BE MERCIFUL TO ME THE SINNER...

Grace is for sinners, a truth Christians can both abuse and misunderstand. How often have we heard the accusation "hypocrites"? This is a claim I cannot quickly reject. I am a hypocrite. The more I learn about God the more I am aware of my shortcomings. While I can acknowledge that grace is for sinners I cannot allow the claim of God's grace in my life to excuse my need to struggle with the sin in my heart.

I don't consider myself a critical or judgemental person, and that is my problem. This is an example of what Jerry Bridges calls a "refined" sin or "the sins of nice people". "Sins that we can regularly commit and still retain our positions as elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, and yes, even full-time Christian workers."

For example, this weekend I visited a church I attended as a child. As I paid attention to the service I became aware that the reason I was listening so closely was my desire to find area's of disagreement so I could hold my doctrinal beliefs above theirs. I was pridefully thinking God was pleased with me and my religious opinions, while He was displeased with this church and their religious doctrines. The funny thing is I found little I disagreed with theologically. I was reminded that I needed to take seriously the warnings found in Matthew 7:3


"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye?"

My spirit is often critical. Bridges says, "A judgmental spirit is too often a vice of committed Christians. We need to recognize it as the sin it really is." What other refined sins do I struggle with? If I were honest my list would include the following: resentment, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, impatience, irritability, hate, love of self, materialism, and a host of others. These are sins I am so quick to point out in others, but ignore to the point of suppression within my own heart. Perhaps I should wear the label hypocrite.


I have become too comfortable with these types of sin in my life. What I need is a stirring of the coals, a reminder of the seriousness of sin. Anselm of Canterbury believed the restoration of human beings to the position they were intended to enjoy required divine grace. In Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became A Human Being) Anselm attempts to show that the debt incurred by human sin could be forgiven, and the offense to God's dignity could be rectified, only if one who was both fully divine and fully human took it upon himself to offer his own life on our behalf. Our sin demanded a sacrifice. It is serious. This should lead us down the path toward humility!

But what about those Christians who don't struggle with sin? The ones who don't seem to care, and who believe their sin doesn't matter because God loves them unconditionally? Paul anticipated this behavior (see Romans 6:1, Gal. 5:13). Jude hinted that it was happening in the first century (see Jude 4). Bridges writes,

"We cannot allow some people's abuse of truth to deprive us of it's value."

The value is that we can now view ourselves as what we are in Christ (saints) and what we are in ourselves (sinners). The true believer will find that as they grow in God's grace, and knowledge of their sin they will desire to live a more disciplined life. Robert Jones in his book titled Uprooting Anger give us an accurate picture of such a person in the psalmist who wrote psalm 119.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. (vv.103-4).

"At the same time, this sense of hatred coexists, without contradiction, with a sense of sweet delight in God's word. The psalmist is not a raging bull; he is a lover of God's truth and a hater of anything that opposes it."

The Christian who is acutely aware of God's grace, and his own sin will develop a proper desire to obey God's word, and to distance himself from things that keep him from doing so. While in his present state he is still a sinner there is a change that is taking place (sanctifying work of the Spirit) which causes him to act more in line with God's word. This is the heart from which will flow all of the fruits of the Spirit. Those Christians who continue on a path of sin without such a struggle must at some point question their faith. A good tree is known by the good fruit it produces, if there is no good fruit, then we question if the tree is good. If there is no desire in you to walk according to God's word then perhaps the Spirit does not live within your heart. You must confess, repent, and believe that Christ will forgive you.

Christians must remember that even at their best our religious works are no more than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). God knows this, that's why He sent Jesus, to help us, to free us, to do what we could not do. The puritan theologian John Owen wrote,

"Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect and unable to abide in God's presence. Therefore they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God."

John Owen understood the sinfulness of our good works. There is nothing we can do to please God apart from faith in Christ. We are back to grace. Grace is for sinners. It is not the sinners excuse to sin more. It is hope for a hopeless situation.