Being and Doing

What is worse than doing evil is being evil. It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than an honest man to lie. One sin is not like another. They do not all have the same weight. A falling away is of infinitely greater weight than a falling down.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What is meant by this? It is surely a paradox, but what does it mean? I think at the core of this statement lies the differentiation between doing and being.

At the core of Christianity is being. We are the redeemed children of God. We are justified in Him. And we are continually being sanctified. Who we are, and not what we do, is the key to Christianity.

This notion has its roots in the Old Testament. The Law of Moses, the Torah, literally translated means ‘the way’. In a similar fashion the Decalogue should be translated the ten ‘words’ rather than the Ten Commandments. They were instructions on how a person should be rather than what a person should do. The Torah lays out the values and character that a person who follows God should have. It is not a simple list of does and don’ts—it is not a religion of legalism.

In the Sermon on the Mount Christ interpreted the Law. He instructed us not to get caught up in legalities. We should not focus on the formalities of a legal vow or on only performing the minimal obligations the state can require of us. Rather we should focus on who we are. It is not enough to simply not murder—we should be people who love our brothers in our hearts. It is not enough to simply refrain from adultery—we must be people that cultivate pure minds. The goal of the law is to reform the character, not one’s actions.

The prophets echo this claim throughout the Old Testament. Over and over they say: forget about your sacrifices, instead live justly. It is detestable to God when we do good deeds without being good. The spirit of the law is living in right relation with God and man. This is far more important than the letter of any specific command.

Are we free from the law? In one sense yes. It cannot save us, in fact it never could. We are forgiven every infringement of the law. There is only one unforgivable sin, only one sin that leads to death: rejecting God’s offer of salvation.

It is better for one to be in God and sin then outside of the grace of God and do right. Falling down and falling away are infinitely different.

We should seek to live justly, but all the while we must remember that, as God Himself says, all our works are but filthy rags in His sight. We are saved by who we are (in Christ), not by what we do. Our works do not lead to salvation, but they are a product of our salvation. Christ said by their fruit you will be known, not by your fruit you will be saved.

When one is in Christ his works will naturally conform to who he is. Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine yield figs? What we do naturally flows from who we are. We cannot be good without God. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. The only way we may be good is to enter into His goodness and become His child. In Him we are good and in Him we may do good works. Left to our own devices, we can do no good thing.