We Are All Sinners

In homiletic textbooks (these are books on how to preach), they often say that a good sermon has three main points: an introduction, a body, and conclusion. Then they break this down even further and say that the body of the sermon likewise should have three and only three points, and if you’re really skilled the beginning of each point will be alliterative. In contrast to this model for a good sermon, I only have one point to make this morning, and this is all the introduction you are going to get.

My point is right there on the screen: We are all sinners. Full stop.

Now, I have a pretty good suspicion about what just happened inside most of your heads. Some of you said to yourself, “Well, of course I’m a sinner.” Ok, that’s a good start. The problem is that I don’t believe you actually think that. Meanwhile some of you said, “Well, yeah, I still sin but....” No buts. No what-abouts. We are all sinners.

But here’s the good news: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, to save people like you and me. Look at what Paul says:

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Do you really think Paul was the foremost of sinners? Let’s just consider his pre-conversion life. Yes, he persecuted the Church, but does that make him the foremost of all sinners? Was he worse than Judas? The hyperbole here, and that’s exactly what this is, serves a point. It gives us a window into how Paul thought about himself. He thought of himself as a sinner, as a person who didn’t deserve anything that God had given but rather was entirely dependent upon the grace and mercy of God.

And notice, he doesn’t say “of whom I was the foremost.” He says, “of whom I am the foremost.” “I am the foremost of sinners,” he says, but I received mercy.

1 Timothy 1:16 ESV

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Mercy. A few verses earlier he speaks of the grace of our Lord overflowing to him. Mercy and grace. To sinners. That’s the Gospel. So let me be as clear as I can. The moment you make the shift from thinking of yourself as a sinner in desperate need of the grace and mercy of God to thinking of yourself as a good person who maybe stumbles sometimes but is generally doing ok, the moment your brain makes that shift, it’s game over. You no longer believe the Gospel. If you’re not a sinner then you don’t need grace and mercy and heaven help you if you stand before the judgment seat of Christ without grace and mercy and instead get exactly what you deserve. If Paul thinks of himself as the foremost of sinners but you think you’re probably doing ok, then something has gone terribly wrong.

We Are All Sinners

There are not sinners out there and saints in here. We are all sinners. And thank God for that. Thank God that you’re a sinner, because Jesus Christ came into the world to save whom? Sinners.

Some how the church today seems to have gotten this all wrong. We see people outside the church living lifestyles that we don’t approve of or behaving in ways that we don’t condone and we call them sinners with a scowl on our face, as if that isn’t precisely the group of people for whom the Son of God came into the world and died on a Roman cross.

The church today seems to be functioning as if the two most operative words in the economy of salvation are not grace and mercy. We seem to operate as if, for various reasons, we deserve this, as if us inheriting salvation is us getting exactly what we deserve. But I promise you, despite the way that so many professing Christians talk and think these days, you don’t want to live in a world where people always get exactly what they deserve, especially when it comes to you and God. What you should want is to live in a world overflowing with mercy, overflowing with grace, overflowing with forgiveness, because those things are your only hope for eternal life.

Let me ask a question. I won’t ask you to raise your hands. Just be honest about the answer in your own heart. Do you want to live in a world that’s fair? The answer is no. You don’t want to live in a world that’s unfair because injustice prevails, but you also don’t want to live in a world that’s totally fair. The world you want to live in is a world full of mercy, grace, and forgiveness, and those things aren’t fair because you don’t deserve any of them.

It shocks me how opposed to mercy so many Christians are today, and the only conclusion I can read is that its because we no longer think that we need mercy too. We think we’re generally doing ok, and so long as we get what we deserve, everything’s going to work out for us. But that is not the Gospel. In fact, that is anti-Gospel. The Gospel says that I am sinner, you are a sinner, and the people outside our walls are all sinners too. We are all sinners, and we are all in desperate need of the grace and mercy of God.

So we can no longer permit our knee jerk reaction to sin in other people’s life to be one of disgust or disdain or disapproval or rejection. When we see a sinner, what we should see is the lost coin and the lost sheep, what we should see is exactly who we would be apart from the grace of God, what we should see is an opportunity for rejoicing when what was lost is now found.

Jesus says at the end of the Parable of the Lost Sheep:

Luke 15:7 ESV

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

But here’s the punchline, in case you don’t see it already. There are no ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Not me. Not you. Not now. Not ever. There’s only ever been one righteous person who needed no repentance, and unless you are Jesus of Nazareth, you’re not him. There aren’t ninety-nine righteous and one unrighteous, there’s one hundred unrighteous and one who knows he’s a sinner, and that’s the one you want to be. So I’ll say it again. I’m a sinner. You’re a sinner. The people outside our walls are sinners. But here’s the Gospel.

1 Timothy 1:15 (ESV)

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

So I’m a sinner, you’re a sinner, the world is full of sinners, and thanks be to God, because Jesus came to save sinners.

Amen.