To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours... -1 Corinthians 1:2
These are the Apostle Paul's opening words to the Corinthian church in a letter by which he will rebuke them, admonish them, question their church polity and Christian character, and challenge them to grow up in their relationship with Christ. And yet, he believes that the majority of the church deserves to be called "saints," and he records that they serve the same God that he serves. We Christians are in process, and when we are following Jesus, even imperfectly, we are truly saints.
I write this because I feel as if we can at times become overly critical with ourselves due to our lack of progress in the faith. Over the last few Sundays we have been emphasizing a “slow down and concentrate on your relationship with God” motif. I have emphasized - rightly so I believe - our sin and the cost it demanded from Jesus. We cannot speak of the cross without speaking about sin, atonement, wrath, the curse, pain, suffering, abandonment and humiliation. At the same time, we cannot forget that it is also about grace, peace, forgiveness, love, obedience and substitution. We dare not zero in on one aspect of the cross without acknowledging the other. We have called attention to our own sin, our own failures, our own cowardice and our own propensity to either ignore God’s commands or to move out beyond them. Joshua and all Israel needed to learn to stop and ponder, to remember, and to make things right before God made things happen. During this Lenten season, many of us are also pausing and experiencing what it means to abide in Christ. By abiding, we remain in Christ and ponder his life, his ministry, his sacrifice, his resurrection and how we are to live as a result of these realities.
The bad news is that some of us really are not living out our faith as we should. We sin and we make mistakes, sometimes catastrophically. The good news is that saints are sinners who have been, are being, and will be saved by grace. This is the understanding Paul had, I suspect, in the back of his mind when he wrote to the saints in Corinth, knowing he was about to blast away at their immaturity and lack of Christ-like character. Once he had pointed out their suspect behavior, he answered their questions and taught them how to progress in the faith, because he believed they were Christians. If you have come to trust in Christ for salvation, you have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. You have been saved already from the penalty of sin, you are currently being saved from the power and dominion of sin, and you will ultimately be saved from the presence of sin. I don't just smile when I think about that, I want to shout, "Hey, that's really good news!"
I do not write this to those who have no desire to grow in the faith and who like to repeat that faith-deadening and sin-provoking proverb of the Corinthians: "all things are permissible for me" (1 Cor. 6:12). I write this to those of you who are weary in your daily and painful fight for sanctification and feel defeated and hopeless. Do you love Christ in spite of your tendency toward sin? You are a saint, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and you serve the same Lord that those whom you admire in the faith serve. Paul's word of encouragement to the Corinthians is his word of encouragement to you: God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead and will also raise you up by his power. Not just good news, but really good news! Do not give up my friends, keep moving higher up and further in.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym