|
Sinner
-- Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
2. The
Attitude of Jesus.
a. It has been pointed out already (→ 303)
that there are no pronouncements of Jesus on sin as such. He
gave His disciples no doctrine of sin, nor did He engage in
profound speculations concerning it. He never once told us what
He meant by it. On the other hand, He reckoned with its reality,
and undoubtedly referred all His work and teaching to it. Yet
this reality was not the result of penetrating investigation. It
was always present in the reality of the man who had fallen
short. The attitude of Jesus to sin is closely linked with His
attitude to the sinner.
This attitude is first characterised by the
fact that He took over the contemporary formulae and used them
to describe His goal.92
He never contested nor avoided the distinction of the people
into sinners and righteous which He met at every turn and in
which He Himself was implicated according to the view of His
opponents.93
He did not even treat it ironically.94
“We cannot understand what Jesus did if we devaluate the concept
‘righteous’ and thus divest it of its full seriousness as moral
fitness. If it is made ironical, then the condemnation of the
sinners whom Jesus opposes to the righteous is also robbed of
its sting. The sick of whom He spoke were in His view seriously
sick, and the healthy seriously healthy. Jesus admitted that the
righteous genuinely obeyed God and did what He commanded … If we
weaken this judgment, we are involved on the other side of the
antithesis in an idealisation of sin which is very far from the
intention of Jesus.”95
Jesus thus accepted as such those who were
regarded as sinners by the community. It was just because they
were sinners that He drew them to Himself. How little they
understood such conduct is shown by Peter when, after the
miraculous draft of fishes, he confesses to Jesus that as an
ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός
he is not worthy to have dealings with Him (Lk. 5:8),96
and Zacchaeus makes the same confession when he joyfully (χαίρων)
welcomes Jesus (Lk. 19:6). Jesus Himself, however, acted on the
assumption that men needed Him at this very point, and that the
way to Him was open, since man’s self-awareness does not bar the
way to God, before whom alone man comes to an awareness of his
guilt. It is rather the “righteous” who are hindered (→
δίκαιος), for they do
not let themselves be placed before God, but measure themselves
by a standard which finally derives from their own intuition, in
face of which they have nothing to fear or renounce, and against
the correctness of which they cannot entertain any doubts.97
b. It was the aim of Jesus to set men before
the total reality of God and to mediate to them total fellowship
with Him.98
For this reason, however, He took them in their totality as He
found them, and not just in accordance with certain appealing or
repellent aspects. It is of a piece with this attitude that the
Evangelists all agree in linking a confession of sins99
with the baptism of John (→ βαπτίζω),
but that nowhere in the dealings of Jesus with sinners do we
read of any confession of specific sins.100
Even where He Himself depicts sinners in contrast to the
righteous (Lk. 18:9 ff.), He does not put any special confession
in their mouth, but simply causes them to express their
neediness before God (Lk. 18:13).101
In this trait, which more clearly perhaps than any other brings
out the unity of the complete devotion of Jesus to God on the
one side and His complete devotion to sinners on the other, we
detect the same attitude which underlies His rejection of
Pharisaic casuistry in relation to the Sabbath (Mt. 12:1 ff.
par.), which causes
Him to reject any concession to Pharisaic custom (Mt. 15:2; Mk.
7:5; cf. Mt. 23 passim)
and which enables Him to accept the verdict of being Himself a
“sinner” (Jn. 9:16, 24, 31 f.; → 328) without any violation of
His direct relationship to God. By the very fact that He accepts
no compromise, and does not even consider the possibility of
exculpation, He shows Himself to be the One who helps His people
out of its sins (Mt. 1:21). Those who are truly set before God
are no longer able to speak of themselves as though they could
lay the foundation of the new relationship to God with their own
judgment on themselves. This foundation is laid when in the
presence of God the impress of His kindness as well as His
holiness and majesty causes them to renounce their own will and
awakens them to readiness for absolute obedience (Lk. 15:17 ff.;
18:13), and Jesus is their Saviour to the extent that in His
person, word and work God and His manner and goal are made clear
to those who need such a new relationship to Him.
This conception is
predominantly based on the Synoptists, but it is in full
agreement with what John causes Jesus to say about His task of
witnessing to the Father (cf. in this connection
esp.
8:21ff.)
and also with what Jesus here says about the presupposition of a
pure relationship to God (9:41).
For the rest, John
does not use the term in relation to men or groups, but only in
relation to Jesus (→
328)
on the lips of the Pharisees. John’s acquaintance with Pharisaic
terminology is thus illustrated.
ἁμαρτωλός
is used in self-description only in Luke, though even here it is
rare (5:8;
18:13)
and is hardly to be given any special emphasis (cf.
15:18,
21).
