Cheifest of Sinners

Paul said that he was the chiefest of sinners:

12. How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him,13. even though I used to scoff at the name of Christ. I hunted down his people, harming them in every way I could. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. 14. Oh, how kind and gracious the Lord was! He filled me completely with faith and the love of Christ Jesus. 15. This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ? and I was the worst of them all. 16. But that is God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.

Sometimes I feel like the worst sinner, while trying to please God, and I wonder how I can be a sinner and saved at the same time. But that's the brilliance of God ~ with Him all things are possible.

He doesn't ask us to straighten ourselves out and then come to Him to be saved. We come to Him first, with all our sin, our mistakes, our blunders. All of it ~ no matter how grimy and mixed up we really are. He knows already. There is nothing you've done that He doesn't know about. Nothing so horrible that He can't fix. It is only through Him that we can be saved and then He'll clean us up all in due time. It's a process.

I think the message is a simple one, that we often compound, God does not give up on us. He loves us and desires us to be set free from the bondages of sin. That is why Jesus took our punishment on the cross. But we are not perfect yet. We are a work in progress.

We should never be surprised when sinners sin and those of us who are Christians ~ we are still sinners ~ Saved ~ but ONLY by His grace. We should thank God for His Mercy and always remember where we came from.

Be Well.