Jesus Died for Condemned Sinners, Not "Basically Good" People

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Died for Condemned Sinners, Not “Basically Good” People

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners,

Christ died for us.”

                                                                        Romans 5:8

O.K.  All the ex-sinners out there, raise your hands…No offense, but, “Liars!”  Don’t get all huffy with me now.  If you put your hand up either you’re lying or God is,  and I know God doesn’t lie.  You don’t have to believe me, check out what John had to say on the matter. (1John 1:8-10)

While, by the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit at work within us, we can be convicted, repent of, and forsake our past sins, shaking our sin nature is simply not possible.  In truth, a veritable “civil war” rages in every believer. (Romans 7:21-25)  But this is a good thing.  Lost sinners have no such internal conflict, they are quite comfortable in their flesh, and, unless the Father in response to the prayers of his Son sends the Holy Spirit, they will abide in their sins under what Paul calls the “law of sin.”

Thanks be to God that, through Jesus Christ our Lord, not only does the war go on inside every believer, but the battle has been won for us!  So, Paul can truly say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)  Unfortunately too many Christians and too many congregations have misunderstood what Paul said, and flee from all judgment and condemnation of sin.  And so we see higher divorce rates among churchgoers than the general population.  We note the alarming number of young believers who engage in premarital sexual relations.  We know that there are confused Christian women who make the tragic decision every day to abort their baby.  We either forget, or have never understood, that the purpose of condemning sin is to restore a brother or sister, to save them, not to cut them off from the fellowship of the Body and the grace and love of the Lord Jesus.  In the name of doing the “loving” thing, we do the exact opposite by creating a climate where sin, if not outwardly affirmed, is tacitly tolerated by avoiding the subject altogether in order not to hurt anyone’s self-image.

I can hear some people say, “That’s all very well, but there is never any reason to look at anyone’s past, and condemn past sins.”  This may sound good to many, but past sins never confessed, never repented of, are pretty much present sins.  At the very least such “past” sins are terrible, heavy burdens we don’t need to carry.  That’s why Jesus calls us to bring all such burdens to him (see Matthew 11:28-30), and why we need to encourage one another to regularly confess our sins to one another (James 5:16, 19-20).

The point of the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery is definitely not that sin should be ignored.  Rather, only those who first acknowledge their own sin, and how great their debt to grace, can approach a sister or brother with the goal of redeeming them while condemning their sin.  Otherwise we will likely fall into the trap of usurping God’s role as judge of all, just as that angry mob of scribes and Pharisees did.  Our calling is not to be executioners, but agents of the Father’s forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ, offering to those who, just like us are condemned sinners apart from the atoning death of Jesus, the same opportunity the Father gives us to be convicted, to confess, and to repent of our sins so that we all, like that woman in John 8, may, under “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” “go and sin no more.”