I blew it this past Sunday while I was preaching. From the recesses of my memory a spontaneous quote came to my mind when speaking about coming boldly before the throne of grace (Heb 4:16). As I was speaking it, I knew I blew it as the words came from my mouth as I only could remember the first half of the quote, and that only a paraphrase, "sin boldly and come before the throne boldly." I blew the point of the quote, which one of the elders made celar to me this evening! Thank God for fellow elders! Well, so to clarify my point and show that I do not believe in antinomianism, I have included the complete quote below.
"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, 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. " -Martin
Luther
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