Christian identity in the doctrine of sin.

My Christian identity, status and worth are defined by my sinner status. Even if my sins are forgiven and I am clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, I am still a sinner--for it is only a `putting on' of righteousness.

As a sinner I am poor, miserable, helpless, worthless, inadequate. I am evil and unclean. I am guilty and a beggar in need of mercy. I am a victim caught up in an endless cycle of confession and absolution. I can only despair or turn my back on God and his grace and mercy especially shown in sending his only Son to die for my sins. This thinking may be irrational, but somehow others and I have been taught to believe this about us, and about our God. This has had strong negative repercussions in the way we have lived our lives.

In this paper I will endeavour to unravel some of these dysfunctional beliefs, seeking the sources of these teachings. I shall begin with my own experience as a worshipping Christian. I shall then consider the `sinful human nature' from the perspectives of Lutheran, feminist and liberation theologies. Finally, I will begin to detail the characteristics for a new Christian identity.

Being the Sinner

Every Sunday, for as long as I can remember, the Lutheran service in Australia begins with an invocation of the triune God and then the following confession:

   "O Almighty God, Merciful Father, I, a poor miserable
   sinner, confess to Thee all my sins and iniquities with
   which I have offended Thee and justly deserved Thy
   punishment in time and eternity. But I am heartily
   sorry for them and earnestly repent of them, and I
   pray thee of Thy boundless mercy, and for the sake of
   the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Thy
   beloved Son Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful
   to me. Amen."

The language used is powerful and becomes very emotive when we consider the words used and the resulting imagery. These words speak of the nature of God, the nature of me and the relationship that results between God and me. God is almighty, merciful, a father who is offended easily it would seem and so we need to please him. God punishes and judges. Jesus, his sufferings and death are right beside him. I, on the other hand am far away because of my sins and iniquity, the evil I do, my `sinful and unclean' nature, my words, thoughts and deeds (Supplement 1987: 23). Indeed everything points to our corrupt human nature--by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. "We have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves" (Supplement 1987: 58). My whole nature is condemned, which is why we confess `[we] deserve your eternal punishment' (1987: 58). And there is absolutely nothing I can do, except to `flee for refuge to your infinite mercy and plead for your grace' (Supplement 1987: 23).

All of this conjures up the image of a `little' girl standing before her tyrannical father who tries to get her to do the impossible. Indeed, the little girl is not even sure of what she has done wrong or not done--it seems to be part of her very being. Accordingly, our lives are marked by guilt, shame, negative self-worth, and the experiential distance from God generated by those feelings (Borg 1994: 132). To complicate matters even further, our confession by its general all-encompassing nature ends up including all those aspects of our life where we experience a sense of inadequacy and therefore guilt. As women living up to personal, family and societal expectations and ideologies, we continually fail in our perceptions of ourselves as daughters, wives, lovers, mothers, and employees. As women we are more likely to feel selfish and guilty about the choices we make no matter what path we end up following. If we then add to this our knowledge of what a Christian's life is meant to be--a life of imitation of Christ in sacrifice, suffering, servanthood, selflessness and Christian virtue, our guilt is assured.

The ideals of this life were upheld in a recent editorial of The Lutheran (Macqueen 2001: 2) for mothers. Mothers were seen as an icon of Christ, for in them we see `costly love, painful love, sacrificial love'. Mothers who, even when their own needs went unmet, still persisted in loving us, still sacrificed themselves for us (Macqueen 2001: 2). This is, indeed, the very nature of motherhood. But do we need to uphold this priority over all else so that we only encourage further `long-suffering and martyrdom' as ways of being a loving mother and virtuous Christian' (Bradshaw 1988: 169)?

The relationship between God, Jesus and me is certainly hierarchical--we all have our definite places. I am reduced to a beggar reliant on God's grace and mercy. I am poor, miserable, helpless, dependent and unholy. God is almighty, all loving, as he did not even withhold his Son. Jesus is holy, innocent as are his sufferings. I am reduced even more, because of and for me God's only Son died.

