“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”
Question: What encouragement do you find in this verse? How does it comfort and sustain, and feed your faith?

Classifying sin

We learn from the bible that all sin is deadly, since all sin separates us from God who is the source of life.
But humanity likes to classify sin into levels of acceptability, then focus on being respectable by avoiding what we regard as the worst of sin, and learning to live with the rest, which can easily become invisible to us. So, this practice can lead us into hidden sin.

This approach of trying to avoid the worst effects of sin rather than trying to eliminate it would seem to make practical sense in a world full of sin. It’s similar to parents who seek a safe play space for their young children by minimising risk, not eliminating it, and none of the friends of teenage children will be perfectly behaved – parents just need to set limits on who they associate with.

Church leaders

The responsibilities of church leaders are similar to parents. The bible warns of false teachers and others who will attack believers in various ways, so leaders need to be vigilant in protecting their flock against those evil influences. Neighbours of mine from many years ago attended a mainstream church that had failed in that duty, and needed to sell many of its church buildings to cover the costs of reparation to victims of paedophiles. And I know of instances of physical injury to teenagers attending evangelical churches whose leaders put great emphasis on attracting all youth without sufficient focus on sin and repentance.

In Luke 7:33-34, Jesus condemned the rejection by the respectable generation of his day of both John the Baptist, who preached a baptism of repentance for those hidden sins, and of Himself, who befriended publicans and sinners.

One church leader of that day who was very vigilant was Paul (or Saul). Before Jesus spoke to him in a vision, Paul violently attacked people whom he saw as being false teachers, sending many Christians to their death. How is it that zeal for keeping sin away, similar to what all responsible parents would wish for, could lead to such depth of sin?

All sin is deadly

While we would like to see big differences between levels of sin in our classification, from God’s view it is all on a similar level, all coming from man’s fallen state and limited understanding, so that even Paul’s zeal for the Lord became sin.
But as we read in this verse, Jesus came to save all sinners who would receive Him. Paul needed a blinding light and loud voice for him to stop relying on his own fallen understanding, and to see and follow God’s will.

Paul didn’t turn to the usual response of people when shown their sin, which is to defend their actions with excuses for their circumstances or the influence of other people, and blame it on everything except themselves. Instead, he confessed he was the “worst of sinners”, whom Jesus came to save.

Jesus used the repentance and obedience of Paul to bring the wonderful blessings of the gospel to people in that time, and down through the ages, to us.

Personal application

When we follow Paul’s example, of

(1) seeking God’s vision and understanding instead of relying on our own, and
(2) seeing and confessing ourselves as the worst of sinners, because when we see our sin as God sees it, it is unbearable for us;

then we have a true picture of our unredeemed status before God.

But when we bring that burden to God, He will lift it from us. He will see us covered with the righteousness of Christ, who has already saved us through His victory on the cross.
And He will use our repentance of sin and obedience to Him, despite our limitations and failings, to bring His blessings to the people around us, wherever we are placed.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming into this world to save me, the worst of sinners! Amen