Thursday, November 1, 2012
All Saints' Day
Roman 1:7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
SIMUL JUSTUS ET PECCATOR
With the emphasis we Lutherans rightly place on observing the Reformation by noting its extraordinary beginning on All Saints Eve (October 31) 1517, it would appear that we consider all Saints' Day (November 1) to be little more than the opportunity for Luther's posting of the 95 Theses. ("I'll tack it up tonight; many of those who need to see it will be coming to services tomorrow.")
But the truth is, the issue of who exactly is a saint lay at the heart of Luther's concern. He had been taught by his church that saints were people whose lives were more than acceptable to God. Luther in turn was all too aware of his own sinfulness. How could he ever expect to stand with the saints before "heaven's high throne"? By the grace of God through faith in Christ's substitutionary life and sacrificial death -- that's how!
The Spirit through the Word had enabled Martin Luther to know and confess both his sins and the fact that the heavenly Father saw him as righteous. The Lord Jesus who took Luther's sin-guilt on himself also gave Martin His own righteousness. He was cleansed and justified. Luther knew that made him one of the "saints on earth" who "but one communion make" with "those above."
As a believing child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, Martin Luther (and every believer before and since.) was "simul justus et peccator." That is, simultaneously saint and sinner -- both righteous in God's sight through faith in His Son, and, at the same time, one who daily came to Christ's cross with a sin-burden to lay at his Savior's feet. As Luther said, "The saints are sinners, too, but they are forgiven and absolved."
If the Apostle Paul had written to American Christians as he did to Roman and Corinthian believers, he would have addressed us as "saints" as well. Oh, that's right, by inspiration he does. We are called saints not because we have been changed into people who never sin but because our relationship with God has changed as a result of God's grace. Luther said a Christian was "simultaneously saint and sinner" because he came to realize that a "saint" is a sinner forgiven through faith in Jesus.
The saints on earth and those above but one communion make;
Joined to their Lord in bonds of love, all of His grace partake.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 483:1)
