46 Sermon Illustrations on Sinner

The question of the true identity of the Christian has been the topic of discussion for some time. Although not directly framed as a question of identity, the issues of self-love, self-esteem, and self-worth all relate in some way to the question, "Who am I?" This question has been posed more sharply in the alternatives, "Am I as a Christian basically a sinner who is forgiven, or a saint who sins?"

The first of these alternatives may be associated with what Warfield favorably termed "miserable-sinner Christianity." He referred to it this way because similar terminology runs through Protestant confessional formulas and catechisms. Luther's Short Catechism, for example, teaches the believer to say, "I, miserable sinner, confess myself before God guilty of all manner of sins." A Lutheran Confession of Sin reads:

I, poor sinful man, confess to God, the Almighty, my Creator and

Redeemer, that I not only have sinned in thoughts, words and deeds,

but also was conceived and born in sin, and so all my nature and

being is deserving of punishment and condemnation before His

righteousness. Therefore I flee to His gratuitous mercy and seek and

beseech His grace. Lord, be merciful to me, miserable sinner.

A similar expression is found in the prayers of the Church of England. After acknowledging sinfulness and declaring that "there is no health in us," the prayer closes with the petition, "But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders." One of the most rhetorical expressions of the concept of "miserable-sinner Christianity" is given by the Scottish minister, Alexander Whyte, in his work BUNYAN CHARACTERS.

Our guilt is so great that we dare not think of it... It crushes our

minds with a perfect stupor of horror, when for a moment we try to

imagine a day of judgment when we shall be judged for all the deeds

that we have done in the body. Heart-beat after heart-beat, breath

after breath, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, and

all full of sin; all nothing but sin from our mother's womb to our

grave.3

It would be wrong to take such a statement as necessarily signifying "miserable Christianity" rather than "miserable-sinner Christianity." Many of those who confessed their situation in this way knew how to flee to the grace of God and find the joy of forgiveness. But such statements would also seem to color the self-understanding of believers as to their basic nature.

An example of the alternative understanding of Christian identity as a "saint who sins" is a statement by Neil Anderson in one of his popular books.

Many Christians refer to themselves as sinners saved by grace. But

are you really a sinner? Is that your scriptural identity? Not at

all. God doesn't call you a sinner; He calls you a saint - a holy

one.... Why not identity yourself for who you really are: a saint who

occasionally sins.4

If the word "occasionally" is excluded from Anderson's statement, there is truth in both alternatives of the question. Believers are sinners in that they continue to sin, but Scripture also refers to them as saints. Believers therefore are sinners who by God's grace are forgiven, and they are saints who sin.

Thus in a sense Christians have a kind of double identity. But this does not mean they are schizophrenic or multiple persons. Each believer is one person, one ego or "I." The Apostle Paul wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God" (Gal 2:20). There was only one "I" and one Paul throughout this transition. The question of the believer's identity is therefore the question of the identity of that ego or "I." And it would seem that that identity must be related to the actual nature and behavior of that ego. If the nature and activity of the person is primarily sinful, then it is difficult not to see his core identity as a "sinner." On the other hand if the believer's nature and activity is primarily holy, then that person's real identity is that of a "saint."

THE BELIEVER'S POSITIVE IDENTITY

Consideration of the scriptural description of the believer and his activity obviously reveals a mixture of sin and holiness. But when the focus is on the actual description of the person's identity, the picture is decidedly positive. Even in the Old Testament, believers are described as living with a heart of integrity, soundness, and uprightness (e.g., 1 Kings 8:61; 9:4 {1 Kgs 9:4}; Pss. 78:72 {Ps 78:72}; 119:7 {Ps 119:7}). This of course does not mean that they were sinless or unaware of their sin. But they had a heart and life that was fundamentally devoted to God. Turning to the New Testament, Christians are frequently addressed as "saints" (e.g., Acts 9:32; Eph 1:1; Col 1:2). This surely has reference to their status in Christ, but other descriptions reveal that it also denotes something about their nature. Believers in the Lord are "sons" and "children of God" which, along with speaking of position or status, also depicts something of the nature of believers who are now oriented toward righteousness (1 John 2:29-3:2 {1 John 3:2}). Those in Christ are also called "light" (Eph 5:8) and "sons of light" (1 Thess 5:5), which means "they are characterized by light" as a result of the "transformation that takes place when anyone believes."5

The believer is part of the "new creation" (2 Cor 5:17). He has put off the "old man" and put on the "new man" (Col 3:9-10; cf. Rom 6:6). This transition refers to the believer's transference from the old corporate humanity under the headship of Adam to the new humanity with Christ as Head. But it also has reference to a change in the individual. Pointing to the imagery used of putting off and putting on clothing, Lincoln rightly explains that this "change of clothing imagery signifies an exchange of identities, and the concepts of the old and the new persons reinforce this." Since the appellation "new man" also has reference to the individual, the descriptions of it as "created in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Eph 4:24) and "being renewed - according to the image of the One who created him" (Col 3:10) both have reference to the individual believer. Thus Bruce says, "The new man who is created is the new personality that each believer becomes when he is reborn as a member of the new creation whose source of life is Christ." Putting off the old man and putting on the new are related to the teaching of the believer's death and resurrection with Christ (Rom 6:4-6). In codeath and coresurrection the individual's identity is radically changed. The old "I" dies and the new "I" rises in newness of life (Gal 2:20).

These descriptions of the Christian clearly indicate a positive identity and refer not only to status but also to the nature of the believer. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that the apostolic exhortation to new ethical behavior is made directly on the basis of the believer's new identity. The apostles were not grounding their hope for a new behavior simply on a new position or status, but on a new nature which can produce new actions. True, these actions are due to the life of God in the believer and are called "the fruit of the Spirit." But at the same time they are the product of the believer even as the fruit of the vine is the fruit of the branches (John 15:2-5,16). The exhortations to new ethical life are based on the principle Jesus taught that "good fruit" is borne by "good trees" (Matt 7:17). The nature as well as the identity of the believer is therefore seen as primarily "good."

These descriptions of the believer point in the direction of the root identity of the Christian as "a saint who sins," rather than "a sinner who is saved." But that is not the whole of the matter. Practical experience as well as biblical teaching still relate the believer to sin. Consideration of the identity of the believer therefore cannot avoid discussion of his relationship to sin.

THE BELIEVER'S RELATION TO SIN

Believers Still Sin

It is not difficult to convince most believers from Scripture as well as from experience that sin is still a part of their existence. They sometimes act carnally (1 Cor 3:1-3). The promise of continual cleansing of sin as they walk in the light (1 John 1:7) as well as the present tense used for the confession of sins (1:9 {1 John 1:9}) suggest that sin is continually present with believers. To say "we have no sin," John wrote, is self-deception and impossible for believers (1:8 {1 John 1:8}). Although the personal identity of the believer is in Christ, and thus in the new man which is being transformed into His image, the manner of life of the old man remains a part of the believer's experience. This is why Paul directed believers to put off the practices of the old man (Eph 4:22; Col 3:8-9).

Calvin's statement of what Christians ought to be should convince any believer that he or she has not attained sinlessness. "Since all the capacities of our soul ought to be so filled with the love of God," he said, "it is certain that this precept [to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind] is not fulfilled by those who can either retain in the heart a slight inclination or admit to the mind any thought at all that would lead them away from the love of God into vanity. "There remains in a regenerate man a moldering cinder of evil, from which desires continually leap forth to allure and spur him to commit sin."11

Does this true but rather bleak perspective make the identity of the believer a "sinner" as well as a "saint" so that he or she is actually both? Interestingly, although the New Testament gives extensive evidence that believers sin, it never clearly identifies believers as "sinners." Paul's reference to himself in which he declared, "I am foremost" of sinners is often raised to the contrary (1 Tim 1:15). Guthrie's comment on Paul's assertion is illustrative of a common understanding of Paul's statement and what should be true of all believers. "Paul never got away from the fact that Christian salvation was intended for sinners, and the more he increased his grasp of the magnitude of God's grace, the more he deepened the consciousness of his own naturally sinful state, until he could write of whom I am chief (pro,tos)."12

Despite the use of the present tense by the apostle, several things make it preferable to see his description of himself as "the foremost of sinners" as a reference to his preconversion activity as an opponent of the gospel. First, the reference to himself as "sinner" is in support of the statement that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim 1:15). The reference to "the ungodly and sinners" a few verses earlier {1 Tim 1:9) along with the other New Testament uses of the term "sinners" for those who are outside of salvation13 shows that he was referring to "sinners" whom Christ came to save rather than believers who yet sinned.

Second, Paul's reference to himself as a "sinner" is followed by the statement, "And yet - I found [past tense] mercy" {1 Tim 1:16), clearly pointing to the past occasion of his conversion. Paul was grateful for God's mercy toward him, "the foremost of sinners." A similar present evaluation of himself based on the past is seen when the apostle wrote, "I am [present tense] the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor 15:9). Because of his past action, Paul considered himself unworthy of what he presently was by God's grace and mercy, an apostle who was "not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles" (2 Cor 11:5; cf. 12:11).

Declaring that he was "the foremost of sinners," the apostle also declared that Christ had strengthened him for the ministry, having considered him "faithful" or "trustworthy" for it, to which He had called him (1 Tim 1:2). As Knight concludes, "Paul regards this classification of himself as `foremost of sinners' as still valid (eijmi, present tense); though he is fully forgiven, regarded as faithful, and put into service, he is still the notorious opponent who is so received. Thus the apostle was not applying the appellation "sinner" to himself as a believer, but rather in remembrance of what he was before Christ took hold of him.

James' reference to turning "a sinner" from the error of his ways is also best seen as bringing someone into salvation rather than restoring a genuine believer to repentance (James 5:19-20). Though the erring one is described as one "among you," the resultant outcome of saving the soul of the turned "sinner" from "death," which is most likely spiritual death, suggests that the person was not a Christian. Scripture surely teaches that unbelievers can be "among" the saints (cf. John 2:19).

This is not to say that in the Scriptures believers did not see themselves as sinful. Confrontation with the righteousness and holiness of God frequently brought deep acknowledgment of an individual's own sinful condition. Peter's recognition of himself before the Lord as a "sinful man" is not uncommon among the saints (Luke 5:8; cf. Gen 18:27; Job 42:6; Isa 6:5; Dan 9:4-20). The believer is sinful, but Scripture does not seem to define his identity as a "sinner."

BELIEVERS ARE OPPOSED TO SIN

Instead of being identified as a "sinner," the real person or "I" of the believer is opposed to sin. Before salvation the "I" or the "ego" of the believer, like the "I" of all "sinners," was in radical rebellion against the true God. Now the "I" of the believer is on God's side seeking to mortify the rebellion that is still present in the believer. Several truths combine to teach this new identity of the believer and his change of nature.

First, death and resurrection with Christ severed the believer from sin. The believer's participation in Christ's death and resurrection is a way in which Paul expressed the change that takes place when one becomes a Christian. According to the most extensive explanation of this truth in Romans 6, the primary significance of this transaction is the change of dominions over the believer. Christ's death and resurrection signify (a) death to the old age of sin and its dominion and (b) resurrection to a new sphere ruled by God. These objective realities take place in Christ as the Head of the new humanity much like His actions as the Head of the corporate "new man. But also like the transfer from the "old" to the "new" man, Christ's death and resurrection apply subjectively to the person of the believer who participates with Him.

In Rom 6 Paul is not simply concerned with the two dominions, but

with the decisive transfer of the believer from the one dominion to

the other. The believers were enslaved to sin, but now they stand

under a new master. This change has taken place through dying with

Christ... Dying with Christ means dying to the powers of the old

aeon and entry into a new life under a new power.17

The believers' union with Christ in His death and resurrection transforms them not just legally but also personally. As the person's "I" previously had a nature that willingly chose to serve sin, now he or she is a new "I" who willingly chooses God. Paul's testimony was that having been crucified with Christ, he now lived in such union with Him that his "I" could hardly be separated, not just legally but morally. Paul's "I" was willingly united with Christ, who continually and willingly obeyed the Father's will. As Bonar said, "The cross, then, makes us decided men. It brings both our hearts and our wills to the side of God." Second, the transformation of the believer in the change of dominions over him through dying and rising with Christ is further seen in the biblical concept of having a "new heart." As Jewett explains, "A characteristic of the heart as the center of man is its inherent openness to outside impulses, its directionality, its propensity to give itself to a master and to live towards some desired goal. This characteristic stems from the fact that Christians as finite persons can live only in "radical dependence on otherness."20

Most significantly, as Jewett noted, what the heart takes in becomes its master, stamping the heart with its character. What truly determines the heart and consequently the person is therefore the nature of the desire of the heart. After defining the heart as "our center, our prefunctional root," Kreeft adds, "at this center we decide the meaning of our lives, for our deepest desires constitute ourselves, decide our identity."21

According to Scripture the deepest desire of the believer has been changed. This truth is seen in the apostle's words to the Galatians: "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (4:6 {Gal 4:6}). The cry, "Abba! Father!" is typical of a son and represents the believer's most basic relationship with God. This cry is determined by the presence of the Spirit who brings Christ the Son into the center of one's personality to live within his or her heart. "The center of man is thus his heart; the heart's intentionality [or desire] is determined by the power which rules it. In the case of Christian[s], the direction of the heart's intentionality is determined by Christ's Spirit."22

The desire or intentionality of the human heart is in reality its love. As Augustine noted, love is what moves an individual. A person goes where his love moves him. His identity is determined by his love. The identity of the believer is thus a person who basically loves God rather than sin.

