Good Guy or Bad Guy?

by Rev. Samuel Schuldheisz

I admit it. I am a nerd. I enjoy reading comics and graphic novels, watching superhero movies and shows on Netflix, and occasionally imagining that I’m the hero in whatever boardgame I’m playing.

Why do we enjoy watching, reading or acting out stories of conflict between good and evil? To be sure, it’s entertaining and enjoyable; good stories awaken and speak to our imagination, all of which are part of God’s gifts of creation. Some of the best stories go further, however, by telling us a tale of good versus evil, redemption, and hope that points us to greatest story of all: Jesus’ death and resurrection for us, where good triumphs over evil once for all; where our redemption is won; and where we find true and lasting hope, and comfort.

One of the many reasons we can’t get enough of the kind of stories where the good guy kicks the bad guy’s butt and wins the day is that we want to see ourselves as the hero. We want to see ourselves in the story, as the good guy. We want to be Batman swooping down on the Joker to foil his plans yet again. We want to be Captain America thwarting the evil schemes of Hydra. We want to be Superman saving Metropolis from the dastardly plans of Lex Luthor. We want to be the Avengers preparing to take on Thanos and rescue the universe.

Like wicked Queen Grimhilde in Snow White, we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” And we expect the answer to be: “Why, you of course!” Sure, maybe I’m not perfect, but at least I’m not as bad as that guy over there.

The Scriptures, however, paint a rather different, more realistic picture of our human nature. It is less like a magic mirror, and more like the hideous portrait in the classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, that revealed Dorian’s true self-destruction. St. Paul puts the mirror of God’s Law before our faces in Romans 3 and declares: “None is righteous, no, not one.”

Thankfully, that’s not the end of our story. St. Paul also holds the cross before our eyes and declares: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So who are we? Are we the villain or the hero? The bad guy or the good guy? Sinner or saint?

Scripture’s answer is that we are both—in this life, that is. That’s the key phrase. In this life, we are both the villain and the hero, the bad guy and the good guy, sinner and saint. We are at once condemned in sin and justified by grace through faith in Christ. We are like Dr. Jekyll, constantly battling our inner Mr. Hyde. We are like Smeagol, daily warring against our inner Gollum, our corrupted, fallen nature. We are like Eustace Scrubb who was un-dragoned in C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The truth is, we are baptized, undragoned, and the cure has begun, yet, we are wearied by our own sin.

The Lutheran reformers even coined a helpful Latin phrase to summarize Scripture’s teaching. In this life, Christians are simul justus et peccator. We are simultaneously justified and sinner.

Listen to how St. Paul speaks about the baptized Christian in this life: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

According to St. Paul, in Adam we are villains— dirty, rotten scoundrels to the core. And yet in Christ, we are made new, holy, perfect, righteous, and good. By birth, we have the old man, dead in trespasses and sin in Adam. And by new birth from above in Holy Baptism we are made a new man in Christ, our second Adam. We have old Adam, our sinful nature. And we have a new Adam, a saintly, godly, holy, righteous nature won for us by the true and only hero of the story, Jesus crucified and risen for us.

And that’s the truly remarkable good news for us. Though we are simul justus et peccator in this life, our battle between good and evil is not an endless standoff. We are not stuck in stalemate. We are not frozen in carbonite. For on the cross, Jesus became the villain for us. He who knew no sin became sin that in Him we might receive the righteousness of God. On the cross, Jesus suffered defeat to win the decisive victory over our archenemies of sin and the devil. On the cross, Jesus destroyed the last enemy— death—once and for all for you. Jesus won the day for you. For all. Forever.

Rev. Samuel Schuldheisz is the pastor of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Milton, Washington.