It is the Sinner Who Repents

Mark 2:17

Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). The Greek word for “repent” means “a change of mind” and that definition is universal throughout the New Testament. When the Word speaks of repentance it is talking about man changing the way he thinks or the way that he views a situation.

We often interpret “repentance” as an emotional experience. We think that someone has truly repented if they cry or feel bad, and we often accept their repentance if we see those emotional outbursts; and we reject it if they don’t “show repentance”.

As we have seen, the New Testament version of repentance is to change how you think. If you are a sinner then you are being called to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. You need to change your mind, which thinks that you are able to save yourself. Your mind is convinced that you are fine and that you do not need a Savior. If you are a sinner, your thinking about eternity and salvation is all wrong and you need to change your mind. In other words, you need to repent.

Saints should often repent as well, but not in the manner in which it is often preached and taught. Christians have no need of an emotional breakdown when they fail, characterized by lamenting and fasting, begging God for forgiveness. We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and when we fail, we do not cease to be the righteousness of God. However, many of us feel that we are failures and that we owe God something. Repent of this! Change your mind and realize that you are just as saved after you fail as you were before it. Change your mind about the fact that you are a son and not a slave and when your mind lines up with whom you are in Christ; your lifestyle is soon to follow.

Jesus stated that He came, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). If Jesus specifically mentions that He is not calling the righteous to repent, why are we always calling on the righteous to repent? His call was to sinners, and He said it because the religious world was frustrated with His constant fellowshipping with the lost. Jesus did not become like the sinner in order to win the sinner, but He did present a different view of God to the sinner so that they would change their mind about who God was and how He thought of them.

Many sinners think that God is angry with them and that He is about to send them to hell at any moment. By conversing with and eating with sinners, Jesus was changing the perception that the sinner had of who God was. Jesus made God personable and loving, and sinners felt themselves opening up to the Son of God. The call of repentance came next, with sinners responding in droves because Jesus had convinced them that they were wrong about how the Father felt about them.

Consequently, this verse also shows us that Jesus is not against people going to the doctor if they are sick. Some say that visiting a physician is a lack of faith. If that were the case then Jesus would not have said that those who need a physician are the sick. While He is not advocating sickness or disease, He is using it as an example as to who needs His salvation power.

The Angry God is Angry No More

Psalms 7:11

The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edward’s once preached a sermon that has since become legendary, both in its title and in the stories of conviction that resulted from it. ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ holds a place among the most famous services ever delivered. Legend has it that grown men clutched to the pillars that held up the balcony for fear that they were going to fall into the pits of hell when Edward’s gave his invitation. More romance has been added to the story as it is told of how Edward’s was so nervous that he held the written transcript of the sermon in front of his face and read it word for word, but the anointing on it was supposedly so powerful that it didn’t matter about the delivery.

I don’t know how much of the story is true, other than he actually preached the sermon. I do know that fear of an angry God has led countless people to an altar of repentance. It has also caused men and women to try and change their lives and their lifestyles. I am further sure however, that no sermon on the power of an angry God has ever empowered a single listener to live in a way that would assuage the anger of that God. No sermon on the wrath of God and the subsequent flames of hellfire and damnation can ever move or motivate a person to live righteously, as all of our righteousness’ are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

The great cosmic war between God and the sins of man has already been waged and has already been won. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In the sacrifice of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, the war with sin was won. It is for this cause that Jesus could hang His head and die after having declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

God was certainly angry at sin, beginning at Mt. Sinai and continuing onward to the cross. Isaiah said, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10, 11). God was pleased to crucify His Son at Calvary because in sacrificing Jesus, He was satisfying His anger toward the sin of man. The suffering Savior truly satisfied the offended Father.

Read all Old Testament scripture within the context and timeframe that they were written. When the Psalmist wrote Psalms 7:11, God was dealing with man under the Old Covenant and His anger was mounting towards man’s disobedience. He was ready to “whet his sword” (Psalms 7:12) and use it against all of us, but then Jesus came and fulfilled all of the demands of the law and voluntarily laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. With His anger plunged into the heart of His Son, God was propitiated, or satisfied and we no longer have to see Him as “angry with the wicked every day” (7:11).