The presence of sin in the life of the believer indicates that remnants of the old disordered love of self remain. But those remnants now stand at the periphery of the real core of the person who is redeemed, God-oriented, and thus bent toward righteousness in his nature. "God begins his good work in us, therefore, by arousing love and desire and zeal for righteousness in our hearts; or, to speak more correctly, by bending, forming, and directing, our hearts to righteousness."23

This core of the new person is often not evident in conscious life, but it is nevertheless the dominating aspect of his being. As Delitzsch notes, there is a kind of will of nature that is basically self-consciously unreflected. This deep will of nature precedes the conscious actions of the person. The will of the believer has been changed through regeneration despite the fact that remnants of the old life still remain and continue to express themselves. The action of regeneration is directed not so much to "our occasional will, as to the substance of our will, i.e., to the nature and essence of our spiritual being."24

Thus the regenerate individual in the depth of his heart is changed; he has a nature oriented toward God. Although the person can still sin, this sin is related to a more surface level of his being which can still act contrary to the real person of the heart. But these surface actions do not change the real nature of the heart and thus the person's identity. The relationship of the real core nature of the human heart to its more surface activities is seen in Pedersen's discussion of the "soul" or what is perhaps better termed the heart.

It [the soul] is partly an entirety in itself and partly forms an

entirety with others. What entireties it is merged in, depends upon

the constant interchange of life.

Every time the soul merges into a new entirety, new centres of action

are formed in it; but they are created by temporary situations, only

lie on the surface and quickly disappear. There are other entireties

to which the soul belongs, and which live in it with quite a

different depth and firmness, because they make the very nucleus of

the soul. Thus there may be a difference between the momentary and

the stable points of gravity in the soul. But none of the momentary

centres of action can ever annul or counteract those which lie

deeper.

The deepest-lying contents of the soul are, it is true, always there,

but they do not always make themselves equally felt.25

This understanding of the human heart helps explain the practice of sin in the believer's life as well as the "good" in the life of the unbelieving sinner. The true nature of the person does not always express itself fully in actual life. But the basic identity of the individual is still there, and in the case of the believer it is positive.

Third, this same truth is seen in the positive nature of the ego or "I" of Romans 7:14-25. Paul's description of the "I" in this passage suggests that it refers to someone who has experienced the regenerative grace of God. Also this person is viewed in relation to the law of God apart from the empowerment of the Spirit of God. It could thus have reference to a Christian living according to the flesh in his own strength,26 or more probably to the experience of the pious Jew living under the Mosaic Law viewed from a Christian perspective.27

Of interest in this passage is the description of the "I" which is solidly on God's side. If what is said of this "I" or ego could refer to a pious Jew living under the Old Covenant, how much more would it be fitting for the believer of the New Covenant as part of the new creation through union with Christ. Considering the actions of the "I," all three dimensions normally seen as constituting personhood, that is, thought, emotion, and will, are all oriented toward God and His righteous law. Regarding the element of thought, the apostle wrote in 7:15 {Rom 7:15}, "For that which I am doing, I do not understand," or perhaps better with Cranfield, "I do not acknowledge" or "approve." In other words his thinking was opposed to his action of sin. This is also seen in verse 25 {Rom 7:25}: "I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but - with my flesh the law of sin."

His emotion is likewise seen to be on God's side in opposition to sin. "I am doing the very thing I hate" (Rom 7:15). As Dunn puts it, "he wholly detests and abhors what he does. If hatred is the opposite of love, then his love is directed toward righteousness. A further expression of emotion is indicated in Rom 7:22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man."

Also his will or volition is for God and against sin. "What I want [or `will,' qevlw] to do," Paul wrote, "I do not do... I have the desire [qevlein] to do what is good" (vv. 15,18 {Rom 7}, NIV). The verb qevlein is used seven times in the passage, the last when he described himself as "the one who wishes to do good" (v. 21 {Rom 7:21}).

These descriptions of the personal attributes of the "I" clearly define it as one with a positive nature. But more than this, the apostle went so far as to absolve, as it were, the "I" from sinning: "if I do the very thing I do not wish to do - no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me" (vv. 16-17 {Rom 7}; cf. the same thought in v. 20 {Rom 7:20}).

Since the same passage clearly shows the "I" as the subject of sinful actions as well as being opposed to sin, the apostle was not trying to evade the personal responsibility of the "I" in sin. But when the "I" is related to sin, it is never described in terms of the functions of personhood. There are no equal statements of thought, emotion, and will on the side of sin. Paul did not say, "I want to do the will of God, but I also want to sin." Nor did he say, "I love the law of God, but I also love sin." Thus the "I" that is positively oriented toward God is the person in the deepest sense of his personhood or identity. He is the "I" of the "inner man" (v. 22 {Rom 7:22}), the "I" that is the subject of the "mind" (v. 25 {Rom 7:25}). The assertion that it is no longer "I" but sin that actually does the sinning is similar to other apparently contradictory statements of the apostle when he was referring to the dominating power that mastered him: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live - " (Gal 2:20); "I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me" (1 Cor 15:10; cf. Matt 10:20). In these statements Paul was not intending to disavow responsibility, but to affirm the existence in himself of a power that exercised a dominating influence on him. The real person of the believer willingly assents to this dominating power, but in the case of sin as in Romans 7 the real "I" opposes it and can thus be set against it. Here the ego or real "I" in the believer is viewed as so opposed to sin that they can be isolated from each other. And the actual committing of sin, instead of being the action of the ego can be regarded as the action of the sin that enslaves the ego contrary to its will. As Delitzsch says, "the Ego is no longer one with sin - it is free from it; sin resides in such a man still, only as a foreign power."30

Romans 7 thus presents the real person of the believer as positive. To be sure, he commits sin both in thought and act but he also does righteousness. Sin and righteousness, however, do not characterize the real person of the believer in the same way. The believer is capable of experiencing a double servitude expressed in the apostle's words, "on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin" (v. 25 {Rom 7:25}). But as this statement, along with the entire passage, indicates, the real person of the believer willingly serves God.

The description of the believer in Romans 7 thus fits the same picture of the believer seen in the teaching of his death and resurrection with Christ and his new heart. The Christian has been radically changed in his relationship to sin and righteousness from what he was before salvation. And this change is more than simply positional or judicial consisting in the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of righteousness. It includes a radical change of nature. The Christian is a new person. He has a new heart which is the real identity of the person.

CONCLUSION

The full picture of the believer's relationship to sin and righteousness is obviously beyond the scope of this study. But when the question of his identity is posed - is the Christian a saved sinner or a saint who sins? - the Scriptures seem to point to the latter.

There is truth in the following explanation of so-called "miserable-sinner Christianity" expressed by Luther:

A Christian is at the same time a sinner and a saint; he is at once

bad and good. For in our own person we are in sin, and in our own

name we are sinners. But Christ brings us another name in which

there is forgiveness of sin, so that for His sake our sin is forgiven

and done away. Both then are true. There are sins - and yet there

are no sins... thou standest there for God not in thy name but in

Christ's name; thou dost adorn thyself with grace and righteousness

although in thine own eyes and in thine own person, thou art a

miserable sinner.32

Christians are sinners who are forgiven. But there is more to it than that. They are regenerated persons whose root core has been changed. They are forgiven, but also their heart - the spring of their life and their true identity - is new.

To confess as present-day Anglicans do that "there is no health in us" or that "all my nature and being is deserving of punishment," as also stated in the old German Lutheran confession, is contrary to the biblical picture of the believer.

All the apostles' ethical imperatives are addressed to believers on the premise that their natures are now on God's side and have a new ability to obey God. The very assumption that Christians should grow demonstrates a belief that the positive dominates over the negative in their being. For a Christian to grow, there must be a stronger inclination toward God than toward sin.

Although the terminology "miserable sinner" does not adequately define the true identity of the believer, several truths at the heart of so-called "miserable-sinner Christianity" must be retained even when viewing the believer as a "saint who sins."

First, despite the truth that the believer's heart and thus his or her

identity have been transformed to an orientation toward God and His

righteousness, one's acceptance before God is only on the basis of

Christ's righteousness. One's salvation is complete in Christ's

righteousness alone.

Second, the believer who sins must experience misery over sin. If a persons'

affections have truly been changed so that he or she is now on God's

side, then that one must hate sin and experience a godly sorrow over what

grieves and wounds the One who loves believers deeply. Fisher's

description of sorrow over sin should be the experience of all believers.

When faith hath bathed a man's heart in the blood of Christ, it

is so mollified that it generally dissolves into tears of godly

sorrow; so that if Christ turn and look upon him, O then, with

Peter he goes out and weeps bitterly. And this is true gospel

mourning; this is right evangelical repenting.34

Third, even though God in His grace has created in believers the germ of a

new nature which gives them a new identity, their focus in life must be

not on themselves, but on Christ. Dying and rising with Christ means the

end of self-trust. Therefore, even though they are new persons, their

source of life and growth is not in their own identity but in Christ.

Their focus must be on Him and not on their own new identity. In Him

they are new creatures (2 Cor 5:17).

#4437

*

[A Baptist pastor] appeals to the fact that he has gay and lesbian friends, who, if I can make a gross simplification, are "nice." Because they are nice, they don't seem to fit the tone of the texts that condemn homosexuality.

I understand. I really do. I have nice homosexual friends too. I minister to and have Bible studies with both homosexual men and lesbians.

But their being nice does not change the truth of the Scriptures that call all homosexuality a sin.

I have other friends who are not Christian. They are nice too. In fact, some of them are "nicer" and more loving than most of the members of my church. It would be tempting for me to think the passages of Scripture that claim they are children of and captive to satan do not apply to them. Nor would I want to believe that they are bound for hell. But the Scripture clearly teaches they are.

I would do my nice friends a disservice if I looked at how nice they were and concluded they really didn't need to hear about Jesus and his salvation.

Nor would I do my homosexual and lesbian friends any good by telling them that because they are nice, the Scriptures on homosexuality do not apply to them either.

One final comment: All that glitters isn't gold. Some nice people aren't so nice behind closed doors. One of the most extensive studies on homosexuality by A.P. Bell and M.S. Weinberg found:

73 percent of gay men had over 100 partners

58 percent of gay men had over 250 partners

41 percent of gay men had over 500 partners

26 percent of gay men had over 1000 partners

Pastor Glenn Wade

San Diego

*

The cell door slammed, shutting out all my expectations for the future. Having lived in care of the local authority and serving two months in a detention centre I was now about to do a stretch in Borstal [Prison]. The first three weeks of my sentence began in H.M.P. Winson Green. I was in the big house. Looking up at the bars, which fortified the window of my cell, I began to ask myself some searching questions. 'Will I ever get out of this place?' 'Could I possibly settle down, or would it always be like this?' The answers to my questions resounded in the negative. Lying on my bed in solitary confinement, I recalled how a neighbour once branded me as 'the scum of the earth'. I also pictured the faces of those who told me, 'you will never learn'. 'You are going to be in and out of prison for the rest of your life.' I conceded that my critics were right. I was a juvenile delinquent without any prospects.

THE BUTLINS MYTH

Like most, I believed any correction centre with sports facilities, colour television and similar privileges characterised a holiday camp. My naive perception was about to be refined. In my adolescence I was detained at seven institutions. Three of them were open, the others were closed. In each of these establishments I encountered some form of upheaval. I think of those inmates who without knowing consumed food and drink laced with human spit. I recall an incident when prison officers set up some detainees. They were systematically released out of their cells and beaten up in the showers by other inmates. I happened to be present on a remand wing when self-abusers slashed their wrists and attempted suicide. These people were otherwise known as 'crack-ups'. On the inside I discovered that ethnic abuse and violence was always prevalent. Bullying amongst inmates was the norm. One prisoner was overpowered and held down in his cell. His attackers then proceeded to scrub his shins to the bone, with a scrubbing brush. I came to the conclusion that doing time was no vacation. Borstal was the climax of my institutional life. Following my release the numbers 584114 and 535057 have since been tattooed on my mind. All offending inmates are given numbers for administrative purposes. I have not been able to forget my numerical identity.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

Back out on Civi Street, I was determined to go straight. Despite the untimely death of my father, I began to adjust and find a place in the world. Before my eighteenth birthday I successfully applied for a job with a turf accountant. Of course I lied to get it. I was only seventeen at the time, I pretended to be eighteen. Furthermore, I willfully omitted to inform my employer about my previous convictions. By doing this I got the job as a bookies board marker. My responsibility was to chalk up the results from the horse and dog races. From here on in I took a personal interest in the racing business. I began to have a little flutter. Eventually gambling got a foothold in my life. My week's wages was often lost in a day's betting. In addition to my gambling problem, the area manager found out about my past record. Consequently, I was asked to leave. I was given four weeks notice and promised a good reference.

GIZ A JOB

About the same time I received notification from the betting office, something happened which I thought was unusual. My mother, ignorant of the situation, came home and told me it was time I got a real job. Unexpectedly she proceeded to say that she had arranged an interview on my behalf. I was to apply for the post of a draughtsman with a local company. I laughed at such a stupid notion. I reminded her that I was a semi-literate, ex-con with no trade or formal qualifications. At this my mother threatened me strongly and promised if I did not make an effort I would be kicked out of the house. I realised the only way I could keep the peace was to attend this interview. However, I was puzzled. How did a little sixty three-year-old pensioner, find favour with the boss of this company? How did my mother manage to walk into this factory and create this job opportunity? Little did I know, a higher power had been at work in my circumstances?

