I'm Not Who I Once Was
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I’m Not Who I Once Was
One of the most amazing things about the Gospel is that God often takes disobedient people, and turns them around... God loves to take someone who realizes they are broken and confused and makes us into something that is useful and beautiful.
One of the ways God did that with me was to show me where I was. God made me aware of my emptiness and need. It is like when you get on the wrong bus/train trying to go somewhere new– you have to know where you are presently standing, so you can get where you intended. Very rarely does anybody just “happen” to end up in the right place... and sometimes the process involves redirection in our lives, and sometimes it is painful, slow, and even confusing. Sometimes it seems unbearable. That has been the way it has been for me at times.
Think about Jonah... you know his story, don’t you... he was basically a bigot/racist about the Non-Jewish people God sent him to... he was so prejudiced, stubborn, openly rebellious and spiritually insensitive that instead of doing what God told him to do he tried to run away from the Lord. If you don’t know/learn anything else from Jonah learn that it is not a good idea to run from God!
Somewhere in his process of running/hiding from God he got on a boat headed the wrong way... heading West to Tarsish instead of East to Nineveh... but he didn’t make it. God arranged for him to be in a place where he could start over, slopping around in seaweed and juices inside the belly of a huge fish, no doubt wishing he had a match so he could LIGHT his way out. In that dark, disgusting place Jonah took a long, honest look at his short, dishonest life. He prayed, he yelled for mercy, he quoted all the Bible verses he could remember. He made vows to God, and promised to do what God told him to do... and I’m guessing that only one creature on earth felt sicker than Jonah about all of this — that poor Fish who had swallowed Jonah whole. It was an act of Grace that God forced that fish to vomit Jonah out of his belly on to dry land. And Jonah ran toward Nineveh!
God gave Jonah the opportunity to know where he actually was... God gave him time to honestly admit his present condition. He let Jonah see himself as he was, and stand alone inside the fish, so he could come to terms with the things in his life that needed attention. My prayer for you this morning is that you will understand where you are, and that you will start there. That all of us will openly and freely declare our need to the One who cares so deeply. That we will not hid a thing... that God will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten... Joel 12:25a.
READ TEXT/PRAY
The church of Corinth was contaminated by the world. Division, sexual immorality and love for law suites were all prominent features of their society, and it looked as if they were well on the way to becoming prominent features in the church. They needed to find out where they were, and they didn’t really have a clue.
The church members themselves seemed to be taking all this contamination as normal life. So what if they were living like the world? As long as they were saved, it didn’t really matter! If they were doing things that were wrong, what need was there for worry? They could always count on a loving God to forgive them! If God always forgives sin, why forsake it?
Paul, on the other hand, has been insisting throughout this letter that there is a radical difference between the child of God and the unbeliever. In the first half of this chapter alone, we can see a great divide running through his words. On one side are those he terms the ‘unrighteous’ (6:1) and ‘unbelievers’ (6:6). On the other side are those he terms ‘saints’ (6:1–2) and ‘brethren’.
This morning I want you to take to heart 3 unchangeable truths that God confronts us with right here. The first one is:
1. The Unrighteous Will Not Go To Heaven
So here is the issue: some of those who claimed to be on the Christian side of the divide were maintaining they could live both ways. They thought they could be saved, and still continue to live like the world. In the verses before us, Paul drops a bomb on that kind of thinking. He flatly asserts that people who continue in sin are not going to make it to heaven. ‘Do you not know’, he writes, ‘that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?’ (6:9). And he goes on to teach that anybody who believes otherwise is deceived. Remember, Paul is repeatedly saying ‘Do you not know’, ... of course they knew, but they were not living in light of the Gospel they claimed had changed them!
So there could be absolutely no mistake about what he was saying, Paul proceeds to list
some lifestyles that are incompatible with the kingdom of God. The first half of the list is primarily devoted to sexual sins. The words “sexually immoral” or ‘Fornicators’ are those who are
guilty of all forms of sexual sin. ‘Adulterers’ are the married who engage in sex outside of marriage.
‘Homosexuals’ and ‘sodomites’ are those who engage in sexual acts with persons of the same sex. The word translated ‘homosexual’ literally means ‘soft’ or ‘effeminate’ and probably refers to the passive partner in a same-sex affair; the word translated ‘sodomite’ probably designates the more active or aggressive homosexual partner.
Only the word ‘idolaters’ doesn’t seem to belong in the first half of this list. It could be that Paul included it because sexual acts played such a prominent role in the worship of idols in Corinth. Or perhaps he included it to suggest that those who practice these sins are guilty of making sexual pleasure their god. Either way it is a picture of man caring more about his sexual pleasure than worshiping God as He has called us to do. The Corinthians needed desperately to know where they were with God!
The second half of Paul’s list deals primarily with sins against one’s fellow man. ‘Thieves’ and the greedy or ‘covetous’ are those who are in the grip of greed. The only difference is that the covetous desire the possessions of others, while the thief actually takes them for himself . The ‘Drunkards’ may seem, at first glance, to be only abusing themselves, not their fellow man. But we know that the fact is, families in particular, and society in general, have had to pay a heavy toll for this sin.
‘Revilers’ are those who destroy with their words. Swindlers or ‘Extortioners’ are those who secure financial gain by taking unfair advantage of others. They are the dishonest and are those who cheat people out of their things.
Maybe you are wondering why Paul selected these particular sins. He could easily have mentioned others. Why just these? We must keep a couple of things in mind. First, Paul undoubtedly intended only to compile a representative list, not an exhaustive one. Secondly, these were probably the most prominent sins in the city of Corinth.