God is not mad at you. He is not even perturbed. When He looks at you He sees Jesus and He is well pleased. Live your life today as a Son, not a servant. The power to do righteous is found in knowing that you are righteous because of Jesus.

The Twig and the Beam

Matthew 7:1-6

This is one of those straight-forward, easy to understand but hard to apply scriptures that we all need to remember. “Judge not, that ye be not judged” means very simply, don’t judge other people because you won’t like it if they do that to you. The next verse states that the manner in which you judge is the manner in which you will be judged in return. So, if you like to gossip about people or comment on rumors or condemn them upon first sight without all of the facts, be prepared for all of those little gems to come your way.

Jesus puts forth a pair of questions in verses 3 and 4 regarding motes and beams. The mote is a dry stalk, or straw, commonly referred to by the word, “twig”. It is contrasted in both size and constitution by a large piece of wood like a beam. He asks how you can spot the twig in your brother’s eye but ignore the beam hanging out of your own eye. The visual of this is quite humorous, and of course, impossible. Jesus is giving this extreme example on purpose, to illustrate the foolishness of trying to clean up those around you. Note that Jesus is speaking to us about our “brother” which denotes Christians judging Christians.

The second question by Jesus regards not only the recognition of a beam in your brother’s eye, but the pseudo-spiritual practice of being there to “help them”. I have seen many Christian’s involve themselves in others lives, in areas that was none of their business, because they say they want to help. This desire to help is often a mask for a greater desire to point out errors and problems and to talk and gossip about things better left unsaid. We must be certain that the twig in their eye doesn’t look bigger than it is because our own eyes are so messed up by the beam protruding from them.

Jesus goes so far as to call this attitude hypocritical (Matthew 7:5). He does not condemn the helping of a fellow believer with their issues, but only after we have taken an accurate inventory of our own problems.

In verse six, Jesus gives a token statement, found only in this passage, which appears at first glance to stand separate from the preceding verses, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you”. When you do help your brother with their issues, be sure that it is a brother. When you offer the same help and concern to the apostate unbeliever, you are throwing priceless pearls into a pen of hogs, and the end result will be unconcern and mockery.

This should not stop us from giving genuine love and grace to the sinner. Not all sinners can be categorized as swine and dogs, for many are simply wandering in the world without Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit in you to lead you in all three areas: knowing when there are issues in your own life; knowing how to help a brother with their issues; and knowing when to keep your thoughts to yourself if you are dealing with a swine or a dog spiritually.

These are simple and practical pieces of advice, but they will save us all much heartache.

Such Were Some of You

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Paul’s address in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians deals with two major issues facing the church in Corinth. First, the believers in that church were suing one another over various matters, going before secular courts to solve problems better solved within the confines of the church. Paul speaks this to their shame (6:5). They were also committing fornication, specifically with harlots that hung out near the temple. Paul reminds them that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost and that they are better than they have been living (6:19, 20).

Sandwiched in between these two admonitions is Paul’s statement about those who will not be going to heaven. He includes fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate (which is translated “soft” meaning one who is a feminine male), abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals), thieves, those full of lust, drunks, extortioners, etc (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10). He does not say that if you commit one of these acts that you are going to hell; rather he is describing someone who IS one of these persons. This is their lifestyle, and they can be identified by what they do.

Believers fail frequently, in fact, this sixth chapter bears that out, but believers are not known by their failures but rather by their Savior. Paul’s description of those who are going to miss heaven is to show the church at Corinth that when they take one another to court for lawsuits, they are allowing this sort of person to be their judge. Also, when they fornicate, they are living like this group of people lives.

“And such were some of you” is Paul placing the believer beyond this lifestyle. You “were” this way when you were a sinner, so why would you go back to living this way now? “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Notice Paul’s insistence in using the phrase, “but ye are” each time? He could have left that out, but he wants to emphasize each area of a believer that has been changed by Christ’s finished work.