I decided to go for the interview that following week. Walking into the reception area the secretary declared. 'If you've come for a job you've missed the boat.' I was relieved. I would not have to step into the shoes of a draughtsman. I knew they would not fit. Just then I was introduced to the works manager. He reluctantly invited me into his office. He told me that he was not expecting me. But he admitted talking to a 'little old lady' asking about a job for her son. The next ten minutes ticked away in silence. I watched with embarrassment as the manager gazed aimlessly through his window. He thoughtfully bit his nails. He thrust his hands behind his back and strutted around his office. I knew he was hesitating about making a decision. The silence broke when he said, 'I'll give you a job as a plater's mate.' I did not know what a plater's mate was supposed to do. But one thing was for sure; I had fallen on my feet by getting a 'real job'.

GOOD TO WORSE

The serendipity into the world of constructional engineering was a Godsend. By now I had a steady girlfriend, independence, and I was working for a living. All was going well until I sustained an injury to my back. This impaired my ability to do manual labour. Subsequently I began to take a lot of time off work. I started to become undisciplined. My gambling addiction intensified. I started to take drugs on a regular basis and supply them to my friends. The parent-son relationship between my mother and me was strained. I was asked to leave the house. I did so. The council offered me a bed-sitter flat. It did not have a proper heating system. I was in need. I accepted the poor accommodation. My life was falling apart once more. Long absences from work, heavy bouts of drinking, compulsive gambling and regular drug taking. I was a thousand and hundreds of pounds in debt. My council landlords were taking me to court because of my extreme rent arrears. This was a bad omen. The last time I appeared in court was for an affray. I thought my courtroom drama had finished. I was mistaken. Old habits die-hard. I was now an irresponsible adult with no prospects.

HANGING ON IN THERE

Awaiting a second operation on my spine I periodically put in some attendance at work. I feared if I got the sack, happiness would be unachievable. No one would employ a twenty five-year-old reprobate, with a criminal record, suffering from ill health. I was under pressure, barely coping. I no longer had the support of my social workers or the persuasive influence of a probation officer. I was struggling alone in this mess convinced no one could help.

SPEAKING MY MIND

It was one of those rare occasions. Much to everyone's surprise I turned up for work on a Monday morning. When break time came around, I sat down in the welding pen drinking a cup of tea talking to a colleague. His name was Roy. I noticed that he took a book out of his locker. Being inquisitive I asked him what he was reading. Roy told me that he was preparing a Sunday school lesson. He was a Christian. I was indignant. I jumped down from the metal bench on which I was sitting, I started to point my finger at Roy, saying, 'I know there's a God, you don't have to tell me.' I also admitted to offending God. On this confession my comments became a little reverent. I said to Roy, 'If I had a wish right now, guess what it would be?' He interrogated and asked, 'What would your wish be?' I explained that, 'I wanted God to take away every bad thing I had done, compress it into a ball and throw it away for ever.' I carried on to say that I was confused about the many religions of the world. 'I wished I could find the true God.' After I had made these remarks, the hooter sounded the workforce back to its duty. Break time was over, Roy and I went back to work. I did not think or ponder on what I had said. It was just like any other conversation I had that day.

STRANGE ENCOUNTERS

I awoke early the next morning. Opening my eyes I could see the sunshine blistering its beams through my bed sitter window. The strength of its rays caused me to squint. The light was unusually bright. I had never seen the sun shine like this before. Arousing myself out of bed, I went into the bathroom, washed and got dressed. That morning I was very emotional. I suddenly burst into tears. I began to weep like I had never wept before. These were strange tears. Along with these tears, the voice of my own mind uttered a bizarre statement, 'Jesus Christ is who He says He is. You must become a Christian.' This experience was so overwhelming I needed to step outside and get a breath of fresh air. Walking along the streets I saw clouds hovering in the blue sky. They grabbed my attention immediately. The clouds appeared to be so low I could have raised my hand and touched them. I had never experienced joyful feelings like these before. I now saw life in 3D for the first time. Describing the event, with the words of John Wesley, 'my heart was strangely warmed. Theologians identify the experience as 'regeneration'. Ridiculers mock and call it, 'seeing the light'. Secular minded people understand it as a 'conversion'. Jesus described it to Nicodemus as being 'born again' (John 3:3,7). In that unforgettable month of May 1985, I cried like a baby and was born into another world. My mother did not get me that plater's job after all. Divine providence led me to that factory. It was there on an industrial shop floor, the Holy Spirit brought me to repentance and saved my soul from hell.

HELLO CHURCH

A couple of days after my conversion, I summoned up the courage to go and visit a nearby chapel. As an unchurched believer, I gate crashed the prayer meeting. I asked the minister to make me into a born again Christian exactly like Cliff Richard. The singer at that time was the only born again Christian I could relate to. I am glad that Cliff and the press did not keep his belief a secret. The minister of the chapel obliged and granted my request. He prayed with me. I now considered myself to be an official Christian.

TRANSFORMATION

My change of heart went beyond an experience. It imparted a difference. The fruits of my being 'born again' soon became evident. I was affected in every way. My girlfriend stated that I was not the same Kevin she knew. She gave me an ultimatum. God or her. I was compelled to choose God. For the first time in my life I was backing an authentic certainty. I placed the reins of my destiny into the hands of the rider of a white horse, who is called faithful and true (Revelation 19:11). This divine jockey Jesus Christ has never failed me yet. Instead the dynamic of my conversion has changed the quality of my life.

For example, I was able to stop smoking instantly. I was pleased about this. I had tried to stop smoking on a number of occasions before. Now I was able to kick the habit without making any effort. The craving for nicotine has gone. Furthermore I quit taking drugs. I told my friends that I would no longer be supplying them with illegal substances. My friends laughed. They suggested I was on a bad trip and my religious experience was just a phase. This was 13 years ago, in 1985. They were wrong. I have not used drugs since.

In a television interview I was asked if my conversion experience may have possibly been drug-induced. I answered the question by explaining that my wife became a Christian at fourteen. She had a conversion experience, but she has never taken an illegal substance. The church I pastor has about eighty members. The majority of which have never taken drugs, but they too have had a life changing experience with Jesus Christ. Some drug-takers have become Christians. But many Christians have never been drug-takers. It has also been suggested that my experience may have been a nervous breakdown, however someone who has a nervous breakdown is unable to cope with life. My conversion to Christ produced the opposite effect. Since my conversion I have been able to excel in life. I have gained the capacity to cooperate with others and sustain loving relationships. Furthermore I now have a disciplined intelligence. Before I became a Christian I had not read a book, I was virtually unlettered. But now I read widely and have a personal library of one thousand books. I have written articles for Challenge newspaper and Joy magazine. My conversion to Christ has also given me a respect for morality and equipped me with leadership skills that I did not have before. But most of all, since turning to faith in Christ I have gained a real sense of the meaning of life. It is true to say that I am enthusiastic about my faith, but that enthusiasm comes from a sound mind.

My parental relationship with my mother has long been reconciled. I was with her when she died peacefully aged 82. Months before her death mom prayed the sinner's prayer with me and asked Jesus to be her Saviour too. One birthday she gave me the money to purchase the complete works of the puritan writer John Owen. She wrote an inscription in volume one, which says,

'A present with joy and love to Kevin in appreciation of study etc which has been extremely hard work to the lad. From his loving and surprised, thankful mom. God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. Mom'.

Furthermore I have experienced a redemption lift in my domestic circumstances. By the grace of God, I have been able to pay off all of my rent arrears. I do not gamble anymore, not even on the lottery! Consequently, I have the financial freedom to buy my own house.

The house is a small centrally heated three-bedroom semi. It is fully carpeted with a utility room, a garden and a garage. It excels my former accommodation. I am grateful for God's provision I am also married, my wife is named Colleen, I love her very much. We have two sons, Joseph and Nathan. God has been true to His word, 'He sets the lonely in families' (Psalms 68:6).

As a teenager I neglected formal education. I am pleased to say God has restored some of the school years, which the locusts have eaten. I was privileged to study at the Birmingham Bible Institute in 1988-1990. I obtained a certificate in theology and a GCSE in English. Modest qualifications I know, but at that time, a personal best.

Now I no longer wonder through life, I am conscious that I'm on an exciting journey. In my years of full time Christian ministry I have endured some unpleasant moments and severe trials. But in the midst of difficulties, God's hand of encouragement lifts me safely over the hurdles. I wish I had become a Christian sooner, but even this regret is compensated. Jesus said, 'There are those who are last who will be first.' Luke 13:30. This is a blessed principle. The dying thief on the cross was a no-hopper. He was making his last will and testament. But with Christ he came through to repentance, won forgiveness and picked up the prize of eternal life. Jesus Christ has given me peace for the past, grace for the present and hope for the future. He can do the same for you.

Kevin Coley (Revised on 16th April 1999)

CHURCH:

Dudley Christian Fellowship, Salop Street, Dudley, West Midlands England Tel: 01384 239222 Or Tel 0961 801418 e-mail pastorkevinandcolleen@cableinet.co.uk

THREE STEPS TO BECOMING A CHRISTIAN

1. Recognise that you are a sinner and that there is nothing that you can do about it. 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (ROM 3:23, RSV) Jesus Christ is the standard that God has set for each one of us to attain. Turning over a new leaf will not work.

2. Turn from your sin and turn to Jesus Christ. 'He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. His wounds have healed you.' (1 Peter 2:24, RSV) God only requires from you the honesty to admit that you are morally and spiritually a failure. You can come to Christ just as you are. 3. Commit yourself. 'Jesus Christ, I believe and trust you, I believe you did for me, I give you all my sin and guilt. Thank you for forgiving me, I open myself to you. Come in now as my King and Saviour, and take charge of my life. Thank you, Amen.' And finally, if you have found Christ don't keep it a secret, go and tell somebody. E. Delve.

PROFILE

Kevin Coley is the Pastor of Dudley Christian Fellowship, West Midlands, England. He was converted to Christ in May 1985. Kevin studied at the Birmingham Bible Institute 1988-90 and worked with Sedgley Full Gospel Church 1989-92, and Bloxwich New Life Centre 1992-94. Kevin writes a bimonthly evangelistic column for Challenge newspaper, and pens monthly articles for Joy magazine. Kevin is married to Colleen; they have two sons, Joseph and Nathan. The family resides in Kingswinford. Kevin's aim in life is to encourage as many people as possible on the basis of his Christian faith.

CHURCH: Dudley Christian Fellowship, Salop Street, Dudley, West Midlands England Tel: 01384 239222 Or Tel 0961 801418 e-mail pastorkevinandcolleen@cableinet.co.uk.

Strong Finish

Kevin Coley

*

As every movie buff knows, condemned prisoners always get to say a few final words.

Some apologize, while others protest. Some repent. Some rant. All have a last chance to confess to an eternal judge.

A decade ago, an infamous killer in South Carolina quietly offered words of thankfulness and acceptance.

When Rusty Woomer died in the electric chair, he was not the man whose Quaaludes-and-whiskey fueled binge had left four tortured and dead.

"I'm sorry," said Woomer, whose prison years included many acts of selfless service to others. "I claim Jesus Christ as my savior. My only wish is that everyone in the world could feel the love I have felt from him."

It's hard not to contrast this with the arrogance shown by America's greatest terrorist, said the Rev. Lee Strobel, a former Chicago Tribune legal-affairs reporter who is now a writer and teacher at the massive Saddleback (California) Community Church.

Nevertheless, anyone who takes Christianity seriously must pray for a moment of repentance and grace before Timothy McVeigh is executed by lethal injection.

"After he is declared dead, McVeigh will stand trial once more," said Strobel, before the now-delayed execution date. "This time, there will be no secrets, no defense attorneys, no legal maneuvering, not rationalizations, no excuses. And unless something happens before then, he will be found guilty once again and sentenced to a hellish eternity in a place utterly devoid of hope.... This will not make God happy."

During his media offensive, McVeigh has said his last blast of political rhetoric will include lines from William Ernest Henley's "Invictus."

In this anthem of defiant individualism, the poet briefly thanks "whatever gods may be," yet concludes:

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scrolls,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

That doesn't sound like a humble confession of sin.

Strobel's sermon, titled "What Jesus Would Say to Timothy McVeigh," noted that the bomber has refused to apologize and even called his youngest victims mere "collateral damage."

Thus, McVeigh has become the soldier from hell - a poster boy for all that is evil.

Can this man be saved?

"God is just, but God also is merciful," said Strobel. "So McVeigh's soul can saved. That is the word of hope that he needs to hear. ... There is always a chance that someone can repent and be forgiven. We are supposed to believe that, no matter what."

Debates about heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, become even more complex when linked to an issue as explosive as the death penalty.

Strobel said he opposes the death penalty, in part because of the cracks in the justice system that he probed during his years in journalism. He also would agree with Pope John Paul II that nations today can efficiently fight crime "without definitely taking away the possibility of self-redemption."

Strobel said Christianity clearly teaches that McVeigh - whatever his legal fate - can repent and find salvation.

So the most disturbing question is not, "Can McVeigh be saved?", but, "Why aren't more believers praying that he will be saved?"

