Being unholy and a saint, or the famous Luther simul peccator et justus reality is a reality indeed. In one moment, we can be worshipping the Holy God, having good fellowship with the Triune God, having good koinonia with the saints; and in the next instance we can find ourselves engaging in the sins that so easily beset us. It seems to me that if we don’t have theologies, like a theology of the cross, that has the capacity to speak to this reality on an ongoing basis, then we don’t really have a good theology at all. It is true, Christ came to make us slaves of righteousness; and He did indeed do that in His vicarious priestly humanity for us. But as the epistolero, John reminds us, if we say we have no sin we make Christ a liar; and that since we will sin, seventy times seven, we have an Advocate with the Father who will go to the Father over and over again, showing the Father His scar pierced hands and side, and endearing us to the eternal life that He has become for us—in our stead.

I am sure that without this reality, without the reality of God’s Gracious flesh for us in the Christ, I would be damned every second of every day; sometimes more intensely damned than other times, but damned nonetheless. This is the gravitas the weight of glory that only the God-man, the one consubstantial with the Father and Holy Spirit, could bear for us. And Jesus isn’t just bearing my sins, as heinous as they are, He is bearing the sins of the world; He has borne them into the cleft of the rock, and dashed them into the deepest part of the sea; the part of the sea where east and west will never touch. Though my sins be as scarlet, Christ’s righteousness makes me white as snow; not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit saith the LORD.

I must remind myself of this blessed hope, of the grace of God that has appeared to all humanity; teaching us to live righteously in this godless and sensuous age. Without this hope we would be destined to be wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever; like Balaam who sold himself out for praise and adulation of men; like Judas who betrayed the Son of Man for a meager thirty pieces of silver; like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of lentils; like Korah who sold his family out for prestige and power; like Achan who couldn’t help but lust after the forbidden booty; like King David who yearned after the beautiful Bathsheba. Without Christ we, like they, have no ultimate or even penultimate hope. This is what I must remind myself.

I must remind myself that I stand before a Holy God who requires that I be just as Holy as He. I must remember that God is in His Holy Temple, and that I ought to shut my mouth and be still before Him. I must never forget that one day soon I will see Christ, and be like Him in every way; and in this hope I find the purity I am looking for. I must internalize this reality by the Holy Spirit, and allow the power of the resurrection to penetrate the marrow of my bones; transforming me moment by moment from the inside out. I must like King David, when confronted with my failures, be quick to repent and cast myself at the feet of God’s Holy Mercy; crying Kyrie eleison! And with the zeal of Zacchaeus, I must pursue God’s Holiness, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in and through the resurrected humanity of Christ, as I participate afresh and anew in the union I participate in as Christ continuously includes me in the recreation of what it means to be genuinely human, to be genuinely free in His type of freedom (in the continua recreata). I must rush the throne-room of Grace, and boldly seek audience with the Almighty, as He holds the Right Hand of My Savior. I must know that He is God, and that I am not; and I must stand in this non-analogous ineffable reality, and simply behold His majesty.

If I am going to have hope as a bond-slave of Christ, I must seek Him first, His Kingdom, His righteousness; and know that all these other Holy things will be added unto me. I must store treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy; I must have pure eyes, because this is the gateway of life. I must hide myself in the prayer closet of the womb of God, and come to know God as I rest my head on the bosom of the Son. If I live in this Holy tabernacling of God’s life among us, Emmanuel, and find my only solace therein, I will have the hope, the Holiness of God that I seek. If I desire this liberty, the sort where the Spirit of God is, for the Spirit is Liberty, then I will enjoy the pleasures of God forevermore because I will be eternally present at the Right Hand of the Father.

I write this this early morning as a justified sinner. I write this knowing full well that unless the Lamb of God had not come to take away my sins, among the sins of the world, that I would be eternally damned; eternally damaged. I am writing this because within a moment, like Israel, I went from worshipping the Holy God in sweet fellowship, to worshipping in my high places like the idolater I often am. I write this because I needed to remind myself of the Hope of Holiness that I have achieved in the risen Christ; that I have power to say No to idolatry and Yes to the righteousness of God in Christ; because I know that Jesus is my Yes and Amen before the Father. I write this because I have the Spirit of the risen Christ inhabiting my blood bought body, which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit; and He yearns that as Christ is, so also would I be in this world. amen amen