v 15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.
There are some people who constantly put themselves down. “I can’t really cook very well” or “I’m no good at football” or even “I’m useless – so don’t ask me to stand up and say something ‘cos I can’t string two words together!” Sometimes that’s a cover for embarrassment rather than inability, and other times it comes across as a perfectly genuine statement of reality. So what do you make of Paul’s estimate of himself? Of all sinners – and that describes me too – was Paul really the worst of them all? How about Nero, or Hitler, or ME?
Paul never shied away from the fact that he had once been a leader in the Anti-Christian movement among the Jews. But he doesn’t harp on it to draw attention to his own past but rather to emphasise the immense grace of God in loving him and leading him to the point of faith in Jesus. He wasn’t plagued by his past, continually apologising for it or feeling embarrassed by it.
How do you feel about your past? Does it sometimes come back to haunt you or scream at you that you really must be a hypocrite in going to church and claiming to be a Christian? Another name for our enemy Satan is ‘The Accuser’, because he wants to remind us that we are pretty bad sinners after all, and so God can’t surely love us and forgive us. If that is ever the case, simply tell him to clear off because all your past has been dealt with. God’s grace really is that huge and it encompasses all your past failure and sin. Bluntly, Satan hasn’t got a leg to stand on when he accuses you of your past sin, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and that’s you.
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