Of course, there are "universalists" who don't believe in hell and, thus, believe that McVeigh will go to heaven with everyone else, no matter what. People who hold this belief tend to stay quiet during the days just before the execution of notorious criminals.

Meanwhile, other believers proclaim salvation by grace, but in practice this doctrine of radical forgiveness tends to make them nervous, said Strobel.

Most people find it easier to imagine God forgiving their own "garden-variety sins," or those of a kindly neighbor, than God forgiving the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Karla Faye Tucker or, should he repent, McVeigh. But sin is sin, said Strobel.

"If anyone ought to know how much he needs God and how much he needs to be forgiven, it ought to be Timothy McVeigh. But that doesn't mean we're supposed to be cheering as he dies and calling him the world's greatest sinner. Doing that only makes it harder for us to see the sin in our own lives and how badly we all need to be forgiven."

The Romans Road is a popular evangelistic method which walks through a number of verses in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. While I personally don’t like the way in which most people explain Romans 10:9-10 in that presentation, I do like the way Romans 3:23 is usually presented. However, recently it dawned on me that we could do an even better job of explaining Romans 3:23.

ALL HAVE SINNED

The English translation here is a perfect tense. However, the Greek is actually an aorist tense which by itself merely conveys past action. The context must be consulted to determine the precise nuance intended. As we shall see, the context here indeed requires an English perfect tense, for in English the simple past implies that the action has ceased. Yet no living human being has yet ceased from sinning.

I ran across an excellent comment by C. E. B. Cranfield in his two-volume commentary on Romans. Concerning the aorist hamarton, used in 2:12 and 3:23, he says,

It may be described as a collective historical aorist (cf. 3:23),

the aorist being used because the sins referred to are thought of

as together constituting a past event. Since no interval is

envisaged between the completion of the sum of sins and the time

of speaking, a perfect is required in English. But it is

possible — indeed, probable — that here the statements of past

fact are made proleptically as from the viewpoint of the last

judgment (p. 153, italics added).

Since Paul is discussing all people and not merely unbelievers, the reference to the last judgment is a bit misleading. Actually, there is one judgment for believers, the Judgment Seat of Christ (e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:9-10), and another, separate judgment for unbelievers, the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). In addition, Cranfield appears to be reading in the idea that Paul is writing proleptically. It makes perfect sense for Paul to be saying that at any point in time all people have sinned. Compare 1 John 1:8,10. In other words, all sinned in the past and continue to sin in the present. Cranfield’s point that the English requires a perfect tense is excellent, and shows why this likely is not written proleptically.

All people sin. Not just in the past, but in the present as well. The lone exception is the Lord Jesus who never has and never will sin. He is the lone exception because He is only man who is God incarnate. He was born of a virgin and He thus did not inherit a sinful nature. The sin nature is passed through one’s biological earthly father, which the Lord Jesus did not have.

Most people blithely move on to the next phrase and assume it is simply making the same point again in different words. That, however, is not the case.

ALL FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD

Paul doesn’t say that all have fallen short of the glory of God. Look at the verb tense here: all fall short of the glory of God. He shifts to the present tense for a reason.

We often use Romans 3:23 to show the unbeliever that he has sinned and that he falls short of the glory of God. Actually the verse says that all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. That includes each and every believer as well!

Believer, you right now fall short of the glory of God. Until you die or are raptured, you will continue to fall short of the glory of God. The most mature saint still falls short of the glory of God.

Cranfield’s comments here are superb:

The reference is to that share in the divine glory...which will

be restored in the eschatological future (cf. 5:2; 8:18, 21, 30).

As a result of sin all men lack this illumination by the divine

glory. Here both the tense of the verb [present] and the fact

that its subject is pantes [all] should be noted. They clearly

imply that not only all other men but also all believers still

lack this ‘glory of God.’ Attempts to soften this or to explain

it away have the disastrous effect of obscuring the transcendent

majesty of the glory which is yet to be ours. This is not to

deny that there is a relative glory which already illumines the

lives of believers — Paul can speak elsewhere of their being

tranformed ‘from glory to glory’ (2 Cor 3:18); but the

decisiveness of the distinction between these two glories should

not be blurred (pp. 204-205).

When we explore other references to this coming future glory, we find that our share in it will be proportional to how well we have served Christ in this life. There is a special degree of glorification for believers who suffer for Christ: “If [we are] children [of God], then [we are] heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer together with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17). Similarly Peter says, “But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13).

Romans 3:23 should remind regenerate people that we have sinned (have sinned in the past with an continuation in the present) and still fall short of God’s glory. This reminder should motivate us to strive to share in God’s glory as fully as we can forever.

CONCLUSION

So, the next time you share Romans 3:23 with someone, put yourself in there too. And remember that the verse looks not only at past sins, but also at a present shortfall in relation to God’s glory.

May we strive to reflect God’s glory as much as possible now. Remember that to do so requires among other things that we suffer with Christ. And if we abide in a life of suffering with Christ, we will obtain a fuller measure of His glory forever.

Once, when he was managing the Washington Senators, baseball legend Gil Hodges discovered four of his players had broken curfew the previous night.

Immediately, he called a team meeting and said, “I know who you are but I do not wish to embarrass you. You know the rules -- you will each be fined $100. I have placed a cigar box on my desk. I expect the four of you who broke curfew to put your money in the box by 3:00 p.m.”

At the end of the day, Hodges found $700 in his cigar box!

________

Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004

Early in the new film WALK THE LINE a twelve-year-old Johnny Cash is talking with his adored older brother Jack. Johnny asks how Jack is able to remember all the stories in the Bible. Jack, who wants to be a preacher, responds, “You can't help people unless you can tell 'em the right stories.”

It's a truth that the filmmakers clearly bore in mind as they made the movie. WALK THE LINE, a beautifully made film about Cash's early years, is many stories in one: a story of sin, self-absorption, recklessness, grace, and redemption.

It's not a pretty story, by any means. Johnny Cash once told ROLLING STONE that he was “the biggest sinner of them all.” He was looking back on years of drug addiction, infidelity, a failed first marriage, and more -- sins that are depicted frankly in the movie. As we see him grow more and more successful as a singer and songwriter, we also see his life and marriage begin to fall apart.

Though Johnny Cash kept singing about the Gospel message he had learned as a child, he was no longer living out that message. As he put it in the ROLLING STONE interview, “I was separated from God, and I wasn't even trying to call on Him. I knew that there was no line of communication.... I had drifted so far away from God and every stabilizing force in my life that I felt there was no hope.”

Just as he did in real life, Johnny in the movie has to hit bottom before his life begins to turn around, with the help of his future wife June Carter, her family, and their solid Christian faith.

But June had her own demons to battle. A musician and performer since the age of ten, as a young woman June had maturity well beyond her years. She went through two divorces and for years struggled against her attraction to Johnny, who for much of that time was a married man.

As I said, it's a messy, often painful story.

Johnny and June Carter Cash, however, in their later years were widely known and respected as devout Christians, people of great strength, compassion, and integrity.

I got to know Johnny when he accompanied me to what was then one of the most brutal prisons in America, the Angola penitentiary in Louisiana -- an amazing day of singing and preaching. Johnny Cash was the real thing. I can testify it, as could the hundreds of inmates who met Christ that day.

Unfortunately, this film ends before the full story of Cash's conversion to Christ and the good things he did thereafter could be told. That story would have been a great movie, but maybe that's too much to expect of Hollywood. Even so, as it is, in spite of portraying drug use and domestic violence, the film is appealing to nonbelievers, because it's the story of two seekers who, after a great deal of pain, start down the path to true healing. It does allude to God's plan, but stops there.

We need to be ready to fill in the details about how Cash found his redemption in Christ, the One who truly transforms lives.

WALK THE LINE, reviewers are saying, has Oscar written all over it, so the crowds will be huge. It's the kind of story -- the right story, as Johnny's brother, Jack, would say -- that will encourage people to examine the direction and meaning of their lives. Just be sure your friends and neighbors who see the movie know the whole story -- especially the real-life ending.

________

Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

When a New Orleans doctor and two nurses were charged with euthanizing several critically ill patients at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina, a front-page headline here subsequently read: “Doctor's colleagues rush to her defense,” while a local television station gave five minutes to Dr. Anna Pou’s sister and brother to defend her.

Supporters of Pou (pronounced “poe”), an ear-nose-throat doctor who specializes in cancer treatments, tell how she is so devoted to her patients that she gives each one her cell phone number. A doctor told The Times-Picayune how she was called in the middle of the night over the hemorrhaging of a patient. She rushed to the hospital and called in a battery of specialists who worked for hours doing intricate surgery to staunch the blood flow and repair the damage. “That's just the kind of doctor she is,” they say; a devout Catholic, “one of the greatest doctors I've ever worked with” and “one of those rare people who has devoted her life to the care of her patients and the practice of medicine.”

Pou and the two nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, charged in mid-July with four counts of second-degree murder, had stayed at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The area around the hospital flooded, shutting down the electrical power, the hospital's emergency generator and the sanitation system. Temperatures soared past 100 degrees inside the hospital. In all, 34 patients died during or just after the storm and 11 others subsequently died.

As conditions worsened in the hospital, according to the charges pressed by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr., Pou decided to put at least four people out of their misery by ordering that they be given lethal doses of painkillers.

Dr. Pou's attorney says experts will be called to challenge these findings. A local attorney who called Pou's office soon after her arrest to offer his services free of charge was told by the receptionists, “You're the 10th caller,” the Times-Picayune reported. The attorney, Blase McCarthy, said, “I can't imagine that she would hurt a fly.” A colleague of Pou’s, Dr. Isabel Ochsner, told the newspaper, “I'm so ashamed of what someone has put her through. For someone of her caliber to be wrongfully accused of killing is a sin.”

Among various letters to the editor, Jennifer Ramo of New Orleans wrote, “If Dr. Anna Maria Pou and the two nurses felt that they had to make a decision to let these poor people, who were on the brink of death, die without more pain and terror than they had already endured, they did so because they felt they had no other options. They did so because they had no hope that anyone was coming to rescue them.... They should not be arrested and prosecuted. My heart is broken for them and their families.”

As a minister of the Gospel, I find myself intrigued by the defenders of the accused using such rationales as “such a fine person, she could not do such a thing,” “a genuinely good person” and “devoted to her patients.” All of which I feel confident is true.

But there is a problem.

The best of us are still capable of doing wrong things. A loving mother breaks under heavy emotional stresses and drowns her children. A minister's wife shoots her husband, then takes the children for a vacation. A pastor who has devoted decades to serving God and caring for people leaves his wife for another woman.

Spend a little time inside the penitentiaries of this land and you will meet some of the finest people on the planet. This convict was a minister, that one a loving grandmother, over there a fine father who was devoted to his children. But they got caught up in something -- an addiction, a depression, something. When they loved their families and helped their neighbors, they were being true to themselves. They were not play-acting. When they started on that downward spiral of sinful acts that eventually sent them to prison, they were also being true to who they were. Because they are sinners.

I am; you are. “All have sinned,” the Scripture says. We are sinners by nature and sinners by choice. Heredity and environment, nature and nurture -- cut it any way you please, it still comes up that there is a rottenness in the soul of all of us. A rebellion against God. A sickness of which self-centeredness is the heart and core.

A wonderful saint of the 1960s and ’70s, Marguerite Briscoe, a retired school principal and member of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., had a Christlikeness about her, a peace and love, an openness and a strength that you knew were the Lord's doing. I would rather have had her praying for me than anyone I ever knew. I once said to her, “Marguerite, you are the finest Christian I know.” She smiled gently and said, “Oh, honey, if you just knew.”

I heard of a seminary professor who once was invited by a former student to come to his little west Texas town for a revival meeting. “While you are here,” the pastor said, “I want you to visit Mr. Crenshaw. He's an older gentleman whom we've never been able to reach with the Gospel. The fact is, he's such a highly principled man, he probably has higher standards than our people, and that's been a hangup.”

The visiting professor assured the pastor he would be glad to talk with anyone he chose. The revival started on Sunday morning and that day at least four or five people told the professor about Mr. Crenshaw, emphasizing what high moral values he held. Two people said the same on Monday. That afternoon, the pastor decided it was time for that visit.

Mr. Crenshaw welcomed the pastor and visiting revival preacher in his home, and offered them glasses of iced tea. After some preliminary visiting, the young pastor said, “Mr. Crenshaw, I wanted my professor to meet you and to talk with you about the Lord. Now, Mr. Crenshaw, I know you are a good man. You have high standards and you probably outlive some of the members of our church....” Suddenly, the professor said, “Hold it!”

He looked across the table at his host and said, “You know, Crenshaw, ever since I've been in this little town of yours, I've been hearing people telling me what a good man you are. And I just want you to know I'm not buying it.” He paused, leaned forward, and said, “You know, sir, if you are a man like I'm a man ... you're as rotten as hell.”

Mr. Crenshaw smiled and said, “You're right. I am.” What followed was a serious conversation about a Savior who welcomes sinners and has the power to forgive them and make them new persons. That day, Mr. Crenshaw came into the Kingdom of God through faith in Christ. [#33221]

“There is none good, but God alone.” (Mark 10:18) We have that authoritative word from the Lord Himself, spoken to a man whom we identify as the “rich young ruler” (in passages from Matthew, Mark and Luke).