Look at the three things that Paul says is different about you now that you are a Christian. You are washed, meaning that you have been placed beneath the waterfall of God’s forgiveness due to what Jesus accomplished at the cross. All of your sins and your sinful ways are gone for His blood has washed them away, freeing you from being identified as those in verses 9 and 10. You are also sanctified, which means that you have been set aside for the use of the Holy Spirit. You are not “being” sanctified every day, for His finished work is a truly finished work! Finally, you are justified, which means that God views you as if you have never even sinned. You are made just because God honors the sacrifice of His Son and sees you as He sees Jesus! (Romans 3:26)

When you fail, please do not view yourself as a sinner. You have been washed, sanctified and justified. The quicker that you come to terms with this news, the quicker that you live free from the shackles of sin and failure.

Separate From Sinners

Hebrews 7:26

Jesus is described perfectly by the phrase, “separate from sinners”. There has never been a man more accurately described, as He was in no way like a sinner, even down to the very nature inside of Him. Since Jesus was not born of an earthly father, he carried no nature to sin. His nature was human and divine, with no propensity towards any certain sin. He could have sinned, of course, for even perfect Adam sinned in the Garden without a nature to do so, but Jesus lived spotless and sinless in this present world (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Though He was nothing like sinners, Jesus was still “numbered with the transgressors” at His death; hanging between two criminals (Isaiah 53:12). Even though He had no iniquity of His own, He was numbered with sinners even during His lifetime, as the religious world of that day called him a glutton and a winebibber (Luke 7:34). In the same passage of scripture, Jesus said that He was also accused of being a “friend of publicans and sinners”.

Now we know why Jesus was “numbered with the transgressors”; that was because He hung between two criminals at Calvary, thus He was identified as a criminal by all who viewed it. But to be a “friend of publicans and sinners”, Jesus must have often showed Himself friendly and open with these groups of people. The religious world of that day would not be caught dead in the presence of publicans and sinners, so to watch someone who all considered a teacher or “rabbi” conversing with them was shameful in their eyes.

The book of Hebrews assures us that though Jesus was identified with the sinners, He never ceased to be “separate from sinners” and this is because He was “holy, harmless, undefiled,and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26). The descriptions offered here by the Spirit show us a man that retained His characteristics, regardless of who was in His company. Though the publicans and the sinners were unholy, harmful to others and defiled by iniquity, none of it rubbed off on Jesus. The writer goes so far as to say that Jesus did not need to make sacrifice daily for His own sins as other priests would. The reason for this was that Jesus had no sin!

You and I live in a world of sin and failure, where there is ungodliness at every turn. The believer is bombarded with this on a daily basis and it weighs against our spirit. We do not lose our salvation when we are around these activities but we certainly feel their effects. Even in the midst of sinning people, because of the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ that dwells in every one of us, we are seen as holy, harmless and undefiled. Even when we slip and fall, we retain what Christ paid for, keeping us separate from sinners.

Christ is our redemption, having paid the price as our high priest under the New Covenant. His finished work at the cross has assured us of wholeness and rest in Him. Rejoice in the knowledge that you are separate from sinners through the One who loves you.

Ananias and Sapphira

Acts 5:1-11

When the Lord began to reveal to me the revelation of His abundant grace and goodness, it was a marvelous journey. It was akin to being saved all over again, as I saw just how much that the finished work of Christ had truly been finished. I was thrilled to learn new things about His forgiveness and His mercy as I searched the scriptures afresh. In His grace, life is truly abundant.

One passage that troubled me as I grew in this knowledge is found in the fifth chapter of Acts and it concerns the deaths of Ananias and his wife Sapphira. This story is an obvious case of God killing someone post-Calvary and it seemed very reminiscent of God’s dealings with Israel in the Old Testament. It seemed as if every day God was opening up His covenant to me showing me that He is no longer mad at mankind and that He had been appeased by the death of His Son on the cross, so why was He so obviously killing two of His children in Acts 5?

