t care for the poor, but not me!
“Most men are oppressors, but not me!”
I will rely here on some simple ideas. First, all humans have flaws and our hearts are capable of both great good and heinous evil. The prerequisite for doing evil, including the ones listed above, is birth. We all are guilty, not because we have acted it out as much as because we are acting human. The most glorious words that one can hear, and can provide the most hope are, “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.” I recall the late Dr. Scott Peck in his book, People of the Lie, telling the story of a woman who approached him at a cocktail party. She said, “I need some hope, but don’t tell me I need years of therapy, tell me something hopeful like, you are a sinner.” She found it hopeful because a sinner can repent, a sinner can change, a sinner isn’t stuck, a sinner can be redeemed and grow and be transformed.
And justification by faith alone isn’t worth the effort to define it if it doesn’t describe the saving of a sinner. Using it to justify sin is evil and debilitating to all of us.
[1] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2003, page 49.
[2] Larry Alex Taunton, Fixed Point Foundation, article February 22, 2021, Ravi Zacharias: “Who Can Know It?” Kempkas was Adolf Hitler’s driver. He chauffeured the Fuhrer for several years. His book only speaks of Hitlers’ good points and delightful habits and how well he treated people. It makes no mention of Jew, Death Camps, WWII etc.