Trouble is, we don't believe it. Not really. Whether it's naiveté on our part or simply ignorance of human nature or an unwillingness to believe Scripture, we endow certain dedicated and wonderful human beings in our spheres with attributes they do not possess. Our doctors could not euthanize an elderly patient. Yet doctors perform abortions by the millions every day. Parents are so dedicated, teachers are so self-giving, pastors are so godly. Yet some in these categories are arrested somewhere every day for abusing little children or embezzling funds or selling drugs.

And yet, I say to you that so many of these perpetrators were basically and humanly speaking, good people. Good people who did some truly horrendous things.

The tendency of most people is to read about them in the paper or see them on the news and conclude that they must have been a devil all along.

A woman who had spent time in a German concentration camp traveled to Israel for the trial of Adolf Eichmann during the 1970s. Eichmann had been responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews and others in these death factories. After decades of running, he had been caught and was on trial for his crimes. Later, the woman recounted what she experienced: “As Eichmann was brought into the courtroom, I began to cry. Looking at him there, I did not see a demon. He was not the devil incarnate. He was just a little man, ordinary in every way. That's when it occurred to me that if such an ordinary little man could do such evil things, any of us is capable of anything. And that's why I was crying. I was crying because I was seeing myself for the sinner that I am.”

In the “Superman Returns” movie, the man of steel reappears after an absence of several years to find Lois Lane receiving a Pulitzer for her column on “Why We Do Not Need Superman.” She tried to explain to him that man does not need a savior, that he has to work out his own problems. The rest of the movie is devoted to proving her wrong; the world goes from trouble to trouble, with Superman rushing from one disaster to another.

The movie leaves the audience in kind of a limbo or purgatory, with the world outside the theater facing mammoth problems on every side but without a caped hero to rush to its salvation.

Believers know there is indeed a Savior. Only one. Only Jesus.

A Savior is one who saves. Scanning Scripture, we are told that Christ saves us from sin (Matthew 1:21), from our enemies (Luke 1:71), from this generation (Acts 2:40), from wrath (Romans 5:9) and from death (James 5:20).

I can't find where the Bible says Christ saves us from ourselves in so many words. But that may be the biggest need of all. Thank God He does.

I cannot say with certainty that Dr. Pou and the nurses killed anyone, but I can say they were capable, and so are we. The human heart is a wonderful and deceitful thing. It is to be honored, but not trusted (Jeremiah 17:9).

That's why we need to love one another and pray for each other. What we must never do is expect ourselves or anyone else to be incapable of sin, even that of the worst sort.

We are in such need of a Savior.

Kevin Holder's rap sheet is 43 pages long, dating back to 1980, and he just got another entry ---his 226th arrest.

Lincoln, Nebraska, Police say they caught him Sunday morning after a brief chase and found burglar tools in his possession.

“He's very well-known to Lincoln police officers,” Police Chief Tom Casady said.

Holder's convictions include criminal mischief, marijuana possession, violation of protection order, assault, resisting arrest, assault on an officer, possession of cocaine. Many were misdemeanors, but he also has been sentenced to at least three prison terms for felonies, including a four-year stretch starting in 1996.

“Your average Nebraskan thinks after a prisoner has committed a certain number of crimes (he) will be put away for a long period of time. That doesn't happen,” Casady said.

Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said Holder was charged Tuesday with felony possession of burglar tools and prosecutors will urge a judge to treat Holder as a habitual criminal. With another felony conviction, that could result in a sentence of up to 60 years. Holder remained behind bars Tuesday afternoon.

Holder's list of arrests doesn't come close to setting a record for Lincoln-Lancaster County. He's No. 40, police spokeswoman Katherine Finnell said Tuesday.

A number of people have more than 500 arrests in the city of 226,000 people. The record was held by Edward Rooks, who died in 2004, with 652 arrests.

Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today asked the question, “Is sin dead?” The headline of her article in the paper was: “Has the ‘Notion of Sin’ Been Lost?”

Early in the article, Grossman answers her own question -- “No, not by a long shot.” Still, her report raises some important issues about just what many people -- and preachers -- believe about sin. She also points to a question that should trouble the Christian conscience: “How can Christians celebrate Jesus’ atonement for their sins and the promise of eternal life in his resurrection if they don’t recognize themselves as sinners?” That question demands an answer.

Some observations from the article are worthy of note. The report reveals a great divide over the question of sin.

David Kinnaman of Barna Research suggested: “People are quick to toe the line on traditional thinking” that there is sin “but interpret that reality in a very personal and self-congratulatory manner” -- I have to do what’s best for me; I am not as sinful as most.

There is something to this analysis. There is indeed something self-congratulatory about the way most people seem to think about sin and its consequences. Spend a few minutes watching the news and see if you are not tempted to feel better about yourself.

A key section of the USA Today article is this:

Popular evangelist Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in

Houston, never mentions sin in his TV sermons or best sellers

such as Your Best Life Now.

“I never thought about (using the word ‘sinners’), but I probably

don’t,” Osteen told Larry King in an interview. “Most people

already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to

church, I want to tell them that you can change.”

A preacher who never even thought of using the word sinner? If

people “already know what they are doing is wrong,” why do we

need the Law of God? What, we should ask, are the consequences

of sin? Furthermore, does he really believe that the Gospel is

about how we can change ourselves? That is not the Gospel of

Christ, but the false Gospel of the self-help movement. Then

again, if you do not believe that we are sinners facing the just

judgment of a holy God, maybe the self-help message seems just

fine.

Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondito, California, offered a thorough and perceptive response to Osteen’s “moral therapy:”

“It’s changing your lifestyle to receive God’s favor,” Horton

says. “It’s not heaven in the hereafter but happiness here and

now. But it is still up to you to make it happen.”

He finds sad truth in an old newspaper headline he once saw: “‘To

hell with sin when being good is enough.’ That’s the drift of

American preaching today in a lot of churches. People know what

sin is; they just don’t believe in it anymore. We mix up

happiness and holiness, and God is no longer the reference

point.”

In other words, he asks, if you can solve your problems or sins

yourself, what difference does it make that Christ was crucified?

I was quoted in the article, and in this section I pointed to the loss of biblical authority and the secularization of our cultural understanding of sin:

Even some people who say sin is real still steer by a compass of

“moral pragmatics,” not a bright line of absolute truth, Mohler

says. “People say, ‘I have high moral expectations of myself and

others, but I know we are all human so I’m looking for a batting

average.’

“We find a comfort zone of morality, a kind of middle-class

middle level where we think we are doing well. We cut the grass.

We don’t double-park. But we ignore the larger issues of sin.

“Instead of violating the law of the Creator, it becomes more a

matter of etiquette. ... We want our kids to play well in the

sandbox and know their place in line. We want people to do

things decently and in order. But it’s etiquette of morality

without the ethics. The end result is that when we do things we

wish people wouldn’t do, there’s no sense of guilt or shame.”

As a matter of fact, the eradication of guilt and shame is one of the primary goals of the therapeutic culture, and the movement has been hugely successful. Sin is now celebrated in so many cases, not scandalized.

The article offers much more. Perhaps the most interesting angle on the story is the fact that the secular world seems to understand that something has changed when it comes to the preaching of many churches and the beliefs of many who call themselves Christians.

We are reminded yet again that an understanding of sin is preliminary to understanding the Gospel. The magnitude of our sin explains the necessary magnitude of Christ’s atonement.

As John Bunyan observed: “No sin against God can be little, because it is against the great God of heaven and earth; but if the sinner can find out a little God, it may be easy to find out little sins.”

A large billboard outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a large billboard which says “JesusDoesNotCare.com”. The website is sponsored by a church which emphasizes that Jesus does not care about appearances or social status, but he does care about us. A forum on the website has entries by anonymous visitors. One of them, a 27-year-old female, wrote this:

Jesus cares about my happiness!! and I am not happy right now.

Jesus doesn’t care about: How long I have been an addict.

I was driving home last night after being on a week binge, and saw this sign. I have been an addict for as long as I can remember. I am struggling at staying clean. I have been up for going on 8 days and I have finally got the nerve to go home to face my husband. He is so wonderful and I don’t want him to know my secret. I am sure his arms will be open as they always are.

I saw this sign, then I came on this web site. I have lost everything due to my addictions -- my kids, job, house -- more importantly my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am a member of [this church] but have not attended in a while.

This Sunday is Easter and I don’t have my kids but I am going to take a much needed step and go to church, come clean with my family and get the help I have been needing for years. Thank you.

Christ-honoring churches attract this kind of sinner. She is needy and even desperate and her only change so far is knowing that she needs to change and that Jesus can help her in this. These people are in our community. Are they in our church? Why not?

There was a petition circulating to remove violent brawler Jim Webley from town when God intervened and changed not just Webley’s life but, years later, the course of a church and a Montana community.

In his early 20s, Webley was working in the gold mines of Nevada, entrenched in a rough lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, and through weekly fighting he had “put some people in the hospital,” he told Baptist Press. People just wanted him to leave town.

One Sunday morning, Webley was driving his young daughter Sara to get milkshakes when they passed a little white Baptist church building in the Nevada community.

“I absolutely never went to church down there, but I could feel God pulling me in that direction,” Webley recounted. “He was telling me I needed to get into church.”

Webley had an 8-inch jet lift on his ‘78 Chevy, so he parked behind the church in hopes his buddies wouldn’t drive by and see his recognizable truck.

“I remember walking into church with Sara and every person in that congregation knew me, and I think they were flabbergasted to see me coming through those doors,” Webley said. “The pastor was probably 10 minutes into his sermon and he just kind of stopped preaching and stared at me.

“I was wearing an Ozzy Osbourne shirt with the sleeves cut off. On the front he’s holding a dove and on the back he’s got the dove’s head in his mouth.”

Webley and his daughter quickly sat down, and he remembers being disgusted with the pastor. “He’d be preaching and he’d be trying to be funny, but it just made me madder. But then he said, ‘The Word of God says,’ and he would read from the Bible, and I remember sitting there going, ‘There’s such power in that.’ I was taken aback by the Word of God.”

After the service, no one approached Webley to talk. When he got home, his wife Melissa didn’t believe he had been to church. But he went back the next Sunday, as well-dressed as he could manage.

Soon he acknowledged he needed to clean up his life -- no more selling drugs, no more fighting. “I was going to try to be a better person,” Webley said. He moved his family up to Montana where he was raised, so he could escape the influence of his friends in Nevada.

The Webleys had lived there about six months when Melissa asked if they were going to look for a church. Webley replied, “Why would we go to church? We’re doing so good.” He had stopped selling drugs. There was very little fighting. And he was only “smoking pot and drinking.”

“I thought God would be pleased with me because I cleaned up my life so well,” Webley said. “I thought church was just where you learned to clean up.”

At Melissa’s insistence, they drove around and found Troy Community Baptist Church in Troy, Montana. There they heard the Gospel for the first time, and Webley realized it wasn’t his works that mattered but what Christ did on the cross.

He went to church for a while and grilled the pastor, Cam Foote, with questions, but he still wasn’t convinced God even existed. A few months later that changed when he was sitting in church and became convinced God was real.

“I thought, ‘I’ve been fooling myself, pretending that I don’t understand or I don’t know,’” Webley said, having realized his options were to stop going to church, live the life he wanted and go to hell or give his life to Christ and serve Him.

“It was kind of a no brainer at that point,” so Webley went forward that Sunday and gave his life to Christ at the age of 28. When he went home, he went through his house and gathered up his heavy metal shirts and CDs -- anything he thought God wouldn’t want in his house -- threw them in a burn barrel in the backyard, dumped gas on it and lit it.

“I told God, ‘Whatever You want to do with my life, I’ll do it.’”

The pastor suggested Webley might be helped in his walk if he met with the youth on Sundays rather than the adults. One Sunday the teacher didn’t show up, and Foote asked Webley to teach the lesson. He had no idea what to do but simply went by the lesson plan. Before long he became the youth pastor.

Seven years later, Foote began nudging Webley toward leading a church plant in Noxon, about an hour south of Troy. But Noxon was the last place Webley wanted to go. When he passed Noxon on the interstate, he couldn’t even bear to look over toward the town because of bad memories.

He had lived in Noxon while in elementary school, but it’s where his parents’ marriage unraveled and a man intentionally burned their house down. Noxon had a bad reputation for being home to a militia and later a white supremacist group.

Webley had been teaching the youth to surrender to God’s call on their lives, and he knew he had to do it too. He agreed to speak with the pastor search committee at the church plant, Baptist Mountain Church.

At the end of the meeting, a woman said two things were particularly important to the church. First, they had a potluck every Sunday after church and wanted his assurance that the potlucks could continue. Second, they “didn’t want a lot of new people coming in.”

“She said, ‘There’s a bad element here in Noxon and these people that come in ruin the fellowship and ruin the unity of the church, and we just don’t want a whole lot of these people coming in,’” Webley said.

Webley told the search committee that he expected the church members to give up their seats for new people, and if they called him as pastor they would not have another potluck until the spiritual issue was cleared up. They called him as pastor, and the first Sunday, when he told them that would be their last potluck, “that pretty much destroyed the church.”

The congregation went from about 25 to six people in one week, Webley said, but he was going to preach to an empty room until God told him to stop. From there, God started adding families, and the church has seen a steady increase not only in numbers but in maturity.

During the summer months, the church averages more than 100 on Sundays, and in the winter closer to 65, Webley said. The church was about $150,000 in debt with no congregation when Webley started as pastor, but they were debt-free within a few years. This summer they built a new worship center.