Being a Lutheran Sinner

The burden of being a sinner is magnified even more when considered in the light of the Lutheran tradition. As a teenager in confirmation lessons, I learnt from Luther's Small Catechism that `original sin (inherited sin) is the total corruption of our whole human nature' (1943: 87). This means that I am `lost and condemned, ruined in body and soul' (1943: 88). A fuller description of this `inherited corruption' is given:

Man [sic] by nature is without true fear, love, and trust in God. He is without righteousness, is inclined only to evil, and is spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God (1943: 87). The Formula of Concord says that we are `by nature diametrically opposed to God and his highest commands' (Article 1, Tappert 1959: 510). The lost image of God has been replaced with a deep, wicked, abominable, bottomless, inscrutable, and inexpressible corruption of his entire nature in all its powers, especially of the highest and foremost powers of the soul in mind, heart, and will (Tappert 1959: 510). Lutherans believe in the bondage of this will--`This will has no power over the depths of the heart, its secret feelings, thoughts, and desires' (Althaus 1966: 152). What we deserve for all of this is quite simple: God must refuse to have anything more to do with us--and that means eternal death and damnation (Hebart 1979: 28). There is nothing we can do about any of this except to rely solely upon the grace and mercy of Christ found in the forgiveness of our sins. And, there is nothing within us that merits God's favour upon us. Christ is exalted and we are despised.

To continue in the Christian life we are exhorted to die to the old, the self, [this] is to begin to live to the world of the other, where God's commandments take us (Forde 1990: 58). The cycle is complete, the self can never be fully redeemed. The self must die or else we are in danger of self-worship. The self is also equated to the body, which must not gain control. And so the need for sacrifice, servanthood and selflessness is upheld.

A Lutheran also needs to rely on the certainty that the forgiveness of sins offers. Lutherans cannot receive sufficient forgiveness of sins, for we remain sinners until we die (Sasse 1985: 109). We can never forget our sinner status for even in a worship service, within an hour of receiving forgiveness based upon our confession, we again receive forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Supper. My sinner status seems to be my primary status as a Christian, so much so that I once journalled "I am meant to get no further than to stay stuck in the self-realization of my sinful nature and my absolute dependency on Christ on the cross--I am to have no other desires or needs" (2/6/99).

This conservative and fundamentalist view of the doctrine of sin has been critiqued by psychologists, Lutheran, feminist and liberation theologians and many others. No one would deny the reality of sin, rather, they wish to speak to the various emphases given throughout the ages to this doctrine of sin.

Sin has led us to a `rather gloomy understanding of man [sic]' (Forde 1972: 45)--of human depravity, wretchedness and worthlessness. In a famous hymn we sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." I have spoken of our confessions in church where we admit our `sinful and unclean' nature. Our Lutheran confessions are full of this language. What is the source of this self-debasement, this practice of constantly running man [sic] down, this chronic pessimism about the human endeavor? (Forde 1972: 45)

In our efforts to uphold God's grace alone that saves us, there has been a tendency to denigrate human nature, to slander nature, to even blaspheme creation (Forde 1972: 47). Humanity has lost any created goodness it may have had. The doctrine of salvation is upheld in favour of the doctrine of creation. The nature of sin has also been critiqued. We have upheld personal salvation whereby we confess that "Jesus died for my sins". My individual sins that are seen to personally offend God are the basis of my sinful nature. However, as liberation theologians point out, there is also a `social understanding of sin' which means that we read, assess and experience this guilt in respect of our world, and not just in respect of our inner life and our private relationships (Solle 1990: 77). Sin is not just descriptive of human nature but `concretizes' in its `historicization' wherever racism, classism, sexism and any other forms of oppression and injustice can be seen (Solle 1990: 77). This is what has been described as `structural or systemic sin' (Japinga 1999: 89) and has been described thus:

   "Systemic sin is that sin which exists in the structures, institutions,
   customs, and laws of society. It is the sin for which no individual tends
   to feel responsible because it is the result of decisions, judgements, and
   actions of so many. It is the sin that results when reverence and respect
   for the human beings involved is missing" (Regina Coll, quoted in Japinga
   1999: 89).

