“I’m Just a Sinner Saved By Grace”…Really?

There is a big question floating around our nation right now, and it is highly theological. We don’t often get such questions asked like this any more, but in the midst of sorrow, we often are forced to ask the big questions. The big question right now is “Where is God?” Christians are poised to begin a great dialogue with the wider community, but we are often paralyzed by our own misunderstandings and theological biases.

If you were to ask a good Israelite during the Old Testament era, “Where is God?” he or she would, without hesitation, refer you to the Holy of Holies, whether that was in the Tabernacle or the Temple, depending on what point in time you were asking. During the time of the Gospels, after the disciples finally came to the realization of just what sort of man they were dealing with, if you would have asked them, “Where is God?” they would have pointed to Christ.

The question is not simply about the realm in which God exists, on what plane He resides, but is pointed, asking where He is in our own lives, and many Christians simply do not have adequate responses. The Temple has been destroyed, and Christ has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. So, where is He amongst His people today?

Like it or not, we are being asked, “Where was God?” and many Christians fumble for an answer, or we go on the defensive. However, we don’t need to search for the answer, nor do we need to come up with elaborative excuses for God’s absence. We can do as the Israelites and the disciples did; we can rely on the doctrine of tabernacling and point to the location in which God chooses to tabernacle amongst us today.  In the Old Testament, God dwelled in the Holy of Holies. In the Gospels, God was present in Christ Jesus, and now, where is He? Where does He tabernacle?

The New Testament is crystal clear about God’s tabernacle in the Church Age. God dwells in the hearts of His children. The answer to the big question is as simple as pointing to your heart. But, for some reason, we fumble for the right theology. We ignore the theology of God’s dwelling place. Why? Because it says something so profound about each of us that it is often too scary to face. Instead, we wish to deflect the issue away from our own responsibilities.

Instead of being the epiphainic presence of Christ, we overemphasize another theological truth, and we distort this truth so that it eclipses God’s presence in our lives and makes our human existence a bit easier to live, away from the scrutiny of the world. We lean on our own sin. We focus on the cliché: “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” Really? Is that really all God has for you? Is that really all God thinks of you? While there is truth in this statement, we, the very children of God, say it as if we are worthless and have nothing to show for being redeemed.

Have you heard a Christian say, “Don’t look to me for an example. I am merely a sinner, and I will disappoint you.” Let me say this. If this is your attitude, then you will be a disappointment, for you have allowed sin to have too big a place in your new life that is supposed to be hidden in Christ and led by His Holy Spirit. But, we are not to serve two masters. The idea that you do not represent something of God and His holy character as a Christian is bad theology. It is too small, too weak. Get rid of it. Unfortunately, it seems this is the theology of most in our nation. No wonder we now have to fight to be missional.

The Scripture's call upon our lives is much different and even in opposition to this more modern, nominal and domesticated “Christian” response. Instead of telling us that we are simply sinners covered by Christ, as if He is simply spiritual Febreze, the Bible tells us that we are made new: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (II Corinthians 5:17) The Bible does not simply tell us that one day, in the great beyond, we will be made different. We are different now. What we once were, the old, sinful self is dead. Therefore, we are not warranted to simply say, “I am just a sinner.” Again, that is bad theology. You are not just a sinner; you are a new creation. You are His child. You are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again… We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:14,15, 20,21)

Paul is sharing with us our true identity and the implications of being given such an identity. We are persons who have been purchased by Christ through His sacrifice. As such, we do not have the right to live as we wish. We have no excuse to give into our old self, for that old self died with Christ. We are now His, and He has given us a duty to carry the ministry of reconciliation. We are His ambassadors. We represent Him. Our plea to the world to not look at us as examples is antithetical to the very call of Christ and the reason He hung on the cross for your life.

The Bible tells us that we are His ambassadors, the very persons people are to look to when they want to know more about God and His character. Therefore, we cannot allow sin to have the place we have given it. We must be on guard. This newness of life is not simply a passive thing that is obtained and complete at the moment of salvation. It is something we have to work for, something Christians, who have been saved by the free gift of God by grace and through faith, are moving towards:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:10-16)

Paul is speaking of the life of Christian growth, also known as the doctrine of sanctification. We are called to be different, and we must always move forward. In some sense, as we saw in the passage from II Corinthians, we have been made new. So, Paul tells us to “live up to what we have already obtained.” In other words, do not make excuses for your sins. Live in newness of life. But, realize that God is not done. He has more to do in your life.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)

Again, we are called to leave behind our excuses and come to realize that we are to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

This is not the message of today’s church, and we are providing a terrible witness because of such. We struggle to find God ourselves, because we live in the sins that should have no real reign over our lives. We do this because we misunderstand the purposes of Christ’s gift. We often think He simply died so we do not have to die ourselves. But, He died for so much more. He died so that we could be His workmen. He died so that we could be made new and could bless the world by our being made in His image.

Personal reflection opportunity:

How have you viewed the place of sin in your life? Has it paralyzed your witness? Are you allowing God to make you new? Have you put off the old, sinful desires of the flesh and put on the new creation?

As you ask yourself these questions, read the words of Paul that I emphasized above and ask yourself, “Have I been listening to this part of the Scripture’s calling upon my life, or have I just bought into the domesticated church’s version of my worth?”

Balance the truths of our sinfulness and our newness. While we are not completely rid of the old self at the moment we accept Christ, it has no more power. It is dead. We only give it power when we do not live in His truth, in the newness of life. We must be on our guard not to fall into our old ways, but we do not need to allow our acknowledgment of the dangers of sin to keep us from moving forward and being His real presence to a lost and hurting world.

Here, for your convenience, are the emphasized portions of Scripture from Paul in II Corinthians 5, Philippians 3, and Ephesians 4:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here… Christ’s love compels us…we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him… We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us…in him we might become the righteousness of God…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal… All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things… live up to what we have already attained… you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking… Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity… That, however, is not the way of life you learned… You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted… be made new in the attitude of your minds… put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.