After much prayer and study, and several journeys into every commentary that I owned, I had nearly concluded that I would not find the answer. Nearly every commentator mentioned God’s wrath against sin and how some sins were so grievous that God would kill you on the spot if you committed them. Others taught that this story is a warning to the church that there is only so far that you should push God before people begin to die as part of His swift hand of judgment. I could not in good conscience accept these answers and still see God as having been propitiated at Calvary. Propitiation is “satisfaction”, and if God was satisfied, how could He punish a believer for failure?

The answer is found in the question that Peter asks Ananias, after Ananias lies to Peter concerning the price of the land that he has sold. “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” is a question that reveals who Ananias is. No believer can be filled with the Spirit of God and with Satan, for there is no room in the heart for two masters (Matthew 6:24). If Satan had filled their hearts then we know that Jesus did not live there.

The author of the book felt the same way apparently, as he refers to Ananias as “a certain man” in verse 1. Only non-believers were referred to in this generic way in the book of Acts (Acts 10:1; 16:16) with believers being “certain disciples” (Acts 9:36), or “certain prophets and teachers” (Acts 13:1).

When a sinner rejects Christ long enough, there is nothing left for them but certain death. Having said “no” to Jesus, they have truly rejected the calling of the Holy Spirit, and have actually blasphemed his conviction. There remains no more hope for them, and they place themselves back under God’s wrath (John 3:36). This is why the angel smites Peter in Acts 12 and it wakes him from his sleep. The angel then smites King Herod in verse 23 and it kills him. When God smites the believer it wakes them up to who they are in Christ, but when he smites the sinner, it is His final judgment on their soul.

Do not have a fearful expectation of fiery judgment from your heavenly Father. You are the righteousness of God in Christ, and your Daddy is looking out for your good. When you fail He is not waiting with lightning bolts to smite you down, but rather He is waiting with a nail scarred hand to pick you up.

It is the Sinner Who Repents

Mark 2:17

Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). The Greek word for “repent” means “a change of mind” and that definition is universal throughout the New Testament. When the Word speaks of repentance it is talking about man changing the way he thinks or the way that he views a situation.

We often interpret “repentance” as an emotional experience. We think that someone has truly repented if they cry or feel bad, and we often accept their repentance if we see those emotional outbursts; and we reject it if they don’t “show repentance”.

As we have seen, the New Testament version of repentance is to change how you think. If you are a sinner then you are being called to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. You need to change your mind, which thinks that you are able to save yourself. Your mind is convinced that you are fine and that you do not need a Savior. If you are a sinner, your thinking about eternity and salvation is all wrong and you need to change your mind. In other words, you need to repent.

Saints should often repent as well, but not in the manner in which it is often preached and taught. Christians have no need of an emotional breakdown when they fail, characterized by lamenting and fasting, begging God for forgiveness. We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and when we fail, we do not cease to be the righteousness of God. However, many of us feel that we are failures and that we owe God something. Repent of this! Change your mind and realize that you are just as saved after you fail as you were before it. Change your mind about the fact that you are a son and not a slave and when your mind lines up with whom you are in Christ; your lifestyle is soon to follow.

Jesus stated that He came, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). If Jesus specifically mentions that He is not calling the righteous to repent, why are we always calling on the righteous to repent? His call was to sinners, and He said it because the religious world was frustrated with His constant fellowshipping with the lost. Jesus did not become like the sinner in order to win the sinner, but He did present a different view of God to the sinner so that they would change their mind about who God was and how He thought of them.

Many sinners think that God is angry with them and that He is about to send them to hell at any moment. By conversing with and eating with sinners, Jesus was changing the perception that the sinner had of who God was. Jesus made God personable and loving, and sinners felt themselves opening up to the Son of God. The call of repentance came next, with sinners responding in droves because Jesus had convinced them that they were wrong about how the Father felt about them.

Consequently, this verse also shows us that Jesus is not against people going to the doctor if they are sick. Some say that visiting a physician is a lack of faith. If that were the case then Jesus would not have said that those who need a physician are the sick. While He is not advocating sickness or disease, He is using it as an example as to who needs His salvation power.

