Simul justus et peccator: A response to the depravity of the human condition
It is not the doing of our hands that makes us right with God, but rather the work of reconciliation by our gracious God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that has made us right with Him.
This article is a response to a recent article by a fellow Christian Substacker, Joshua Dhawale, who, within the article, discussed the despair that has plagued him because of the mismatch between humanity’s sinful nature and God’s goodness. Here, I try to provide for why one feeling this way need not despair, for it is not what we do for God that saves us — it’s only what God does for us that heals us bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. The original post, entitled “I'm Done Pretending: The Unfiltered Truth about My Faith,” is from his Substack, “The Beautiful Savior Society.”
Truth be told, I, too, have been at these crossroads. I, too, see my neglect of God’s grace. I, too, feel so weak and powerless to sin. I, too, feel stagnant in my ability to control my desires and climb out of the pit of my unholiness. I, too, confess alongside Paul that I am the chief of sinners. I will not hesitate to admit that my own sins, not the stakes pounded into the Savior’s hands and feet, are what held my Savior to the cross, where He suffered in agony because He loved me when I was incapacitated and unable to show love toward Him.
I cannot deny that I feel troubled by my own sins. Will the sin in my life that feels perpetual, consistent, and repetitive keep me from God? And even if it doesn’t, how can I flee this shame, this pain, and this sorrow that I can’t seem to escape for even a second? Dear God, what a wretched man am I, and what a depraved and unruly soul have I?
Yet, I cannot deny God’s presence in me. I cannot deny the way His word speaks in such unconditional terms that don't require my piety or attempts to become completely perfect or holy. For such is unattainable, and such vain attempts are perhaps far more dangerous because of the hypocrisy and contempt for the cross that grows out of the Pharisaical pride from self-righteousness. For in my sin, I may feel shame, but in my pride, I become numb to His forgiveness and live in sinful depravity without recognizing my condition.
Yet, even when I run away again and again and again. Even when I’m in pain, mourning the fact that I cannot be who I want to be. Even in my constant desolation, it is my dear Lord Jesus who paid the price in full for my debts. There is no unforgivable sin because when Christ paid for the sins of the world on the cross, He paid for the sins of the whole wide world: past, present, AND future. Even the sins of those who refuse the Gospel have been paid for in Christ. Only unbelief and refusal of God’s forgiveness can keep us from Him.
The way Paul writes about his sins in the following portion of his epistle to the Romans tells us a lot about how he was even grappling with this problem in his own life.
“Certainly we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.”1
What Paul undeniably refers to here is the very doctrine we continue to refer to today by the Latin phrase simul justus et peccator, that is, as Christians, we are simultaneously sinners and saints, righteous and unrighteous. Paul ends the chapter with the following quotation, explaining this in more depth.
“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. I certainly delight in God’s law according to my inner self, but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my sinful flesh I serve the law of sin.”2
We are powerless to fully escape the grasp of sin on this side of eternity. Despite our desire to turn toward Christ and follow in His goodness and righteousness, we will still find ourselves short of perfection. However, why ought we not feel this way? For if perfection was truly attainable, what need would we have for the Gospel any longer? What need would we have for the forgiveness of sins if no sins were in need of forgiveness?
This is what the devil constantly seeks to devour Christians by: either through despair over one’s inferiority and sinfulness when they recognize their inability to meet the law’s demands or through pride that one indeed has attained perfection in their own sight, by their own will and thus has become numb to their sinfulness. The devil’s aim is not to get you to sin, for your sinful nature is already too abled in doing so, but to steal your faith in God’s goodness by causing you to despair unnecessarily over your sinfulness or to ignore that sinfulness exists within you.
It is not what these hands have done or ever could do that can save one’s miserable, wretched soul. It is only what God does, working through the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation3, that can make your heart pure in His eyes. When God beholds the justified sinner, He no longer sees their sinful condition, for the Creator has forgiven and forgotten all of the times that you have sinned. Rather, He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ. Those who have been baptized into Christ and believe in Him have clothed themselves with Christ and His righteousness.4
What can lead many Christians to fall into despair or self-righteousness is the false teachings that come along with the assumptions that we must contribute or act of our own will according to God’s grace. This often happens because many churches falsely teach that either one must do “good works for salvation” (which is the view of the Roman Catholic church) or that one must “respond to the Gospel” (i.e., make a conscious decision to follow Christ of one’s own will, which is popular teaching in much of Protestant Christendom).
The truth is that neither of these things is correct, for Scripture is very clear that it is not by works and that God also chose us of His will and not our own, as we are dead in our sins and unable to respond to Him.5 It is through the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit that we are brought to faith and made righteous in His sight.
The second problem (that can often be present even among those who recognize that our salvation lies not in what we can do) is that many Christians define repentance wrongly and add sanctification to the list of what repentance is. The notion seems harmless, but the reality is that this often innocent misunderstanding is harmful and detrimental as it misconstrues and warps the meaning of penitence. I wrote about this earlier during Lent to counter the general public practices during the season of penitence which are so often performed for the wrong motive.6
You see, the big problem with this is that contrition (i.e., repentance) is a prerequisite for faith, whereas sanctification is something that follows faith and is a constant process that occurs throughout the lifetime of a Christian. The problematic phrase Christians tend to associate with repentance is “turning away from sin.” The basic dictionary definition of repentance, however, is “to admit one’s sin and truly be sorry for it”7 and Luther commonly considered repentance to consist of two parts: 1) that we confess our sin and acknowledge our sorrow over it and 2) that we receive forgiveness for it.8 Sanctification is the “turning away from sins” or rather the “desire to live a holy life” part of the equation, which Christ himself included after forgiving the sins of the adultress.9
Granted, we will undoubtedly continue to sin, even with the Holy Spirit on our side, but God’s forgiveness is great enough to cover it every time we fall and come back to Him in faith. Even the woman whom Jesus forgave for her sin of adultery undoubtedly continued to stumble into sin as even we do and as all sinners have. Our sanctification is not what saves us or what has made us right with God, but rather is how God works in us to encourage our desires to be focused on Him and His kingdom and to serve our neighbor so that they too might be able to see the light of our faith.
So fear not and despair not over your sins because Christ has made atonement for them all. There is no sin too great for our Savior to forgive, and there is no sinner too far gone and lost to be shown grace. God has taken care of it all, not because of any worth or merit in you, but because He loved you and all people so much that He willingly suffered the punishment in your place. So when you sin, do not turn inward and despair about the weakness of your sinful flesh, but lift your head and look up to the one who can forgive the iniquity of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Now, finally, to close with the words of a dear hymn:
Chief of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed His blood for me;
Died that I might live on high,
Lived that I might never die.
As the branch is to the vine,
I am His and He is mine.10
And to that, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we ought to say “Amen.”
Holy Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version. Northwestern Publishing House, 2019, p. Romans 7:14–20.
p. Romans 7:21–25.
sic p. Romans 1:16.
sic p. Galatians 3:27.
see Ephesians 2:7-8 & 1:4.
Read my article, “The nature of having faith with penitence,” for a deeper dive into this issue.
Definition taken from the Dictionary and Topical Index of the 2001 edition of An Explanation of Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, published and produced by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (p. 230).
A Wisconsin Synod (WELS) pastor, Joel D. Otto, wrote a splendid article about this entitled “What it means to be truly Lutheran: Living a life of repentance,” in which he states how Luther defined repentance at the start of the fourth paragraph. I highly encourage that one read this in addition to my thoughts on the subject.
see John 8:1-11.
W. McComb, “Chief of Sinners Though I Be,” Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary: 429, st. 1.