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Wretched Man, Chief of Sinners, or Perfected in Christ?

Writer's picture: Brian DoyleBrian Doyle

I watched a video the other day of a man who said, “Stop calling yourself a sinner, the Bible says you are perfected in Christ!” While I agree that Scripture does say that (Hebrews 10:4, 1 John 4:12), Paul calls Himself the least of the Apostles because of his persecution of the Church (1 Corinthians 15:9), a wretched man (Romans 7:24-25), and the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). How can this be true all at once?

 

I am perfected, not because of what I have done, but because of what Christ has done through His Sacrifice. The context of Hebrews speaks of the daily temple sacrifice, and, indeed, all of the sacrifices for atonement that must be made daily by the Levitical high priests; but through Christ, every Sacrifice has been made, He is all sufficient, and therefore, His sacrifice is enough to please God. I no longer have to sacrifice to pay for my sin, a sacrifice I will have to make every day because of my imperfection. Jesus paid it, and that settles the matter. When He said “it is finished”, He meant it! If I belong to Christ, God no longer sees my sin. He sees Christ’s perfection in my place! It’s not an internal work of mine, but the External work of Christ which gives me the internal dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Praise God, because I am a wretch!

 

When saying this about himself, Paul was not negating the work of Christ on the Cross. He was keeping a perspective that he was not worthy, and yet Jesus’ worthiness called him to the work. In humbling himself before Jesus, Paul was letting his readers know that the heavenly perspective is to recognize Christ’s worthiness by understanding how unworthy we are. Yes, this Paul who wrote that we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) also recognized that sin still existed within us, and that we needed to recognize that our only Savior is Christ. We cannot do it. We are not perfected by our works. We are, indeed, wretches in our sin, but saved by Grace through faith in Christ Jesus. It’s all about keeping the right perspective. Stay humble.

 

Ephesians 2

 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

One in Christ

 

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

 

Hebrews 10:1-18

 

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

 

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

 

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

 

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

 

“This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws on their hearts,

and write them on their minds,”

 

then he adds,

 

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

 

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.




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