Sinners, saints, and the struggle

Sitting in Wild At Heart (WAH) group yesterday, I was reminded of a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (Actually, I was also reminded of it during Class 201 on Saturday. But WAH brought it all together. Great group, great leader.) The following is a paraphrase, but it's close:

"We must remember that we are first a community of sinners before we are a community of saints." This is true.

What triggered the quote was something one of the guy's said in WAH. What he said was quite profound. He said, "The courage is not implying that we live perfectly; the courage is in admitting we're weak and we struggle."

I agreed wholeheartedly (his point was right on; what I am about to say only springs from it). The only thing I would have changed is to say: It's even worse! We don't just struggle; we sin. We're not just weak; we're sinful. We're not just 'not good enough;' we're sinners.

Now, this is emphatically not the last word--that we are sinners. It's the first word--and likely the intermittent word as well--on the road to becoming the community saints by God's grace. If we only struggle, we can try harder. If we're only weak, we can get better coping mechanisms and become stronger. If we're not good enough, then we can get better--or give up. **But** if we're sinners, then we're the people Christ died for (Rom. 5:8); we're the people he gives his Spirit to (Acts 2:1-4); we're the people he's called and justified (Rom. 8:30).

This is why the gospel is not self-help, but is good news.