The community of about 300 people has changed as well. A few years ago there was a bad drug problem, “but we ended up getting that cleared up,” Webley said.

“That church has a tremendous impact on that town,” Foote told BP. “It has radically transformed that town, and Jim’s ministry there is phenomenal.”

Webley is a bivocational pastor, also working in carpentry and as a guide for deer and elk hunting.

Barrett Duke, executive director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention, told BP Webley is a perfect example of the Saul-to-Paul disciple.

“Before Christ, he fought with his fists against his fellow men with a terrifying ferocity,” Duke said. “Today, he fights with spiritual weapons for his fellow men with God-glorifying determination.”

Sermon in 1 Timothy series - Clean Up the Church, #2. 1 Timothy 1:8-17

THE WORST SINNER

================

I. We need to get tough on sinners!

A. The miscreant has been caught.

B. We often look to laws to solve our problems.

II. The law has its purpose.

A. Opposing the law puts you in a dangerous place.

B. Paul admits that law is a good thing.

C. There are lots of bad people out there.

III. The gospel is all about grace, not law.

A. The gospel is not just good, but glorious. 1:11

B. Paul was once committed to the Jewish law - violently committed.

C. Paul is now in service to the gospel.

IV. Jesus came to save sinners.

A. It is a basic truth of Christianity.

B. It remains controversial today.

V. How bad a sinner are YOU?

A. Paul saw himself as the bottom of the bucket.

B. Good church-type people can miss their need for God.

C. Paul is an example for all of us.

“I am not a monster. I am a normal person. I am just sick.” Those were among the words Ariel Castro addressed to an Ohio judge as he faced the bar of justice yesterday. Shortly thereafter, Judge Michael J. Russo of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court sentenced Castro to life in prison with no chance of parole, and then added an additional 1,000 years of prison time.

Castro, age 53, had kept three women imprisoned in his Cleveland home for a decade, treating them as sex slaves. All of the women were young when Castro abducted them; two were teenagers. He entered a guilty plea yesterday in order to avoid the death penalty. He eventually pleaded guilty to more than 900 criminal counts, including aggravated murder, rape, and kidnapping, among other crimes. The aggravated murder count was tied to Castro’s brutal beating of one woman when she was pregnant with his child. The unborn child died and the woman miscarried.

The crimes Ariel Castro committed defy the moral imagination. Added to the enormity of his crimes is a lack of remorse. Castro seems to have little moral conscience or sensibility. He is clearly not haunted by the knowledge of what he has done. He even told the judge that, in his own mind, he saw the three women he abducted, assaulted, raped, and imprisoned as part of a happy home.

In his most provocative statement, Castro declared: “I am not a monster. I am a normal person. I am just sick.” Even after admitting that he committed over 900 crimes, including aggravated murder, rape, and assault, he insisted that he is “not a violent person.” He claimed to be the victim of a sexual addiction and exposure to pornography.

So, what is he? How should Christians think of Ariel Castro? Is he just sick? Is he a monster? Could he really be “a normal person”? Well, in the first place, Castro is a sinner. That puts him right within the human race. After the Fall, the “normal” identity for humanity is sinner — that includes every single one of us. And, like every sinner, Ariel Castro’s only hope is Jesus Christ. He needs a Savior.

But, if that is true of all human beings, why are we so repulsed by Ariel Castro and his horrifying crimes? The answer to that requires us to think beyond the category of sinner. Ariel Castro is not only a sinner, he is a violent sociopath. By definition, a sociopath is an individual who lacks a moral understanding of his or her own moral actions. They stand out from the rest of society because their psychopathic personality often leads them to commit horrifying crimes — crimes beyond the imagination, much less the temptation, of most people.

Ariel Castro sees himself as “a normal person” who is “just sick.” He is sick, but he is not normal. Judge Russo spoke directly to Castro at several points in yesterday’s hearing. The judge told Castro that he is not merely sick, he is murderously dangerous and guilty of crimes of great enormity. Even secular observers of the sentencing hearing knew that Ariel Castro is not merely sick. Even though the therapeutic worldview serves as a convenient escape from personal responsibility and moral guilt for many people, Castro’s crimes rendered the therapeutic escape route impossible. He may well be sick. But he is not merely sick. His crimes were evil. Even in this morally confused age, the vast majority of people know that what he did was evil, and nothing less.

It is normal — indeed universal — for human beings to be sinners, but few among us are sociopaths. And for that we must be ever thankful. Christians must thank God for the restraint against evil that he has given humanity. These restraints include the moral law, the human conscience, government, social structures, and the providence of God in human affairs. Without the moral law and the restraining power of the human conscience, we would all become sociopaths — in a hurry. Without government and its responsibility to execute justice, sociopaths would roam freely. Without the providential reign of God in human affairs, sociopaths would rule completely.

The inadequacies of human justice were clear in that Cleveland courtroom yesterday. At age 53, Castro will serve only a tiny fraction of the sentence he received yesterday — life plus 1,000 years. But, given the limitations of human justice, that is about the best a human court can achieve. The plea bargain saved his three victims from being further victimized by testimony in Castro’s trial. And, even though he will serve only a fraction of his total sentence, at least the court declared by the sentence that Castro must never be allowed to return to normal human society.

At the same time, even if Castro could serve his life sentence plus 1,000 years, his punishment would do nothing to restore injuries and years lost to his three victims, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus. They do now have the satisfaction of seeing Ariel Castro sent to prison for the rest of his life. As Knight told him in the court session yesterday: “I spent 11 years in hell. Now, your hell is just beginning.”

Not quite. Prison is where sociopaths often belong, and surely Castro fits in that category. But hell is where all sinners are justly headed, but for the salvation that is found only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We should not be surprised that the secular world confuses sinners and sociopaths, prison and hell. Christians, however, must understand the differences. One need not be a monster, by human definition, to go to hell. The sinfulness of “normal” humanity is quite enough for that. But there are monsters among us, and Ariel Castro’s crimes and his lack of moral understanding put him in that category as well. When called to answer for the kidnapping and imprisonment of the three women, Castro said: “I simply kept them there without them being able to leave.”

So, let’s be thankful that few sinners become sociopaths, but let’s also be honest enough to admit that one need not be a sociopath to be a sinner. Our responsibility as Christians is to keep the categories straight.

When pastor Matt Dunavant and his wife Stacey came to Faith Community Church in Vermont, they made sure “connect cards” were placed in the pews so attendees could request more information about being a Jesus-follower.

Those cards helped change Barbara Petrie’s life.

Like most people in Barre, Barbara had been raised Catholic -- “baptized, communioned, confirmed, the whole nine yards as far as sacraments go,” she said. “Much of my upbringing as a person ... was tied into behavior. If you say the right number of ‘Hail Marys,’ your sin will be forgiven. If you follow the Ten Commandments verbatim, you’ll stay out of trouble.”

The problem was, Barbara hadn’t stayed out of trouble. Her life had unraveled with a failed marriage and broken relationships. As a devout Catholic, she was at a loss for what to do.

Her children had started attending the youth group at Faith Community and Barbara had noticed a difference in their lives. She decided to visit one Sunday to see what it was all about. Sitting in the pew, she noticed the “connect card.” Her interest was piqued because “following Jesus” seemed more active than just believing in Him -- something that might help her fix things. So she checked the card to indicate she wanted to be a Jesus-follower and dropped it in the offering plate.

“I thought it was odd that I wanted to mark that box, thinking, ‘I am already following Jesus, aren’t I?’ But I marked it anyway and the very next day I got a call from Pastor Matt,” Barbara said.

Within the week she was tearfully recounting her journey with Matt and Stacey. The conversation quickly came around to Barbara’s desire to be perfect and her inability to ask aloud for help. Even as Matt encouraged her to do just that, she couldn’t get the words out. “It was like an unmasking, a vulnerability, showing my soft underside -- terrifying!” she said.

Soon Barbara realized that it wasn’t about what she could do, but what Jesus had done for her. “Then it hit me -- I have been a perfectionist my whole life. Which also means that I have been a failure, because I can never be perfect in God’s eyes until He perfects me,” she recalled.

Haltingly, she got the words out. “I stammered that I needed help, and have frequently done so since,” she said. “I came to Christ a sobbing, sloppy mess, sitting on a couch in the Dunavants’ living room.”

Stacey led Barbara in a prayer for salvation: “Dear Jesus, thank You for loving me and creating me. Jesus, I want You to be Lord of my life. I give my all to You. Come into my life and wash me of my sins. I want to follow You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Barbara marvels at the immediate change she experienced. “Such weight lifted suddenly, I could see things with a clarity I couldn’t before. All those mistakes led me to where I was,” she said.

She was soon baptized along with her two oldest children -- Nick and Catherine. Her youngest daughter Alexandra was baptized last year. All three are continuing to seek after God; Catherine, in fact, just returned from a mission trip to Kenya.

“I am humbled that my children were so instrumentally used by Him to bring me to Him,” Barbara said. “And I’m in awe of how the Lord uses them daily to introduce Him to others.”

Life has been immeasurably better since Barbara met Christ two years ago, but not easier.

“In many ways and by human standards, life is harder as a believer,” she said.

Circumstances of her life have been as difficult as ever. Financial burdens, health concerns and parenting challenges have threatened to overwhelm her in recent months, but despite those obstacles she has continued to cling to Jesus and dig into His Word.

“It is the most important and most amazing and most unwavering relationship in my life,” Barbara said. “I still get scared, angry and impatient, but He has never failed to meet me on the other side of awful.”

Faith Community began a simple Bible-reading program aimed at getting church members into God’s Word daily and started a Facebook page to share what they were learning. Stacey was amazed at Barbara’s spiritual vision.

“She wrote some of the most amazing things that God was telling her,” Stacey said. “The Holy Spirit was all over it -- she went from knowing nothing to really having insight.”

Stacey also saw Barbara persevere in the midst of the challenges.

“All this stuff happened, but she stuck it out. She’s there every Sunday; she’s in God’s Word. I’ve been in awe of the Holy Spirit’s work in her life and her ability to stay faithful and grow in the tough, difficult circumstances,” Stacey said.

Barbara continues to learn daily what it means to follow Jesus.

“Every challenge and crisis is like a birth -- traumatic, messy and dark. With Christ I know that there is a coming out into the light, seeing and feeling things differently than before. I have come to accept that being in this body means hurting. But there is joy in Him,” she said.

“He is the only chance at perfection we’ve got.”

A meditation on the line between good and evil that runs through each person.

________

In any polarized situation, the overriding human tendency is to draw a line with oneself and one’s allies on the good side and the opposing party on the wicked side, with very little attempt made by either side to understand the other. As these positions harden, it becomes almost impossible to achieve the insight necessary for a breakthrough.

For some years now I have kept a file that I call “The Line Runs Through.” This title is from Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic and one of those who resisted the Communists and was put in prison for his activities. When he came to power after the “Velvet Revolution,” Havel was conspicuously forgiving toward his former enemies and other collaborators. Some blamed him for this, but he maintained his position. In the central European regimes of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Havel said, “The line [between good and evil] did not run clearly between ‘them’ and ‘us,’ but through each person.”

The line between good and evil runs through each person. These words find an echo in Paul’s letter to the Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (7:15–21, RSV throughout). Is there anyone who does not recognize this?

The human being is in the grip of impulses that are more powerful than our wish to do good. Our Lord wants us to know of the power of these forces. In the words of Jesus in the Gospels, in the writings of Paul, we are told over and over in various ways that the powers we face are untiring, malevolent, and extremely clever. These powers seek nothing less than our destruction. But we are not defenseless. The apostle counsels us:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:11–12)

The forces that we face are overwhelming, and the suffering that they cause is incalculable. The Christian should not be deceived about this. Jesus wants us to know ahead of time that the Christian life is going to be a long struggle against evil, sin, and death — most of all, the evil, sin, and death that threaten our own being.

It is important that we use the word “we” when we confess our sins during corporate worship. Human solidarity in bondage to the power of sin is one of the most important of all concepts for Christians to grasp. At the same time, though, saying words of confession communally in church does not always cause us to appropriate its truth deep in our being.

All of us need to say also (in the words of Thomas Cranmer’s General Confession), “I have erred and strayed from God’s ways like a lost sheep. I have followed too much the devices and desires of my own heart.” This is not so easy for us. All of us, to one degree or another, participate in that psychological phenomenon famously called denial. Denial, or avoidance, is a way of keeping consciousness of sin at bay. We think we can make sin go away by pretending it is not there; we are like the little girl who says, “I’ve got my eyes closed so nobody can see me.”

The line between good and evil runs through each person. The truly tragic person is the one who causes harm and never repents of it, never admits it even internally. That person is blocked from receiving the promise of the gospel that God’s grace is retroactive. If it weren’t, the promise it holds out to us would be empty. God’s power is able to make right all that has happened in the past. Paul seldom uses the word forgiveness. His stronger word is justification. Justification means that we sinners will not only be forgiven, but also justified, which means that we will be set right by the power of God, and all who have suffered as a result of our faults will have perfect restitution.

How can this be?

The sacrifice of Jesus our Lord is this: He has gone into the day of judgment utterly alone, separated from the Father, taking the sentence of condemnation upon himself, bearing it away from us. This is the gospel. This is the good news of the Christian faith. Neutrality is no longer possible. Satan is slashing and burning, but he is in retreat. His time will come. There is no longer any room for self-deception, excuses, denial, or evasion, for, as C. S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ who disarms us.