The Angry God is Angry No More

Psalms 7:11

The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edward’s once preached a sermon that has since become legendary, both in its title and in the stories of conviction that resulted from it. ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ holds a place among the most famous services ever delivered. Legend has it that grown men clutched to the pillars that held up the balcony for fear that they were going to fall into the pits of hell when Edward’s gave his invitation. More romance has been added to the story as it is told of how Edward’s was so nervous that he held the written transcript of the sermon in front of his face and read it word for word, but the anointing on it was supposedly so powerful that it didn’t matter about the delivery.

I don’t know how much of the story is true, other than he actually preached the sermon. I do know that fear of an angry God has led countless people to an altar of repentance. It has also caused men and women to try and change their lives and their lifestyles. I am further sure however, that no sermon on the power of an angry God has ever empowered a single listener to live in a way that would assuage the anger of that God. No sermon on the wrath of God and the subsequent flames of hellfire and damnation can ever move or motivate a person to live righteously, as all of our righteousness’ are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

The great cosmic war between God and the sins of man has already been waged and has already been won. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In the sacrifice of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, the war with sin was won. It is for this cause that Jesus could hang His head and die after having declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

God was certainly angry at sin, beginning at Mt. Sinai and continuing onward to the cross. Isaiah said, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10, 11). God was pleased to crucify His Son at Calvary because in sacrificing Jesus, He was satisfying His anger toward the sin of man. The suffering Savior truly satisfied the offended Father.

Read all Old Testament scripture within the context and timeframe that they were written. When the Psalmist wrote Psalms 7:11, God was dealing with man under the Old Covenant and His anger was mounting towards man’s disobedience. He was ready to “whet his sword” (Psalms 7:12) and use it against all of us, but then Jesus came and fulfilled all of the demands of the law and voluntarily laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. With His anger plunged into the heart of His Son, God was propitiated, or satisfied and we no longer have to see Him as “angry with the wicked every day” (7:11).

God is not mad at you. He is not even perturbed. When He looks at you He sees Jesus and He is well pleased. Live your life today as a Son, not a servant. The power to do righteous is found in knowing that you are righteous because of Jesus.

All Things Are Lawful

1 Corinthians 6:12

This was a watershed scripture for me so to speak. When I began to be shown the revelation of God’s grace and mercy, this verse was one of the first verses to jump off of the page at me and force me to reevaluate my beliefs about the usage of the law in both preaching and in living.

When Paul wrote the 6th chapter of 1 Corinthians, he addressed to major problems in the Corinthian church. First was the issue of Christians taking one another to court over civil matters (6:1-8), and the second was believers committing fornication with harlots (6:13-20). Sandwiched between these two important matters are four very interesting verses that show us the preaching style of the Apostle Paul.

When dealing with the first issue, Paul reminds the church of who they are in Christ, asking them, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” (verse 2). This appeal to who they are, not a diatribe on what they have done, is classic Apostle Paul. He states the problem, shows them that they are better than to act as they have acted and then moves on.

What he moves on to is another appeal to knowledge, asking them if they realize that unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (verse 9). Many have preached this passage to mean that Paul was warning them that if they continued in this pattern that they were going to miss heaven, but within context it is not what Paul is saying at all. He is reminding them of the class of people that they are going to court in front of and wondering why they would accept the civil decisions over spiritual matters from people who are not part of heaven’s inheritance (verse 10). To further the argument he reminds them, “Such were some of you”. Notice that they used to be like those sinners but now they “are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). These are present states, having remained that way in spite of some pitiful living.

Paul’s statement of “All things are lawful unto me” is his way of showing the church that they have been set free from the letter of the law. There is no law that binds the believer to live a certain way, for Jesus has fulfilled that law through His perfect lifestyle (Matthew 5:17), and then He took it out of our way, freeing us to live (Colossians 2:14). A “good, old-fashioned preacher” should have said “THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY” in this passage to set up the forthcoming passage on fornication, but Paul steers clear of the 7th Commandment, opting instead to introduce freedom from the law, and a new way to live right. By declaring us free from the law, Paul puts the believer on the path of God’s grace which will teach them how to live right (Titus 2:11, 12).

