# “What sin is” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/03/20/what-sin-is-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer/
- Published: 2009-03-20T00:30:28-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely 
less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross 
of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp
this one thing: what sin is.

Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not
know the godlessness of men. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed 
only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows 
this.

In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a
Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, _[Life Together](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060608528?tag=toletaupanre-20)_(
New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 118-9.

More quotes from [Dietrich Bonhoeffer](https://tollelege.net/category/dietrich-bonhoeffer/)·
More on [Forgiveness](https://tollelege.net/category/forgiveness/)