But listen: We are not disarmed in order to be disempowered. There is “power in the blood of the Lamb.” It is the power of the Word of God that spoke, and it was so. It is the power that overcame Satan in the wilderness. It is the power that lifted the paralyzed man to his feet. It is the power that spoke through the voice of the Son of God when he said, “Peace! Be still!” and the wind and waves obeyed their Creator. It is the power that sustains every Christian in the struggles of this life.

This power is able to do things that we can only dream about. For this is the might of the God in whom Abraham believed, the God whose power “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). The God who reckoned Abraham righteous is the God who justifies sinners. For the righteousness reckoned to Abraham was not for his sake alone but for ours also. The promise of God to sinners today is that “it will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 4:24).

________

Excerpted from Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions by Fleming Rutledge, edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers ©2021 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #1552]

Most preachers wouldn’t dare to tackle writing a sermon and a hymn for their congregation, but that was par for the course for Pastor John and his peers. On New Year’s 1773, he was preaching through 1 Chronicles 17, expositing God’s promise to David.

“Who am I, Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” David asks in his prayer. “And as if this were not enough in your sight, my God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You, Lord God, have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men. What more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant, Lord. For the sake of your servant and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made known all these great promises.”

David and Pastor John both were overwhelmed by God’s grace. Amazing grace, even. And so David’s prayer in the hands of a slave trader-turned-pastor named John Newton became the lyrics to one of the most sung hymns – or songs of any sort – ever. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” The seeds for each verse are in 1 Chronicles 17 for those who read closely.

‘How sweet the sound’

2023 marks the 250th anniversary of the hymn, a song synonymous with Christian victory in the face of dangers, toils and snares, as well as man’s overwhelming sin.

“‘Amazing Grace’ is a timeless hymn,” said Matt Swain, the assistant dean of Worship Ministries at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS). “It spans the ages and it had spoken to generations and people from all different walks of life. Even people who are not Christians or religious at all know the tune and the text to ‘Amazing Grace.’ What’s interesting is that even though everybody just seems to know it, they don’t necessarily quite understand what it is that the hymn is really about, which is somewhat ironic.”

‘I once was lost’

There can be no doubt that Newton knew of what he preached and wrote. In his youth, he famously took to the sea and was heavily involved in the slave trade. He neglected his faith and mocked God and those who believed. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had a bad reputation ... among slave traders. He was a foul-mouthed, insubordinate wretch, even to the point of being imprisoned while at sea, chained alongside the slaves he was transporting. It would take amazing grace, indeed, to save him.

In March 1748, while his ship was tossed by a violent storm in the North Atlantic, a crew member who was standing where Newton had been moments before was swept overboard. He and his crewmates labored for hours to pump water from the ship, and expecting to be capsized at any moment.

The ship did not sink, and two weeks later when it limped into the harbor, Newton began to ponder the mercy he’d been shown. Was he worthy of God’s mercy? Was he redeemable?

‘But now I’m found’

His conversion was not immediate then and there, but the seed of the gospel was taking root and making his need for forgiveness impossible to ignore. “I was greatly deficient in many respects,” he wrote. “I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards.”

He continued sailing in the slave trade between Africa and the New World, but he also got married and soon found himself physically unable and unwilling to meet the demands of life on the open seas. Returning to the teachings of childhood, he began to teach himself Latin, Greek and theology. He and his wife, Mary, threw themselves in the church community, and by 1764 he was offered a pastoral role in Olney, a village of about 2,500 people about 50 miles north of London.

It was there he began preaching and presenting poems and songs to reinforce the message of his sermons. A few years later, “Amazing Grace” was born.

“This song really came out of a life of hopelessness, Matt Swain said. “As a sinner – as a wretch – he was radically saved and started a life of ministry and servitude unto the Lord by grace.

“This is just conjecture on my part,” Matt said, “but I don’t know how he could not have been impacted when he looked back on his life, much like David, by seeing the miraculous things that God has done. In some ways it’s testimonial, but I don’t know that it was overtly meant to be testimonial so much as it’s just how grace works in the life of the believer. But you can’t just read through the hymn and know his story and not think, ‘Wow, he had to have had that on his mind.”

‘Grace will lead me Home’

But Newton was more than just a redeemed hymn writer with a dark past. A few years after “Amazing Grace,” in 1779, he moved to London where he continued preaching. He was one of only two evangelical Anglican priests in the capital, and he grew in popularity, even among the Methodists and Baptists of the time.

It was during this time he connected with William Wilberforce, a young member of Parliament who was struggling with staying in office while seeing evil in the world such as slavery. When he sought Newton’s advice, he advised him to “serve God where he was.” Wilberforce followed his advice, and his political views were informed by his faith and by his desire to promote Christianity and Christian ethics in private and public. That included a vocal and active fight for the abolition of slavery, one that Newton joined.

“In many ways, John Newton was kind of like the Billy Graham of his day,” said Angela Swain, associate professor of music at MBTS. “If you think of how Billy Graham was to many of our presidents, that’s how John Newton was to William Wilberforce.”

Three decades after he had retired from the slave trade, Newton published a pamphlet called, “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade,” describing the horrific conditions of the slave ships during his service as crew. The confession and apology, he wrote, “will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”

Thanks in part to both men, the Slave Trade Act of 1807 brought British involvement in slavery to an end.

While the end of slavery in the New World was still decades away, “Amazing Grace” and its gospel message were taking hold in Britain.

‘No less days to sing God’s praise’

As profound and simple as it is, Newton’s song didn’t exactly catch on at home, and Newton was ready the next week to write a new song.

“It only became popular later in the United States,” Angela said. “Irony of ironies.”

It caught on in the U.S. in part due to its musicality and folk-melody, but largely, the Swains believe, due to its message during the Second Great Awakening.

“Theology leads to our doxology,” Angela said.

“It’s so plainly a song about the gospel,” Matt continued. “Whether we were saved from something like the slave trade, or if our conversion was less notable than John Newton’s, it still speaks of the power of God unto salvation. For those that experience that grace, we are being brought from death to life, and that in and of itself is a radical thing.”

That popularity lives on, even two and half centuries later.

“Lots of people embrace the hymn,” Matt said. “I mean, Elvis Presley sang it.”

But beyond the music and at its foundation, “Amazing Grace” is still about the gospel, and that’s potentially what has made the hymn stick around in the cultural consciousness.

“Strong hymns have strong theology,” Matt said. “It’s the grace we’ve been given that gives it that power for those of us who have been saved through the blood of Christ. It’s an even more powerful testimony to know the life of John Newton, to see what the gospel can do in his life of sin.”

________

This article first appeared at The Pathway.

My Testimony

I was born January 1, 1950, in a Mennonite family in Russia. When I was a child, my father was arrested and put in prison for 25 years, because he preached the Gospel of Jesus. But in 1955, a year after Stalin died, he was pardoned. I remember the day my father came home. I was five. A man came into our yard and took me in his arms. It was my father.

When I was ten, my father died. He did not see me become a Christian, but he believed I would. He showed me the way to my LORD when I was a boy but I could not understand the gospel. Instead, I choose my own way. I grew up and became a journalist in the Soviet Press. I exchanged the best habits I got from my Christian parents with smoking, alcohol and women. On this way I got stuck in my life, because I was a sinful man. The devil filled my thoughts with suicide. I criticized other people, thinking my unhappiness must be due to someone else.

I never found a way out until I remembered my father and his holy life. Then I repented and cried. It was a long time from that day until I became a Christian, but it was the beginning of my way to Jesus, to my dear Savior and to my salvation. I began to go to church and to read the Bible. Finally God opened my eyes: It was a great discovery for me to understand that I am a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross to save lost people as I am. In 1978 I became a Christian, was baptized, and became a member of a Mennonite Brethren Church.

In 1981, I was arrested for one month, because I was a Christian. The police dispatched a car named “The Black Raven” to my mother’s house. A few militiamen (Russian Police) put five other Christians and myself into jail. Those were a hard, but interesting days. But it wasn’t child’s play. I was put into the jail with criminals. The KGB (Soviet State Security) tried to make me afraid. But the Lord was on my side and gave me strength. Instead of injuring me, the criminals became my friends. I was able to preach the Good News to them. I told them that Jesus loves them, would forgive all their wrong doings, and set them free from sin.

Over time, I was in several cells with different criminals. One of them said to me respectfully: “Jakob, don’t give up your faith! People with such principles as yours, are very respected at the prison.”

At the jail I spoke about Jesus not only to the criminals, but to the guards too. We were not put in jail by coincidence. The Lord had a plan to test our faith and to give me the opportunity to bear witness for them to the criminals, the militia guard, the officers, the officials and the people on the street and institutions during the forced work.

In 1988 I went with my mother and two siblings to Germany. Since 1992 I have returned several times to former Soviet countries as a missionary. I have been preaching there the Gospel in Cultural Centers, schools and prisons. I have been the editor of the Russian Magazine “Day of Salvation” for several years. I have written six books in Russian and I have also published two collections of testimonies about how people came to God. All of those books were published for mission purposes and about 490,000 already have been circulated for free in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

A missionary from Hamburg said he had met a young man who was stuck in his life and wanted to commit suicide. The missionary gave him one of my books of testimonies. The next morning the missionary met the young man again. The young man said to the missionary: “I read this book into the night and wept. I thought, if the Lord forgives those people, he will forgive me too”. So he came to Jesus and was saved.

I have studied English and Hebrew at various schools. In 2007 God gave me a beautiful wife, Helen. In recent years I have been an evangelist among German migrants from Russia in East Germany.

After I became a Christian my life began again and I believe this to be a sign of how Jesus saved and changed the life of a lost sinner. “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you – I, whom you have redeemed” (Psalm 71:23).

Jakob Dyck

Germany

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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]

As every movie buff knows, condemned prisoners always get to say a few final words.

Some apologize, while others protest. Some repent. Some rant. All have a last chance to confess to an eternal judge.

A decade ago, an infamous killer in South Carolina quietly offered words of thankfulness and acceptance.

When Rusty Woomer died in the electric chair, he was not the man whose Quaaludes-and-whiskey fueled binge had left four tortured and dead.

"I'm sorry," said Woomer, whose prison years included many acts of selfless service to others. "I claim Jesus Christ as my savior. My only wish is that everyone in the world could feel the love I have felt from him."

It's hard not to contrast this with the arrogance shown by America's greatest terrorist, said the Rev. Lee Strobel, a former Chicago Tribune legal-affairs reporter who is now a writer and teacher at the massive Saddleback (California) Community Church.

Nevertheless, anyone who takes Christianity seriously must pray for a moment of repentance and grace before Timothy McVeigh is executed by lethal injection.

"After he is declared dead, McVeigh will stand trial once more," said Strobel, before the now-delayed execution date. "This time, there will be no secrets, no defense attorneys, no legal maneuvering, not rationalizations, no excuses. And unless something happens before then, he will be found guilty once again and sentenced to a hellish eternity in a place utterly devoid of hope.... This will not make God happy."

During his media offensive, McVeigh has said his last blast of political rhetoric will include lines from William Ernest Henley's "Invictus."

In this anthem of defiant individualism, the poet briefly thanks "whatever gods may be," yet concludes:

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scrolls,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

That doesn't sound like a humble confession of sin.

Strobel's sermon, titled "What Jesus Would Say to Timothy McVeigh," noted that the bomber has refused to apologize and even called his youngest victims mere "collateral damage."

Thus, McVeigh has become the soldier from hell - a poster boy for all that is evil.

Can this man be saved?

"God is just, but God also is merciful," said Strobel. "So McVeigh's soul can saved. That is the word of hope that he needs to hear. ... There is always a chance that someone can repent and be forgiven. We are supposed to believe that, no matter what."

Debates about heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, become even more complex when linked to an issue as explosive as the death penalty.

Strobel said he opposes the death penalty, in part because of the cracks in the justice system that he probed during his years in journalism. He also would agree with Pope John Paul II that nations today can efficiently fight crime "without definitely taking away the possibility of self-redemption."

Strobel said Christianity clearly teaches that McVeigh - whatever his legal fate - can repent and find salvation.

So the most disturbing question is not, "Can McVeigh be saved?", but, "Why aren't more believers praying that he will be saved?"

Of course, there are "universalists" who don't believe in hell and, thus, believe that McVeigh will go to heaven with everyone else, no matter what. People who hold this belief tend to stay quiet during the days just before the execution of notorious criminals.

Meanwhile, other believers proclaim salvation by grace, but in practice this doctrine of radical forgiveness tends to make them nervous, said Strobel.

Most people find it easier to imagine God forgiving their own "garden-variety sins," or those of a kindly neighbor, than God forgiving the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Karla Faye Tucker or, should he repent, McVeigh. But sin is sin, said Strobel.

"If anyone ought to know how much he needs God and how much he needs to be forgiven, it ought to be Timothy McVeigh. But that doesn't mean we're supposed to be cheering as he dies and calling him the world's greatest sinner. Doing that only makes it harder for us to see the sin in our own lives and how badly we all need to be forgiven."

