{"id":2346,"date":"2015-06-03T08:16:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T14:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/justandsinner\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2015-06-03T15:27:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T21:27:40","slug":"a-plea-to-reformation-christians-dont-let-your-simul-become-the-one-ring-to-rule-them-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/justandsinner\/a-plea-to-reformation-christians-dont-let-your-simul-become-the-one-ring-to-rule-them-all\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plea to Reformation Christians: Don\u2019t Let Your \u201cSimul\u201d Become the One Ring to Rule Them All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"ringofpower\"<\/a>Post by Nathan Rinne<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSins were sweeter to me than honey and honeycomb. That they are now pungent and bitter, I owe to You who gave me spiritual taste\u2026\u201d \u2013 John Gerhard<\/p>\n

\u201cI have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.\u201d \u2013 Psalm 119:176 (last verse)
\n<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I recently took the time to listen to a podcast<\/a> which featured four converts to Lutheranism talking about how historic Lutheran theology had literally become their salvation<\/strong>. Each of these men had come from non-Lutheran backgrounds, but found a spiritual home there after experiencing great doubts over whether or not they truly were Christians.<\/p>\n

\"Lutherans<\/a>
Lutherans and others assert that Romans 7 describes Paul after he became a Christian. See here<\/a> for book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One man, around the 27 minute mark, talked about working as a youth minister and knowing full well that he wasn\u2019t \u201cpulling it off\u201d \u2013 the Christian life, that is<\/strong>. \u201cI may have been fooling everyone else around me\u201d, he recalled, \u201cbut I knew the joke was on me\u201d. He talked about being curled up on the floor at one point in his life \u2013 crying \u2013 because he was convinced that he was going to hell. He, like the rest of these men, had only found peace and comfort in the church\u2019s teachings highlighted during the Lutheran Reformation<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I listened to these men, I rejoiced \u2013 here is Christ finding lost sheep and bringing them into the fold!<\/strong> Here is Christ finding them and carrying them home on His shoulders \u2013 literally doing all the work (see John 6:28) \u2013 all the while talking about the joy in heaven over one who repents! And listening to these men reinforced what I had often thought: namely, that it is not only the doctrine of justification that is a critical component of Christian proclamation, but the doctrine of man \u2013 our anthropology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make no mistake: these are core issues. There certainly is a sense in which this idea of \u201csimul iustus et peccator\u201d can be said to reflect biblical teaching and help Christians understand who we are<\/strong> \u2013 even if it seems this phrase was not used much by early Lutherans themselves. The \u201csimul\u201d can help explain the desires, thoughts, words, and deeds that we have \u2013 and even, in a very real sense, be said to be a \u201ccause\u201d of these things.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>
Google n-gram<\/a>. What does this mean? Hat tip: Christopher Jackson<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I submit that this is why this idea is so important for Christians to hear \u2013 and why, incidently, confessional Lutherans also take so seriously the tyranny of fruit-checking<\/a>. That said, I think there are also things that came up in the discussion mentioned above that have the potential to confuse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, one guest said the following:<\/p>\n

\u201c[The danger has always been to say] in my flesh I\u2019m sinful but because of the Holy Spirit, who is in me, therefore I am righteous in myself also\u2026 The church becomes a whole bunch of individuals who are struggling to be holy. Or struggling to be more Christ-like and less sinful. <\/strong>And if you put a whole bunch of people together who are kind of turned in on their own holiness <\/strong>or their own pursuit of being more one thing and less the other thing, well you can imagine the kind of violence that erupts in a congregation or in a church when you have a whole bunch of individuals who are just there for themselves <\/strong>because they\u2019re thinking \u201cwell, I\u2019ve got to go to church, I\u2019ve got to hear the word, I\u2019ve got to go to the baptismal font, I\u2019ve got to go to the communion rail, I\u2019ve got to go to Bible study because Christ is alive in me and I\u2019ve got to show the fruits of Christ in me so that again, I\u2019m working out my salvation in fear and trembling\u201d \u2013 and a lot of people interpret that text to mean \u201cI\u2019ve got to do something\u201d vs. what we\u2019re really teaching which is that \u2018over there on the cross is your righteousness, over there at the font is your righteousness, over there being spoken to you \u2013 that word from God \u2013 is your righteousness, and that\u2019s all outside of you\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 You literally have to trust that God who says you\u2019re holy on account of Christ means it, because in yourself there\u2019s nothing there\u2019s no evidence whatsoever or in other people that you\u2019re actually holy<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no doubt that this is a difficult and complicated topic \u2013 and so the desire to simplify it and make it easily graspable is, I think, at once a commendable thing as well as a temptation\u2026<\/strong> In the process, we might truly want to uphold the Word of God and yet unintentionally end up discounting it. With that in mind, let\u2019s take a closer look at some of the ideas expressed here.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, should we really be under the impression that we whom \u201che has made perfect forever\u201d and yet \u201care being made holy\u201d (Hebrews 10:14) do not need to actively struggle in faith? (see Rom. 8:5 and 8:13) On the other hand, I\u2019d have to agree in part<\/strong>: not only can persons feel like they should go to church even if they aren\u2019t Christians, but Christians certainly can be obsessed with themselves and do all kinds of things for the wrong reasons. Why would we assume, for example, that we do not gather for worship primarily for the benefit of our neighbors? (see Hebrews 10:25 and the surrounding context) \u2013 even as God graciously, tenderly, and personally feeds and preserves each one of us as we gather around His word and sacraments? <\/strong>In fact, because on this side of the grave we are always saints and<\/em> sinners the motivations underlying our actions are inevitably going to feature a mix of good and evil. And it is really because of this that sometimes it may look and feel like there is literally nothing good that is happening in us \u2013 again, even causing us to doubt whether we are truly Christians<\/strong>. In times like this the doctrine of justification is needed so that Christ might come to our rescue even for our good works which are always tainted by sin! As Luther reminds us:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tullian<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amen indeed. The doctrine of justification for the ungodly! The reason for the Reformation! All is well\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

And it truly, truly is. Period. We are justified. Saved. In Christ alone our sure hope is found.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That said, there are still questions the Christian will surely have that that deal with the \u201cnow what\u201d \u2013 and this also means questions I do not see many modern articulations of the \u201csimul\u201d seriously addressing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n