Notice that just because all things are lawful does not mean that Paul encourages all things. Some things “are not expedient”, meaning that they are not profitable. Other things are so binding that Paul knows that if he starts doing them, he will be brought underneath their power. Though he is free to live how he chooses, he wants that life to reflect the change that has taken place in his heart, so many things will be avoided because of this fact.

This appeal is used to keep the Corinthian church from fornication, reminding them that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost (6:19). Though they are under no trappings of the law, why would they want to fornicate knowing that they are God’s purchased possession and that they are sons and daughters of God? Grace appeals to the better angels of our nature, and truly makes us free.

The Twig and the Beam

Matthew 7:1-6

This is one of those straight-forward, easy to understand but hard to apply scriptures that we all need to remember. “Judge not, that ye be not judged” means very simply, don’t judge other people because you won’t like it if they do that to you. The next verse states that the manner in which you judge is the manner in which you will be judged in return. So, if you like to gossip about people or comment on rumors or condemn them upon first sight without all of the facts, be prepared for all of those little gems to come your way.

Jesus puts forth a pair of questions in verses 3 and 4 regarding motes and beams. The mote is a dry stalk, or straw, commonly referred to by the word, “twig”. It is contrasted in both size and constitution by a large piece of wood like a beam. He asks how you can spot the twig in your brother’s eye but ignore the beam hanging out of your own eye. The visual of this is quite humorous, and of course, impossible. Jesus is giving this extreme example on purpose, to illustrate the foolishness of trying to clean up those around you. Note that Jesus is speaking to us about our “brother” which denotes Christians judging Christians.

The second question by Jesus regards not only the recognition of a beam in your brother’s eye, but the pseudo-spiritual practice of being there to “help them”. I have seen many Christian’s involve themselves in others lives, in areas that was none of their business, because they say they want to help. This desire to help is often a mask for a greater desire to point out errors and problems and to talk and gossip about things better left unsaid. We must be certain that the twig in their eye doesn’t look bigger than it is because our own eyes are so messed up by the beam protruding from them.

Jesus goes so far as to call this attitude hypocritical (Matthew 7:5). He does not condemn the helping of a fellow believer with their issues, but only after we have taken an accurate inventory of our own problems.

In verse six, Jesus gives a token statement, found only in this passage, which appears at first glance to stand separate from the preceding verses, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you”. When you do help your brother with their issues, be sure that it is a brother. When you offer the same help and concern to the apostate unbeliever, you are throwing priceless pearls into a pen of hogs, and the end result will be unconcern and mockery.

This should not stop us from giving genuine love and grace to the sinner. Not all sinners can be categorized as swine and dogs, for many are simply wandering in the world without Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit in you to lead you in all three areas: knowing when there are issues in your own life; knowing how to help a brother with their issues; and knowing when to keep your thoughts to yourself if you are dealing with a swine or a dog spiritually.

These are simple and practical pieces of advice, but they will save us all much heartache.

Such Were Some of You

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Paul’s address in the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians deals with two major issues facing the church in Corinth. First, the believers in that church were suing one another over various matters, going before secular courts to solve problems better solved within the confines of the church. Paul speaks this to their shame (6:5). They were also committing fornication, specifically with harlots that hung out near the temple. Paul reminds them that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost and that they are better than they have been living (6:19, 20).

Sandwiched in between these two admonitions is Paul’s statement about those who will not be going to heaven. He includes fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate (which is translated “soft” meaning one who is a feminine male), abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals), thieves, those full of lust, drunks, extortioners, etc (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10). He does not say that if you commit one of these acts that you are going to hell; rather he is describing someone who IS one of these persons. This is their lifestyle, and they can be identified by what they do.

