Melanchthon was having another one of his bouts of conscience. His sins and sinfulness were weighing on him. He wrote to Luther, wondering aloud if he was really and truly a Christian.
Luther responded with straight gospel fire: “Sin boldly. But believe even more boldly in Christ, and rejoice.”
In other words: yes, you are sinner. So confess your sins and receive forgiveness. Do not let your sins keep you from Christ. He died for sinners just like you. Run to him, run to the cross. Boldly take your sins to the cross and leave them there. Boldly claim God’s forgiveness and Christ’s righteousness as your own. Do not let your sins make you timid and fearful. Live in the confidence the gospel supplies. Do not let the accusations of conscience drown out the voice of Scripture declaring you are absolved. God’s promises are weightier than the word of conscience.
1/7
Here is more context from Luther’s letter to Melanchthon:
“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. 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 [or sin boldly], 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.”
2/7
Luther is not advocating antinomianism. He is certainly not saying adultery and murder are inconsequential sins. He is not saying how we live doesn’t matter. Luther was clear on the necessity of good works elsewhere. Luther had a doctrine of sanctification and insisted holiness of life is not optional.
Rather, Luther is speaking pastorally and hyperbolically to a man being tormented by his own conscience. Luther is saying to his brother Melanchthon: Yes, you are a sinner and you will continue to sin as long as you live. Even if you fight your sin, as you must, you will still fail. So do not let indwelling sin wreck your confidence. You are big sinner; Christ is an even bigger Savior. So sin boldly – confess your sin boldly – and claim Christ’s forgiveness boldly. The Christian who has acknowledged his sin before God should know the blood of Christ covers and cleanses him. He should live with an ABSOLUTELY clear conscience. If his conscience is NOT absolutely clean, he is not resting in the grace of Christ as he should. The promise of gospel forgiveness should soothe and comfort even the most sensitive and accusatory conscience. The promise of forgiveness should silence the accusations of conscience. Conscience says, “I am an unworthy sinner.” The gospel says, “Take heart, your sins are forgiven!” Conscience condemns, Jesus acquits.
The beauty of the Christian faith is that it does not merely teach us to be good, it teaches us what to do when we are bad. The Christian life is not merely a life of seeking to be obedient; it also gives us hope for when we are disobedient. The Christian life is about fighting sin, and seeking forgiveness when sin gets the better of us.
The Christian does not need to despair no matter what he has done. God’s grace is ready to forgive all who call upon him. The Lord answers the cry of the despairing and despondent every single time. He does not despise a broken and contrite heart. The Lord knows we are sinners – nothing is hidden from him – but he wants us to know we are forgiven sinners.
Christians are not sinless. We are forgiven sinners. We are fighters against sin. Our confidence and joy come from the outside in, as we learn to rest in Christ’s finished work.
3/7
Berkouwer explains the Lutheran quote:
“He does not say ‘Sin till you are blue in the face,’ or ‘Sin for all you’re worth,’ but ‘Sin bravely.’” With this word –whatever the libertine may do with it– he intends to exorcise the terror of the believer who has discovered some sin in himself and has now lost sight of the grace of God. An abundance of grace can subdue the power of sin… In order to signalize the superabundance of grace, he contrasts it –Luther is a vehement man– with a thousand sinful enormities a day. His intention is not to yield quarter to Antinomianism but to upset a construction which would make sin and grace of equal weight, and therefore he exhorts the sinner to have courage.”
4/7
Bonhoeffer explained it this way:
“What does it mean for Luther to say: ‘Pecca Fortiter, sed fortius fide et gaude in Christ” –‘Sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly!’? …
You are only a sinner and can never get out of sin; whether you are a monk or a secular person, whether you want to be pious or evil, you will not flee the bonds of the world, you will sin… Is this blatant proclamation of cheap grace carte blanche for sin, and rejection of discipleship? Is it a blasphemous invitation to sin deliberately while relying on grace? Is there a more diabolical abuse of grace than sinning while relying on the gift of God’s grace? Isn’t the Catholic catechism right in recognizing this as sin against the Holy Spirit?
To understand this, everything depends on how the difference between result and presupposition is applied. If Luther’s statement is used as a presupposition for a theology of grace, then it proclaims cheap grace. But Luther’s statement is to be understood correctly not as a beginning, but exclusively as an end, a conclusion, a last stone, as the very last word. …
‘Sin boldly’ –that could be for Luther only the very last bit of pastoral advice, of consolation for those who along the path of discipleship have come to know that they cannot become sin-free, who out of fear of sin despair of God’s grace. For them, ‘sin boldly’ is not something like a fundamental affirmation of their disobedient lives. Rather, it is the gospel of God’s grace, in the presence of which we are sinners always and at every place. This gospel seeks us and justifies us exactly as sinners. Admit your sin boldly; do not try to flee from it, but ‘believe much more boldly.’”
5/7
Fred Sanders interacts with Philip Schaff’s take on the Lutheran quote:
“Philip Schaff, who called pecca fortiter Luther’s boldest statement, also said that it couldn’t be used as an argument against his doctrine of justification. “It loses all its force as an argument against him and his doctrine, first by being addressed to Melanchthon, who was not likely to abuse it, and secondly by implying an impossibility; for the fortius crede [believe boldly] and the concluding ora fortiter [pray boldly] neutralize the fortiter pecca [sin boldly].” And then Schaff makes a truly insightful observation: “Paul, of course, could never have written such a passage. He puts the antinomian inference: “Let us continue in sin that grace may abound” into the form of a question, and answers it by an indignant me genoito (Rom. 6:1). This is the difference between the wisdom of an apostle and the zeal of a reformer.”
The only thing I would add to this, as neither a wise apostle nor a zealous reformer, is that I am learning something very valuable from Luther as my young children get a little older (the oldest is approaching double digits). It is very tempting for me to think that I have completed my job as a Christian father when I have taught my kids how to be good. I think it is literally a temptation: It would be a parental sin, a sin of the foolish variety, to launch my children into adulthood armed with nothing but the advice not to sin. What they really need is the knowledge of how to deal with sin and guilt as they all-too-predictably acquire it. I don’t want them to be blindsided by the fact that they are sinners, or uninformed about what to do with consciences that rightly condemn them. They need to learn the Christian skill of taking it to God, of walking in the light, of believing Christ boldly, rejoicing, and praying boldly.”
Amen.
6/7
For more:
scriptoriumdaily.com/sin-boldly/
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