Still Sinners

Good Morning,

Romans 5:6-11 (NIV)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

One of the answers we often get when we invite someone to join us for worship at our various congregations is, "Well, sure. I'll go to church just as soon as I clean up my life a little bit." Oh, what a wrong idea THAT is! The first thing wrong with that thought is that without God in our lives the likelihood of "getting cleaned up" is pretty slim. The second thing wrong with that thought is that we'll NEVER be really clean in the eyes of God. After all, we read in Isaiah, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isa. 64:6)

We've got to remember these verses of Scripture to be able to quote, or at least to paraphrase closely if we have a serious problem with memorization (some of us do, you know!), so we can answer that argument about "getting cleaned up" before folks want to come to church with us. We've got to have these thoughts and ideas we read in God's Holy Bible readily at hand so we can simply tell people, "Look, God isn't looking for the perfect folks to come to worship Him. He's looking for everyone, the good and the bad and everyone in between to come and join together in church services."

When folks use this sort of argument or reason against "going to church" we just have to remind them that, first, everyone is a sinner. And, second, it's sinners that Jesus came to the earth to save...and that would mean everyone.

Let's not forget these words we read today. They might just be what we need to say when rebuffed about coming to our congregations to worship the Lord.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David