Believers fail frequently, in fact, this sixth chapter bears that out, but believers are not known by their failures but rather by their Savior. Paul’s description of those who are going to miss heaven is to show the church at Corinth that when they take one another to court for lawsuits, they are allowing this sort of person to be their judge. Also, when they fornicate, they are living like this group of people lives.

“And such were some of you” is Paul placing the believer beyond this lifestyle. You “were” this way when you were a sinner, so why would you go back to living this way now? “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Notice Paul’s insistence in using the phrase, “but ye are” each time? He could have left that out, but he wants to emphasize each area of a believer that has been changed by Christ’s finished work.

Look at the three things that Paul says is different about you now that you are a Christian. You are washed, meaning that you have been placed beneath the waterfall of God’s forgiveness due to what Jesus accomplished at the cross. All of your sins and your sinful ways are gone for His blood has washed them away, freeing you from being identified as those in verses 9 and 10. You are also sanctified, which means that you have been set aside for the use of the Holy Spirit. You are not “being” sanctified every day, for His finished work is a truly finished work! Finally, you are justified, which means that God views you as if you have never even sinned. You are made just because God honors the sacrifice of His Son and sees you as He sees Jesus! (Romans 3:26)

When you fail, please do not view yourself as a sinner. You have been washed, sanctified and justified. The quicker that you come to terms with this news, the quicker that you live free from the shackles of sin and failure.

Separate From Sinners

Hebrews 7:26

Jesus is described perfectly by the phrase, “separate from sinners”. There has never been a man more accurately described, as He was in no way like a sinner, even down to the very nature inside of Him. Since Jesus was not born of an earthly father, he carried no nature to sin. His nature was human and divine, with no propensity towards any certain sin. He could have sinned, of course, for even perfect Adam sinned in the Garden without a nature to do so, but Jesus lived spotless and sinless in this present world (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Though He was nothing like sinners, Jesus was still “numbered with the transgressors” at His death; hanging between two criminals (Isaiah 53:12). Even though He had no iniquity of His own, He was numbered with sinners even during His lifetime, as the religious world of that day called him a glutton and a winebibber (Luke 7:34). In the same passage of scripture, Jesus said that He was also accused of being a “friend of publicans and sinners”.

Now we know why Jesus was “numbered with the transgressors”; that was because He hung between two criminals at Calvary, thus He was identified as a criminal by all who viewed it. But to be a “friend of publicans and sinners”, Jesus must have often showed Himself friendly and open with these groups of people. The religious world of that day would not be caught dead in the presence of publicans and sinners, so to watch someone who all considered a teacher or “rabbi” to be doing so was shameful in their eyes.

The book of Hebrews assures us that though Jesus was identified with the sinners, He never ceased to be “separate from sinners” and this is because He was “holy, harmless, undefiled,…and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26). The descriptions offered here by the Spirit show us a man that retained His characteristics, regardless of who was in His company. Though the publicans and the sinners were unholy, harmful to others and defiled by iniquity, none of it rubbed off on Jesus. The writer goes so far as to say that Jesus did not need to make sacrifice daily for His own sins as other priests would. The reason for this was that Jesus had no sin!

You and I live in a world of sin and failure, where there is ungodliness at every turn. The believer is bombarded with this on a daily basis and it weighs against our spirit. We do not lose our salvation when we are around these activities but we certainly feel their effects. Even in the midst of sinning people, because of the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ that dwells in every one of us, we are seen as holy, harmless and undefiled. Even when we slip and fall, we retain what Christ paid for, keeping us separate from sinners.

Christ is our redemption, having paid the price as our high priest under the New Covenant. His finished work at the cross has assured us of wholeness and rest in Him. Rejoice in the knowledge that you are separate from sinners through the One who loves you.

It is the Sinner Who Repents

Mark 2:17

Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). The Greek word for “repent” means “a change of mind” and that definition is universal throughout the New Testament. When the Word speaks of repentance it is talking about man changing the way he thinks or the way that he views a situation.

We often interpret “repentance” as an emotional experience. We think that someone has truly repented if they cry or feel bad, and we often accept their repentance if we see those emotional outbursts; and we reject it if they don’t “show repentance”.

