5.15.2006 | Experts on sin

One of my favorite stained glass bluegrass gospel songs has a line that goes something like this:

You're not too bad to come in, and you're not too good to stay out

That's come in, or stay out, of church.

It gets at one of the foundational purposes for our Christian church: a place where sinners learn about salvation. And, as we should all know by now, the first steps in salvation are knowing what is sin, and then knowing that we are sinners. This simple thought, that seems to escape many who attend church, always on their best behavior, is, as usual, best expressed in the Gospel. From Matthew: 9

10And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

A church, in different words, is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Bible-based churches learn about sin, from the Fall in Genesis to the ultimate betrayal of the Son of God in the Gospels. Paul is also quite vocal about what constitutes a Christian life, and perhaps has led to the misconception shared by many that we must be pure as the driven snow to show our faces in the museum on Sunday morn.

Well, fellow sinners, if the Bible teaches us nothing else, we should become experts in knowing sin. With God's unwarranted grace, we may, just may, learn that there is One who has suffered, bled, and died a heinous death on the cross for our sins.

Those who are on the outside, or those who think themselves too good to need saving, may not know sin. But sin knows them. And will find them in the end.

| technorati tag | Christianity|