Jesse Jackson's moral lapse [that he had fathered a child out of wedlock] predictably brought out the morally self-righteous who howled with indignation. Liberals were notably silent, no doubt bruised and exhausted from trying to defend a wayward president. So I was pleased to read Lovell Beaulieu's column in Friday's paper bringing some calm reason back into the discussion. He cited the book by Desmond Tutu, "No Future Without Forgiveness," to show how forgiveness works, even in a country with such a dark past as South Africa's. And he cited the deeper Christian truth that judgment is God's business and that we will all be surprised when we get to heaven to see who is there, including, if we are honest, ourselves.

Sin is a by-product of faithful worship. Only Christians sin. The sins of non-Christians are peccadilloes, slipups, small potatoes. Christians sense sin as a huge gap between us and our loving forgiving, seeking Savior. Non-Christians weasel and whine when caught up in their foibles. They grasp at the excuse that everyone does it, or that it is just human to make mistakes, or that circumstances beyond my control made me do it. When non-Christians sin, their only fear is that someone will notice. But Christians know that sin lies deep in all human hearts.

I sometimes say that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission. I mean, of course, that you are more likely to be forgiven than to get permission. This is a dangerous strategy. It's just this kind of thinking that got Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson in trouble. It leads to the whimsical joke attributed to Mark Twain: "I have a wonderful relationship with God. I love to sin and God loves to forgive."

There was a petition circulating to remove violent brawler Jim Webley from town when God intervened and changed not just Webley’s life but, years later, the course of a church and a Montana community.

In his early 20s, Webley was working in the gold mines of Nevada, entrenched in a rough lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, and through weekly fighting he had “put some people in the hospital,” he told Baptist Press. People just wanted him to leave town.

One Sunday morning, Webley was driving his young daughter Sara to get milkshakes when they passed a little white Baptist church building in the Nevada community.

“I absolutely never went to church down there, but I could feel God pulling me in that direction,” Webley recounted. “He was telling me I needed to get into church.”

Webley had an 8-inch jet lift on his ‘78 Chevy, so he parked behind the church in hopes his buddies wouldn’t drive by and see his recognizable truck.

“I remember walking into church with Sara and every person in that congregation knew me, and I think they were flabbergasted to see me coming through those doors,” Webley said. “The pastor was probably 10 minutes into his sermon and he just kind of stopped preaching and stared at me.

“I was wearing an Ozzy Osbourne shirt with the sleeves cut off. On the front he’s holding a dove and on the back he’s got the dove’s head in his mouth.”

Webley and his daughter quickly sat down, and he remembers being disgusted with the pastor. “He’d be preaching and he’d be trying to be funny, but it just made me madder. But then he said, ‘The Word of God says,’ and he would read from the Bible, and I remember sitting there going, ‘There’s such power in that.’ I was taken aback by the Word of God.”

After the service, no one approached Webley to talk. When he got home, his wife Melissa didn’t believe he had been to church. But he went back the next Sunday, as well-dressed as he could manage.

Soon he acknowledged he needed to clean up his life -- no more selling drugs, no more fighting. “I was going to try to be a better person,” Webley said. He moved his family up to Montana where he was raised, so he could escape the influence of his friends in Nevada.

The Webleys had lived there about six months when Melissa asked if they were going to look for a church. Webley replied, “Why would we go to church? We’re doing so good.” He had stopped selling drugs. There was very little fighting. And he was only “smoking pot and drinking.”

“I thought God would be pleased with me because I cleaned up my life so well,” Webley said. “I thought church was just where you learned to clean up.”

At Melissa’s insistence, they drove around and found Troy Community Baptist Church in Troy, Montana. There they heard the Gospel for the first time, and Webley realized it wasn’t his works that mattered but what Christ did on the cross.

He went to church for a while and grilled the pastor, Cam Foote, with questions, but he still wasn’t convinced God even existed. A few months later that changed when he was sitting in church and became convinced God was real.

“I thought, ‘I’ve been fooling myself, pretending that I don’t understand or I don’t know,’” Webley said, having realized his options were to stop going to church, live the life he wanted and go to hell or give his life to Christ and serve Him.

“It was kind of a no brainer at that point,” so Webley went forward that Sunday and gave his life to Christ at the age of 28. When he went home, he went through his house and gathered up his heavy metal shirts and CDs -- anything he thought God wouldn’t want in his house -- threw them in a burn barrel in the backyard, dumped gas on it and lit it.

“I told God, ‘Whatever You want to do with my life, I’ll do it.’”

The pastor suggested Webley might be helped in his walk if he met with the youth on Sundays rather than the adults. One Sunday the teacher didn’t show up, and Foote asked Webley to teach the lesson. He had no idea what to do but simply went by the lesson plan. Before long he became the youth pastor.

Seven years later, Foote began nudging Webley toward leading a church plant in Noxon, about an hour south of Troy. But Noxon was the last place Webley wanted to go. When he passed Noxon on the interstate, he couldn’t even bear to look over toward the town because of bad memories.

He had lived in Noxon while in elementary school, but it’s where his parents’ marriage unraveled and a man intentionally burned their house down. Noxon had a bad reputation for being home to a militia and later a white supremacist group.

Webley had been teaching the youth to surrender to God’s call on their lives, and he knew he had to do it too. He agreed to speak with the pastor search committee at the church plant, Baptist Mountain Church.

At the end of the meeting, a woman said two things were particularly important to the church. First, they had a potluck every Sunday after church and wanted his assurance that the potlucks could continue. Second, they “didn’t want a lot of new people coming in.”

“She said, ‘There’s a bad element here in Noxon and these people that come in ruin the fellowship and ruin the unity of the church, and we just don’t want a whole lot of these people coming in,’” Webley said.

Webley told the search committee that he expected the church members to give up their seats for new people, and if they called him as pastor they would not have another potluck until the spiritual issue was cleared up. They called him as pastor, and the first Sunday, when he told them that would be their last potluck, “that pretty much destroyed the church.”

The congregation went from about 25 to six people in one week, Webley said, but he was going to preach to an empty room until God told him to stop. From there, God started adding families, and the church has seen a steady increase not only in numbers but in maturity.

During the summer months, the church averages more than 100 on Sundays, and in the winter closer to 65, Webley said. The church was about $150,000 in debt with no congregation when Webley started as pastor, but they were debt-free within a few years. This summer they built a new worship center.

The community of about 300 people has changed as well. A few years ago there was a bad drug problem, “but we ended up getting that cleared up,” Webley said.

“That church has a tremendous impact on that town,” Foote told BP. “It has radically transformed that town, and Jim’s ministry there is phenomenal.”

Webley is a bivocational pastor, also working in carpentry and as a guide for deer and elk hunting.

Barrett Duke, executive director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention, told BP Webley is a perfect example of the Saul-to-Paul disciple.

“Before Christ, he fought with his fists against his fellow men with a terrifying ferocity,” Duke said. “Today, he fights with spiritual weapons for his fellow men with God-glorifying determination.”

Our two favorite Christmas stories -- “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” -- exemplify two approaches to assessing our lives.

We all know the problem with Ebenezer Scrooge. Not only is he mean and miserable, he delights in inflicting his misery on others. But after one night in which he’s forced to see how the mistakes of the past and present can immutably corrupt his future, he changes from a miser toting up his ledger to an avuncular, goose-toting do-gooder.

George Bailey too is forced to see his life from the outside, but in “It’s a Wonderful Life” it’s the life that would have happened without him. The man who, at the beginning of the movie, leaps from the bridge to end it all has lost faith in his work, his family, and his own sense of honor. But when George sees the misery his absence would have wrought on his community, his family and his friends, he snaps back to status quo. His life didn’t need to change. He did.

Christians usually focus on the Scrooge model - we are sinners and must change. But there are also many George Bailey's in this world, people who are decent and make a positive impact even if they cannot grasp it themselves. In God's eyes, the redeemed are rich and royal even as they toil in their mundane lives (1 Cor. 4:8).

________

Adapts elements of the article "Scrooge, George Bailey and ‘Vows’: Our Warring Views on True Love," by Lizzie Skurnick in http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/24/scrooge-George-Bailey-And-Vows-Our-Warring-View/, 12/24/10.

There was a petition circulating to remove violent brawler Jim Webley from town when God intervened and changed not just Webley’s life but, years later, the course of a church and a Montana community.

In his early 20s, Webley was working in the gold mines of Nevada, entrenched in a rough lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, and through weekly fighting he had “put some people in the hospital,” he told Baptist Press. People just wanted him to leave town.

One Sunday morning, Webley was driving his young daughter Sara to get milkshakes when they passed a little white Baptist church building in the Nevada community.

“I absolutely never went to church down there, but I could feel God pulling me in that direction,” Webley recounted. “He was telling me I needed to get into church.”

Webley had an 8-inch jet lift on his ‘78 Chevy, so he parked behind the church in hopes his buddies wouldn’t drive by and see his recognizable truck.

“I remember walking into church with Sara and every person in that congregation knew me, and I think they were flabbergasted to see me coming through those doors,” Webley said. “The pastor was probably 10 minutes into his sermon and he just kind of stopped preaching and stared at me.

“I was wearing an Ozzy Osbourne shirt with the sleeves cut off. On the front he’s holding a dove and on the back he’s got the dove’s head in his mouth.”

Webley and his daughter quickly sat down, and he remembers being disgusted with the pastor. “He’d be preaching and he’d be trying to be funny, but it just made me madder. But then he said, ‘The Word of God says,’ and he would read from the Bible, and I remember sitting there going, ‘There’s such power in that.’ I was taken aback by the Word of God.”

After the service, no one approached Webley to talk. When he got home, his wife Melissa didn’t believe he had been to church. But he went back the next Sunday, as well-dressed as he could manage.

Soon he acknowledged he needed to clean up his life -- no more selling drugs, no more fighting. “I was going to try to be a better person,” Webley said. He moved his family up to Montana where he was raised, so he could escape the influence of his friends in Nevada.

The Webleys had lived there about six months when Melissa asked if they were going to look for a church. Webley replied, “Why would we go to church? We’re doing so good.” He had stopped selling drugs. There was very little fighting. And he was only “smoking pot and drinking.”

“I thought God would be pleased with me because I cleaned up my life so well,” Webley said. “I thought church was just where you learned to clean up.”

At Melissa’s insistence, they drove around and found Troy Community Baptist Church in Troy, Montana. There they heard the Gospel for the first time, and Webley realized it wasn’t his works that mattered but what Christ did on the cross.

He went to church for a while and grilled the pastor, Cam Foote, with questions, but he still wasn’t convinced God even existed. A few months later that changed when he was sitting in church and became convinced God was real.

“I thought, ‘I’ve been fooling myself, pretending that I don’t understand or I don’t know,’” Webley said, having realized his options were to stop going to church, live the life he wanted and go to hell or give his life to Christ and serve Him.

“It was kind of a no brainer at that point,” so Webley went forward that Sunday and gave his life to Christ at the age of 28. When he went home, he went through his house and gathered up his heavy metal shirts and CDs -- anything he thought God wouldn’t want in his house -- threw them in a burn barrel in the backyard, dumped gas on it and lit it.

“I told God, ‘Whatever You want to do with my life, I’ll do it.’”

The pastor suggested Webley might be helped in his walk if he met with the youth on Sundays rather than the adults. One Sunday the teacher didn’t show up, and Foote asked Webley to teach the lesson. He had no idea what to do but simply went by the lesson plan. Before long he became the youth pastor.

Seven years later, Foote began nudging Webley toward leading a church plant in Noxon, about an hour south of Troy. But Noxon was the last place Webley wanted to go. When he passed Noxon on the interstate, he couldn’t even bear to look over toward the town because of bad memories.

He had lived in Noxon while in elementary school, but it’s where his parents’ marriage unraveled and a man intentionally burned their house down. Noxon had a bad reputation for being home to a militia and later a white supremacist group.

Webley had been teaching the youth to surrender to God’s call on their lives, and he knew he had to do it too. He agreed to speak with the pastor search committee at the church plant, Baptist Mountain Church.

At the end of the meeting, a woman said two things were particularly important to the church. First, they had a potluck every Sunday after church and wanted his assurance that the potlucks could continue. Second, they “didn’t want a lot of new people coming in.”

“She said, ‘There’s a bad element here in Noxon and these people that come in ruin the fellowship and ruin the unity of the church, and we just don’t want a whole lot of these people coming in,’” Webley said.

Webley told the search committee that he expected the church members to give up their seats for new people, and if they called him as pastor they would not have another potluck until the spiritual issue was cleared up. They called him as pastor, and the first Sunday, when he told them that would be their last potluck, “that pretty much destroyed the church.”

The congregation went from about 25 to six people in one week, Webley said, but he was going to preach to an empty room until God told him to stop. From there, God started adding families, and the church has seen a steady increase not only in numbers but in maturity.

During the summer months, the church averages more than 100 on Sundays, and in the winter closer to 65, Webley said. The church was about $150,000 in debt with no congregation when Webley started as pastor, but they were debt-free within a few years. This summer they built a new worship center.

The community of about 300 people has changed as well. A few years ago there was a bad drug problem, “but we ended up getting that cleared up,” Webley said.

“That church has a tremendous impact on that town,” Foote told BP. “It has radically transformed that town, and Jim’s ministry there is phenomenal.”

Webley is a bivocational pastor, also working in carpentry and as a guide for deer and elk hunting.

Barrett Duke, executive director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention, told BP Webley is a perfect example of the Saul-to-Paul disciple.

“Before Christ, he fought with his fists against his fellow men with a terrifying ferocity,” Duke said. “Today, he fights with spiritual weapons for his fellow men with God-glorifying determination.”