This fact is important in our estimate of the situation, since
it shows us how false it would be to see in the sayings of Jesus
about sinners,
and especially in the parables peculiar to Luke, the-demand for
a strongly accentuated awareness of sin in the sense of the most
profound self-contempt and self-condemnation. This is obviously
not the Christian ideal. To think and act in this way is to make
oneself the centre of thought and action, and therefore to
remain in the very position from which Jesus seeks to bring
liberation when He sets the
sinner
in the presence of God and under the overpowering impress of His
being.
c. Among those who need the new relationship
to God Jesus also and especially numbers the righteous.102
In so doing He does not dispute their righteousness (→ 330) or
call it sin. But He judges it in respect of its nature.103
In this regard He shares the outlook of the Baptist, who in hard
words warns the pious of the impending judgment of God.104
The reason for this is to be found in the egotistic nature of
this righteousness, which is satisfied with the fulfilment of
the divine commands and which thus becomes inwardly
self-confident,105
and outwardly proud106
and pitiless,107
Such emphasis on oneself and one’s achievements inevitably leads
to an attitude in which one does not bow before God but treats
with Him,108
leaving it to human perception to determine what is legitimate
and what is sinful before Him.109
This profanation of the service of God Jesus castigates
severely, and His struggle with the Rabbis was designed to
expose and overcome it.110
His ultimate accusation was that there is not here the serious
opposition to sin which is meet and proper for the sake of God,111
so that a true righteousness is achieved, but it is a
righteousness which measures up only to human standards and does
not satisfy the divine judgment.112
This insight leads Jesus sharply to call the pious and righteous
as well to repentance,113
not for their sin, but for their righteousness, which prevents
them from seeing clearly either the greatness of God or their
own situation.114
Thus we can see already how Jesus transcended
the view that only certain individuals or groups are sinners,
replacing it by the conception which regards the emphasising of
human autonomy, even under the guise of service of God and
devotion to Him, as that which makes man a sinner who needs
divine forgiveness and grace. But we also find in Him already
the universal offer of forgiveness, and therewith the
establishment of a new relationship to God, in submission to His
will and judgment without regard to human assumptions,115
to the degree that there is a readiness for this attitude which
is alone appropriate to the situation (→
μετάνοια).116
Since Jesus is the One who is sent by God to the guilty, the
removal of sin knows no limit apart from unwillingness that it
should be removed.117
3. The
Attitude of the New Testament Writers.
This can be summed up in a few sentences,
since there are no basic differences between the authors of the
NT and Jesus as
regards sinners. Only the standpoint is different, since none of
them can look away from himself and speak of the sinner as a
third person. From such apostasy they are kept by the cross of
Jesus, which is set up for them as well as for others.118
It is perhaps connected with this that outside the Synoptists
the term ἁμαρτωλός
is infrequent and does not occur at all in Acts. On Jewish soil
the history of the word had given it too strong an overtone of
superiority over sinners to allow of its general use in
preaching to non-Jews. Thus it is to be noted that in John it
appears only on the lips of the Pharisees as one of their
theological terms,119
and that it is rejected at once as unjustifiable. Paul, too,
uses it only as a particularly strong expression and always in
relation to himself.120
The underlying matter is there, though not in the Jewish
formulae (→ ἁμαρτία).
The basic description of the sinner has not changed. The sinner
is the man who does not allow God supreme authority over his
life and who withholds from Him total dedication and obedience.121
If new words are found to state this,122
no change in respect of the fundamental judgment is implied.
The new feature, however, is not simply that
outside Jesus there is no longer any frontier between the
sinners and the righteous. It really emerges in full force when
the reference is to man prior to or without Jesus on the one
side and the man who is united with Him on the other. Paul,
although he is a man and in temptation and under sentence of
death, is no longer conscious of sin in his state of union with
Christ,123
and he presupposes the same of all those who belong to Him and
have a share in His work.124
The same is true of John, who can already attest deliverance
from involvement in the world of sin.125
It need hardly be said that this implies a new gulf of
unfathomable depth right across humanity. This is the gulf which
separates those who are ἐν Χριστῷ,
and who are thus rescued from the power of
ἁμαρτία126
and brought into His possession127
and the service of God,128
from those who are still “under sin”129
or “in their sins,”130
neither knowing God131
nor serving Him.132
This gulf is deeper than that which existed between the
righteous and sinners prior to the coming of Jesus, for it is
not created or maintained by men, but has arisen and continually
arises from the act of God in Christ.133
From the same act of God, however, there also results the fact
that in the NT the righteous or the justified have no
consciousness of themselves as such,134
but simply magnify the grace which has genuinely made sinners
righteous,135
and are full of zeal to point all men to this way of grace.136
92
Cf. A. Schlatter,
Die Geschichte des Christus
(1921), 190; O. Schmitz, “Sünde und
Schuld im NT” in RGG2,
V, 885 f.