Valerie Saiving was the first to offer the critique that the doctrine of sin portrayed only half of the human situation--the masculine half. Sin has been identified with `pride, will-to-power, exploitation, self-assertiveness,' (Saiving 1979: 35) being more typical of the masculine character. Therefore man's redemption is to be found in a love that sacrifices itself. Women's experience is almost the exact opposite, for their lives are made up of self-giving. Women are better suggested by such items as triviality, distractibility, and diffuseness; lack of an organizing center or focus; dependence on others for one's own self-definition ... mistrust of reason--in short, underdevelopment or negation of self (Saiving 1979: 37). Rather, women need to develop a sense of self, of pride, of independence, indeed `a room of one's own' (Saiving 1979: 39); all of which traditional theology has considered as sin. Which is why Sheila Briggs can write that `the fusion of self-love with love of others is a prerequisite for feminist justice' (1987: 274). Sin has taken on a radical redefinition, and doing so means new emphases for the Christian life.

The Christian's New Identity

If we leave behind `the priestly story of sin, guilt, sacrifice, and forgiveness' (Borg 1994: 129) what is there left to shape our sense of who we are, our image of Jesus and of what God requires, and the nature of the Christian life? (Borg 1994: 129-130). What vision do we have to move and motivate us? I would suggest that we find them deeply rooted in creation theology and spirituality. That we can envision ourselves as `the you God created is good' (Forde 1990: 280). This means that the whole of us is good, and not just bits of us.

God is present in my emotions as well as in my mind. God is present in my physical being as well as in my spiritual, my body as well as my soul. God loves me, my body, soul, spirit and emotions. God loves me in my totality. There's not a part of me that is good and a part of me that is bad. There is not a part of me that is worthy of God's love and another part that isn't. God is as concerned about the hairs on my head as God is about my heart.

Not only do we live in the gracious presence of God continuously, but also we are a `part of God's ongoing creation' (Bartsch 2000: 1) and therefore have an active part to play in this world. The spirituality that we embrace is not one that would get us to forget the world but rather one that would embrace the world so that we are able to be `shapers of greater justice, engendering a fuller humanity for all' (Bloomquist 1990: 15). Can we then envision God as the one who has unconditional and steadfast love for all of creation? Pence would have us transfer this onto ourselves, that God views us with `unconditional acceptance and wholehearted delight' (1999: 297) just as the Father who waited for his prodigal son to return (Luke 15:11-32). Then we need to allow ourselves to accept us as we are, and as `magnificent works-in-progress' (Pence 1999: 297). The nature of Christian life becomes one of journey, of selfhood, personhood, and above all, one of freedom, where guilt has no place.

[God] comes to set us free from our bondage, our illusions, dreams and fictions, our enslavement to our own ideals, to the law. God comes to give us the freedom to live, to bring forth life out of death. To find that freedom is our God-given predestination! (Forde 1990: 79). It is this new found freedom that enables us to be `both recipients and ministers of the goodness and mercy of God' (Japinga 1999: 126).

Author's Notes:

Lutheran Hymnal (1973: 1). There are many versions of the confession; however, I chose this one as the foundational one for my experience as it was the version used for my childhood and teenage years. Indeed, in modern versions of the confession we confess that we have `deeply displeased you' (Supplement 1987: 6).

Ursula Markham documents this in her book Women and Guilt. In deciding whether to stay at home or pursue a career, women may feel that they just cannot win. "If she decides to progress up the career ladder, she may be accused of being `unfeminine' or of thinking only of herself. Yet, if she rejects this path to become predominantly a homemaker, she is told that she is wasting her education or not fulfilling her potential" (1995: 32).

In the Introduction, Markham writes that women can live for years in a `state of perpetual guilt' either because `they are suffering ... [from] past wrongs, are being manipulated by others in the present or doubt their ability to make good decisions about their future' (1995: ix).

In Martin Luther's Treatise, "The Freedom of a Christian" he upholds these views. We need to control our bodies so as to `purify our body of evil lusts' (1970: 295). The body needs to be under subjection, which is aided by living only for others and not for oneself (1970: 301). The Augsburg Confession explains that this is `as a comfort for terrified consciences' (A C xxiv 1, Tappert 1959: 56). Sin: An Abusive Doctrine is the title of an article by Gary Pence. Excerpt from the Herman Sasse Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr Lance Steicke at the Lutherans for Life Convention. Reprinted in an article in The Lutheran (Seng 1999: 12).

References

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