As we have seen, the New Testament version of repentance is to change how you think. If you are a sinner then you are being called to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. You need to change your mind, which thinks that you are able to save yourself. Your mind is convinced that you are fine and that you do not need a Savior. If you are a sinner, your thinking about eternity and salvation is all wrong and you need to change your mind. In other words, you need to repent.

Saints should often repent as well, but not in the manner in which it is often preached and taught. Christians have no need of an emotional breakdown when they fail, characterized by lamenting and fasting, begging God for forgiveness. We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and when we fail, we do not cease to be the righteousness of God. However, many of us feel that we are failures and that we owe God something. Repent of this! Change your mind and realize that you are just as saved after you fail as you were before it. Change your mind about the fact that you are a son and not a slave and when your mind lines up with whom you are in Christ; your lifestyle is soon to follow.

Jesus stated that He came, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). If Jesus specifically mentions that He is not calling the righteous to repent, why are we always calling on the righteous to repent? His call was to sinners, and He said it because the religious world was frustrated with His constant fellowshipping with the lost. Jesus did not become like the sinner in order to win the sinner, but He did present a different view of God to the sinner so that they would change their mind about who God was and how He thought of them.

Many sinners think that God is angry with them and that He is about to send them to hell at any moment. By conversing with and eating with sinners, Jesus was changing the perception that the sinner had of who God was. Jesus made God personable and loving, and sinners felt themselves opening up to the Son of God. The call of repentance came next, with sinners responding in droves because Jesus had convinced them that they were wrong about how the Father felt about them.

Consequently, this verse also shows us that Jesus is not against people going to the doctor if they are sick. Some say that visiting a physician is a lack of faith. If that were the case then Jesus would not have said that those who need a physician are the sick. While He is not advocating sickness or disease, He is using it as an example as to who needs His salvation power.

The Angry God is Angry No More

Psalms 7:11

The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edward’s once preached a sermon that has since become legendary, both in its title and in the stories of conviction that resulted from it. ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ holds a place among the most famous services ever delivered. Legend has it that grown men clutched to the pillars that held up the balcony for fear that they were going to fall into the pits of hell when Edward’s gave his invitation. More romance has been added to the story as it is told of how Edward’s was so nervous that he held the written transcript of the sermon in front of his face and read it word for word, but the anointing on it was supposedly so powerful that it didn’t matter about the delivery.

I don’t know how much of the story is true, other than he actually preached the sermon. I do know that fear of an angry God has led countless people to an altar of repentance. It has also caused men and women to try and change their lives and their lifestyles. I am further sure however, that no sermon on the power of an angry God has ever empowered a single listener to live in a way that would assuage the anger of that God. No sermon on the wrath of God and the subsequent flames of hellfire and damnation can ever move or motivate a person to live righteously, as all of our righteousness’ are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

The great cosmic war between God and the sins of man has already been waged and has already been won. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In the sacrifice of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, the war with sin was won. It is for this cause that Jesus could hang His head and die after having declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

God was certainly angry at sin, beginning at Mt. Sinai and continuing onward to the cross. Isaiah said, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10, 11). God was pleased to crucify His Son at Calvary because in sacrificing Jesus, He was satisfying His anger toward the sin of man. The suffering Savior truly satisfied the offended Father.

Read all Old Testament scripture within the context and timeframe that they were written. When the Psalmist wrote Psalms 7:11, God was dealing with man under the Old Covenant and His anger was mounting towards man’s disobedience. He was ready to “whet his sword” (Psalms 7:12) and use it against all of us, but then Jesus came and fulfilled all of the demands of the law and voluntarily laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. With His anger plunged into the heart of His Son, God was propitiated, or satisfied and we no longer have to see Him as “angry with the wicked every day” (7:11).

God is not mad at you. He is not even perturbed. When He looks at you He sees Jesus and He is well pleased. Live your life today as a Son, not a servant. The power to do righteous is found in knowing that you are righteous because of Jesus.