93
Cf. Mt. 15:2; Mk. 7:5 or Mt. 12:1 ff.
par.; Jn. 9:16, 24 f., 31; → 328.
94
So H. Weinel,
Biblische Theologie des NT4
(1928), 149, and with some reservations Kl. Mk. on 2:17
etc.
95
A. Schlatter,
Die Geschichte des Christus,
190; cf. more expressly Schl. Mt. on 9:13; also Zn. Mt. on
9:13; H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch
der nt.lichen Theologie2
(1911), I, 218 f. etc.
96
As shown by the miracle, Jesus
encounters him as “the prophet” (→
προφήτης) who reveals God; for
this reason it is inconceivable to Peter that He should
seek his fellowship and not that of the righteous. We find
the same attitude in the centurion (Mt. 8:8; Lk. 7:6).
97
Cf. the judgment of Jesus on the Rabbis
(Mt. 23:12; Lk. 14:11; 18:14). The procedure on the death
of Rabbi Jochanan b. Zakkai (b.Ber., 25b) provides
striking confirmation.
98
Cf. Mt. 22:10 ff.; Lk. 15:11 ff., where
table-fellowship (→ δεῖπνον)
is a picture of total fellowship. The Fourth Gospel is
very relevant in this connection.
99
Mt. 3:6; Mk. 1:5; Lk. 3:3; cf. Jn.
1:29; 3:25.
100
Zacchaeus never says what he has done,
but what he is doing, or will do, to make restitution; but
this is not confession.
101
I. Abrahams, 57 completely misses the
point of Lk. 18:9 ff. when he argues that the prayer and
gestures of the publican are typically Pharisaic, and on
this interpretation finds in the parable a curiously
grounded attack on ritualism.
102
Cf. for what follows, esp. A. Schlatter,
Die Geschichte des Christus2
(1923), 186ff.
103
Cf. Mt. 5:20 (→
δικαιοσύνη).
104
Mt. 3:7 ff.; cf. Mt. 21:32; Lk. 7:29
ff.
106
Mt. 6:1 ff.; 23:5 ff.; Lk. 14:7 ff.;
20:46; Mk. 12:38 f.
107
Mt. 23:14, 23; 25:41 ff.
109
Mt. 15:3 ff.; 23:16 ff.
110
Cf. esp. Mt. 23 par. →
ὑποκριτής.
111
Mt. 23:23; cf. Mt. 21:29.
112
Lk. 18:14; cf. Mt. 23:13.
113
In spite of 9:13, Mt. 23 is really an
address calling for the repentance of the righteous; cf.
also Mt. 21:32.
114
Mt. 25:44; cf. Mt. 9:11 f. par.; Lk.
10:40 ff.; 15:25 ff.
115
Mt. 22:9 ff.; Lk. 15:11 ff.
116
Mt. 19:21; cf. 18:3ff.
118
R. 4:25; 1 C. 15:3; 2 C. 5:21; Gl. 1:4;
Col. 1:14; 1 Pt. 3:18; 1 Jn. 2:2; Hb. 2:17; Rev. 1:5 etc.
119
Jn. 9:16, 24, 25, 31; → 328.
120
R. 3:7; 5:8, 19; Gl. 2:15, 17.
121
Cf. with R. 12:1 f.; 1 C. 1:19 f. etc.
in Paul, Jm. 1:27.
122
Cf. in Jn. expressions like →
ἀγαπάω, →
κόσμος,
τηρεῖν τὸν λόγον
(μου)
etc.
123
Cf. 1 C. 4:4, and the discussion of T.
Schlatter, “Für Gott lebendig in
Christi Kraft,” in
Jahrbuch der Theolog. Schule Bethel
(1930: 116–144), 121 ff. Cf. 1 Jn. 3:6.
124
Cf. esp. R. 6:1 ff.; also 5:1.
125
Jn. 5:24; 1 Jn. 3:14 etc.; → zwh; (aijwvnio").
126
R. 6:10 f.; Hb. 9:26 fl.; →
ἐξαγοράζω.
127
R. 14:7 ff.; 2 C. 5:14 f. etc.
128
R. 6:13, 22 etc.; →
δουλεύω.
129
R. 3:9; Gl. 3:22; cf. R. 6:17; In.
8:34.
131
1 Th. 4:5; 2 Th. 1:8; Gl. 4:8.
132
Gl. 4:8. These statements really need
to be discussed in a separate chapter.
134
It is striking that the
self-declaration → ἀναμάρτητος
is never found in the NT, though the presuppositions are
present; cf. T. Schlatter, 141 ff.
135
R. 5:1; 6:17 f.; 7:25; 8:1 etc.; →
χάρις,
πνεῦμα.
Theological dictionary of
the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by
Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G.
Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) . Eerdmans:
Grand Rapids, MI
|
