10-27-2022

Good Morning All,

1 Timothy 1:15(KJV); “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief”

    Have you ever engaged with someone else a debate about who is the best or who is the worst?  For example, which was the best baseball team, the 1927 Yankees, the 1955 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds or the 1998 Yankees?  If you get some real baseball guys together; that question is never answered; you can make the case for all of them by taking different parts of the game and different parts of society into factoring your decision.  You can have an opinion and as long as you have some facts; you can hold your own.

    In our verse, Paul tells his young pupil Timothy that he is number #1!!  Paul tells him that he is the best, the chief sinner.  As I read that verse, I am not sure if that is really a “best of” or a “worst of” category.  Usually, we want to be the chief, but do we want to be the chief sinner?  We may not want to be the chief sinner but we often times are.  We may not feel like it and in the eyes of the world we may not be.  I have never murdered anyone.  I have never given false testimony in a court of law.  I have never done anything really bad.  But I have been angry at another person and not for good reasons.  I have never given false testimony, but I have listened to and shared in some good, juicy gossip at the local Cenex or coffee shop.  I have wished that someone else would fall down so I could get ahead.  All of these are sins and Scriptures says that all sins rise as a stench to God.  All sins are like the carcass of a dead animal on a July day.  All sins are like a porta-potty that has gone without care for the week at the fair.   We are all chief of sinners just like Paul.

      But God in his grace solved that.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the worst ones like me and like you.  God sends his Spirit to bring this point home.  When we receive this by faith, we have all the joy that we can have.  We are on the journey with the Spirit toward our heavenly home which Christ has gained for us.

      This is how the Large Catechism says it when it is talking regarding the petition for forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer: “For this is the essence of a genuinely Christian life, to acknowledge that we are sinners and to pray for grace.  It depends not on the purity of the confession but on hearing and believing what God wishes to say, namely, that your sins are forgiven.  The disciple concentrates on that and cherishes it, giving praise and gratitude to God.”

      When we acknowledge that we are the chief of sinners and need God’s forgiveness; that is the essence of Christian life.  We need God’s grace; God gave us that grace even before we knew it.  He continues to give it and will always give it.  We only need to trust in his Word, and we receive the blessing of life starting with the washing of the stench in the waters of Baptism and nourished by the Word and Holy Communion.  This trust leads us in confidence and boldness to pray to God asking for and believing in his promises.  God promises to hear all who call on him in faith, trusting in his mercy for Christ’s sake.  So maybe being chief of sinners isn’t that bad; especially when we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and declared holy for his sake.

Dear Father in heaven, by nature I am chief of sinners.  Yet in your love you redeemed me and made me your own.  For this and all other gifts I give you thanks and praise.  Continue to cleanse me, to wash me and make me into the disciple that you want me to be, in Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret