When you start remembering your old self and when you start dwelling on how wretched you are, try this line: “Old news, buddy. Old news. Get on with life.” Here’s why.
It’s true: we’re all dirty. All our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our sin drives us like a strong wind (Isaiah 64:6). There’s no doubt that we’ve all sinned and fall short (notice the present tense) of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). So Christ came into the world save sinners, of whom I am the worst. Yes, I am the worst, and that’s a sure fact that deserves full acceptance (I Tim. 1:15). So I try not to justify myself before others because God knows my heart, and what others call “good” in me is still ugly to God (Luke 16:15).
It’s true.
BUT GOD proved his love toward us by sending his son, Jesus the Christ, to die for us even while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:7-8). Those who follow God are now covered by that blood (Mt 26:28, Heb. 9:14). That’s why God cried, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). Now, we used to be sons of disobedience, chasing every lust in a mind palace full of porn, BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, found us dead and made us alive (Eph. 2:3-5). So now we’re sitting together in heaven with Christ (and that’s no fantasy folks, that’s reality) so he can lavish kindness on us (Eph. 2:6-7).
Paul opens his letter to the Corinthians (some pretty messy folks) with these amazing words: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours” (I Cor. 1:2). The bottom line is that Christ raised us up with himself and he has made us holy, set apart, and those of us under the blood of Christ are now saints. Those aren’t my words, that’s Scripture.
If you’re anything like me, you probably get a little nervous around the word saint. And you get really nervous when it’s applied to you. But if Scripture calls us saints, then maybe it’s time to get over ourselves and reimagine who we are in Christ. Maybe it’s time to accept the paradox of joy: I am sinner, I am saint.
Some Christians live on a hamster-wheel of self-condemnation. They wake up with the reminders of their sin, they take communion remembering their sin, and they go to bed to the lullabies of their own filth. It might seem virtuous to live that way, but I think this self-condemnation can pretty easily twist into a kind of pietism, just another form of pride.
How easily we become proud of how sinful we are.
Does God really want us to remember how wretched we are all day? Does he want us to sit at his table and eat his bread and drink his wine remorsefully, like those who know they barely made it in? If we’ve really been adopted into sainthood, covered by the blood, and if we can really be called “children of God”, then maybe we should act like children who really belong: glad, lively, engaged children of the king. We don’t bless God, the one who has done a new thing, by reminding ourselves and reminding him of our old self. He knows our old selves andhe still calls us “sons.”
Sometimes I remember how filthy I am. Oh let’s be honest: nearly all day I remember that I am the worst of all sinners and so my flesh and my heart shrivel, BUT GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps. 73:26); therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (II Cor. 5:17). Whoever hears Christ and believes God, that person has passed from death to life. He’s no longer under judgment (John 5:24). And so we eagerly hear Christ who said, “Behold, I am making all things new!” (Revelation 21:5). For he knows the plan he has for us. They are plans for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future worth living for and a sure hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
Baptism reminds us that, like Christ, we were dead but now we are raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so that we can walk in newness of life (Romans. 6:4). And when we drink the water that Christ gives, we are never thirsty again. The water that he gives becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). That’s joy my friends. So go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart because God has already accepted your works (Ecc. 9:7). He’s promised that the ransomed of The Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:10).
When you start remembering your old self and when you start dwelling on how wretched you are, try this line: “Old news, buddy. Old news. Get on with life.”
Of course you’re a sinner. Of course you’ve been made alive in Christ. So live now, brother. Live. Hold the fact of your sinfulness with your left hand and in your right hand, hold the fact of your sainthood. Only in that way can we embrace Joy with both arms and clasp our hands around it. The key to joy is a paradox: I am sinner, I am saint.
Fact: I am a sinner.
Fact: I am saint.
It’s time to live!
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