Please don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying. He is not suggesting that Christians are perfect and they never fall into any of these sins or others. There are plenty of examples in the Bible of great men of God falling into terrible sin, but that is not what Paul is talking about. He is referring to continuing in these sins. The Christian has his lapses into sin, but his basic bent is towards righteousness, and he hates the sin he falls into. The unbeliever is just the opposite. His basic bent is towards unrighteousness, and he hates righteousness.
The reason why people who live in sin cannot enter heaven is plain to see. It is ‘the kingdom of God’. And what is God’s fundamental characteristic? It is righteousness, or holiness!
This is a very sobering truth indeed, but thank God it is not the only truth in these verses! The second undeniable truth is that We can go on to conclude no one is too unrighteous to be cleansed.
2. No One is Too Unrighteous To Be Forgiven
‘And such were some of you,’ Paul says. Some of the members of the church had been among Corinth’s vilest, worst sinners. All the Corinthians were sinners, but Paul specifically calls attention to those who at one time practiced the lifestyles he mentions. I had to wonder “Why did Paul want to single out these?” It was to make the point that even the worst sinner can be cleansed and made fit for the kingdom of God!
God’s forgiving grace, offered to sinners who repent, is both overwhelming and thoroughly gratifying. Jesus tells the immoral woman who entered the house of Simon the Pharisee, “Your sins are forgiven.… Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (, ). He addresses the woman caught in adultery by saying, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (). To one of the criminals crucified with him he remarks, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (). And don’t forget that God actually calls Paul, the former persecutor of the early Christians, “my chosen instrument” ().
In the Old Testament there is an astonishing account of God’s grace that was given to Manasseh, king of Judah and son of Hezekiah. He is a perfect illustration of the idea that no one is too sinful to be forgiven. Let me summarize the events... Manasseh was born into the family of Hezekiah, who loved the Lord and faithfully served him. Manasseh, however, did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He worshiped the Baals, built altars to the starry hosts in the courts of the temple, sacrificed his own son, practiced sorcery and divination, placed a carved image in God’s temple, led astray the people in his kingdom, and shed innocent blood (, ; ). But this king, when he came to himself in captivity, repented. God not only forgave him but restored him as king of Judah ().
Reading Paul’s words here, we ought to be amazed at God’s forgiving grace. We try to fathom the depth of God’s forgiving love, and we boldly ask whether God will forgive any and every sin committed against him. Will he pardon those sins which, as Paul indicates, exclude a sinner from the kingdom of God? The answer is YES to every sinner who comes to God, confesses his sin, and pleads for mercy.
If you find that hard to believe, then hear Jesus’ assurance, with one qualification:
“Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” .
Paul says a great change had taken place in the lives of those who once practiced these lifestyles. They had been washed, sanctified and justified. The word ‘washed’ refers to regeneration. Paul, in his letter to Titus, makes mention of the ‘washing of regeneration’ (). So, what is regeneration? It is God planting new life within the sinner, giving him a new nature. The word ‘sanctified’ means ‘set apart’. When the sinner receives life from God, he is set apart for the purposes of God. The word ‘justified’ means the sinner is declared guiltless before God. He is no longer under the condemnation of God’s law, but stands clean and un-condemned before God.
In the Greek, all three of these words are verbs in the aorist tense, which indicates the action is completed. These people had undergone a once-for-all, unrepeatable transformation. They were changed and would never be the same again! Yes, they could still slip into acts of sin, but they were no longer dominated and controlled by it.
3. Our Cleansing Is Only Through The Work Of Christ
How can this happen? How can one be washed, sanctified and justified? Our text gives the answer. The third truth Paul lays before us in these verses is that no one is cleansed except through the work of Jesus Christ.
Paul says the Corinthians had experienced this great change ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God’. I think it is apparent from these words that cleansing from sin is the result of the work of the triune God. Each person of the Trinity plays a vital role in the work of salvation. God the Father is the originating cause of redemption. It was he who planned the work of salvation even before the world began. God the Son is the mediating cause of redemption. He is the one who actually paid the price for us by receiving on the cross the penalty due to sinners. And the Holy Spirit is the effecting cause of redemption. He is the one who actually does the work in our hearts and applies the work of salvation to us.
If the whole Trinity is involved in the work of salvation, is it correct to say no one is cleansed except through the work of Christ? Yes, because the work of Christ is the centrepiece of the whole plan of redemption. It was the plan of God the Father to send Christ to purchase redemption, and it is the work of Christ that the Holy Spirit applies to our hearts when we are saved. Because the work of salvation is centered on Christ, Scripture tells us there is salvation in no other (; ; ).
Just what did Christ do to make it possible for us to be cleansed from even the nastiest of sin? First, he left the glories of heaven to become one of us. As one of us, he did what we have utterly failed to do. He lived a perfect life and, in so doing, provided the righteousness God demands. Then he went to the cross and bore in his own body the penalty we so richly deserve.
Does God, then, demand perfect righteousness to get into heaven? YES and Jesus Christ has provided that righteousness! Does God say no sin will enter there? YES and Jesus has paid for my sin. Do you see it? He took my sin, and I take his righteousness!
If you want to get to heaven, then flee to Jesus Christ! Run like Jonah to Nineveh! Live like Manasseh after he repented of his sins! You may think your sins are too great, but they are not. Has God shown you where you are... then wrap your life and heart around Jesus! The redemptive work of Jesus Christ is sufficient to save the greatest sinner. Paul himself was a vile sinner but was still saved by Christ! I was a rebellious sinner, who has been saved by grace. You can be too. Simply come to Christ confessing your guilt and your sin. Cast yourself upon what he did for sinners, and you will discover what it means to be washed, sanctified and justified.