From the President: Thinking Of Sin But Lightly

By: Timothy Teuscher

Rev. Timothy Teuscher

In the familiar Lenten hymn, “Jesus, Refuge of the Weary” (LSB: 423.2), we sing these words: “Do we pass that cross unheeding, Breathing no repentant vow, Though we see You wounded, bleeding, See Your thorn-encircled brow?” As I was contemplating those words, the thought struck me: “That’s it!  That’s the bottom line!”

Why, for instance, is church attendance across our nation at an all-time low? Why are many members of congregations in Lutheran Church–Canada no longer in the Lord’s House on the Lord’s Day? While there are undoubtedly a number of different factors for this sad state of affairs, at the end of the day there is really only one reason: as the Holy Week hymn, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” (LSB: 451.3), puts it: “Ye who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great.”

Remember what Jesus said when He began His public ministry? “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). And at the end of His earthly ministry He tells the apostles the same thing: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46-47). Yes, repentance and the forgiveness of sins. That is what the church is about… and what it must always be about, whether it be in the context of the church’s worship life or its mission to the world. So we recall those familiar words from the Small Catechism: “In this Christian Church (the Holy Spirit) richly and daily forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.”

But why bother with hearing the words of Holy Absolution and to then actually receive this forgiveness through the voice of your pastor? Why bother going to Holy Communion where we hear those words of Jesus, “This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”… and to then actually receive this forgiveness as you drink of His blood? Why bother if sin is dismissed as some old-fashioned, out-of-date notion that is no longer applicable to our so-called enlightened and sophisticated age? Why bother if sin is regarded as nothing more than errors in judgment or minor mistakes that we all make from time to time, but certainly not violations of the commandments of the Most High God which call forth His “temporal and eternal punishment” as we confess at the beginning of the Divine Service?

Yes, why bother “if you think of sin but lightly, breathing no repentant vow”?

On this subject, ponder and take to heart the words of two Lutheran theologians from the past century. First, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s oft-repeated comment on what ails us modern-day Christians: “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

And second, Herman Sasse’s words: “The great danger of the church of all ages is that she preaches repentance to the world and at the same time becomes a castaway because she forgets that all true repentance must begin at the house of God, with the repentance of the church. We should learn from church history that up to now every new day in the church of Christ has begun with a movement of repentance. Christianity itself once entered world history as a mighty movement of repentance. And the Reformation, with Luther’s first thesis and the saving message of the justification of the sinner through faith alone, is the greatest example in the history of the church for this truth. At that time people did not yet believe that the world could be renewed by world conferences. Today we believe that by conferences and organizations, by pronouncements and radio speeches we can spare ourselves the bitter way of sorrows of contrition and repentance—until God’s mighty hand one day will also crush those means and teach us that the church lives by the means of grace, and by nothing else.”

Forgiveness comes through the recognition of sin. So let us not treat sin lightly—treat grace lightly—but instead seek mercy in the One who receives repentant sinners.

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