Are you a Sinner?

 

Somebody asked me, “How can I know if I am a sinner?” I replied, “Will you die? If yes, you are a sinner. Coz according to the Bible, only sinners die. The righteous will never perish.” He didn’t say anything more. He knew he would need to acknowledge the need for a Savior if he admitted he was a sinner. Finally, I left him for God to convict him of his sin and draw him closer to Jesus, the remedy for human sins and future condemnation. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Jesus said: I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies (John 11:25). Are you a sinner? (Rom. 3:23, 6:23) 

 

When Paul told Timothy, “I am the worst of sinners,” he was using a figure of speech (I Timothy 1). Some have taken this comment literally and misled many people. Paul exaggerated the depth of his sin to help Timothy understand the profundity of God’s grace. Paul persecuted the church before his conversion, but God was patient with him because Paul did it in ignorance. After Jesus enlightened Paul, he understood how much God loved him. He tasted God’s patient endurance toward even hardened sinners. Thus, Paul exemplifies how patient and excellent God’s gracious love for all humans is. Paul encourages Timothy to be patient with his audience, even when they take him for granted.

 

Some people are confused by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7), where Jesus equates the consequences of anger with murder and lecherous looks with adultery. They think all these are sins that God might punish. Even so, no human has reached those impossible standards yet. Not in my notice. Such scholars fail to notice that Jesus was speaking in hyperboles. He exaggerated the Ten Commandments to help the Pharisees understand what happens when they exaggerate laws, such as the Sabbath and Food laws.

 

For instance, the Pharisees had equated the consequences of eating with pagans with the consequences of idol worship. Then, they excommunicated the tax collectors. It was an unfair equivalence. Jesus fought on behalf of the wronged tax collectors. He extended the commands regarding murder and adultery to poke at the Pharisees’ unfair laws. Thus, he brought them to level ground. Notice that Jesus did not equate different kinds of sins -mental and literal. Nor was Jesus equating the volume and quality of the sins of Pharisees with the Tax Collectors’ sins. Instead, he equated people’s inability to obey extended commands that were beyond the scope of God’s Ten Commandments.

 

People are accountable only for the violation of the laws mentioned in the Decalogue, not the man-made laws of Pharisees and Lawyers. Therefore, do not allow leaders who come with ultra-holiness, unfair, judgmental legal obligations to take control of you. Jesus said, “He came to fulfill the law, not to amend it.” (Matt 5:17-20). The Sermon on the Mount is not Jesus’ extended law for NT believers or an amendment of the Decalogue. It is an exaggerated reading of the Torah to expose the unfair laws and double standards of the religious Jews. Further, it also identifies the seat of sin: the heart. If you nip the sinful tendencies in the bud, you will not go on to do them and be condemned.

 

Further, the Bible does not consider Skin diseases, Menstruation, Wet Dreams, and Seminal emissions as sins according to Leviticus, particularly Leviticus 15. In the OT, they cause ritualistic impurity, and people need to stay away from the Jewish Temple for a stipulated time. Menstruating women may need to offer sacrifices for purification. However, there are no such requirements for men having a seminal discharge. In the NT, these Jewish purity laws do not matter. In Christ, God has purified every menstruating woman and people with skin diseases. They don’t need to bring sacrifice or abstain from worship. Even so, denying God, adultery, murder, theft, lies, cheating, false testimony, homosexuality, etc., are sins.

 

Still, you may ask me, “If only sinners die, how could Jesus die? Was he a sinner, too?” Well, that’s the point of the gospel. Jesus –the Righteous One– died on behalf of sinners to pay their penalty. By default, Jesus could not die for two reasons. 1. He is God in human form. 2. He is the only righteous human being. That’s why Paul uses a unique way to express Jesus’ death. He says, “Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death (Phil 2:8).” Death didn’t have power over him, but he submitted to it. Even so, death did not have the final say. The just Father reversed Pilate’s verdict since Jesus was a righteous human in his being and conduct. He raised Jesus up from the dead on the third day to begin a new humanity that would never die.

 

God told humans they would die if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. In the Genesis account, humans were immortal until Adam ate the fruit. Thus, through one man, death entered humanity. After this, God exiled humans from his presence: a second, perhaps, spiritual death. God blessed Abraham’s family to reverse Adam’s curse that brought death and exile. However, Israel sinned, and God exiled them. Still, God’s prophets promised Israel a final resurrection. Representing Israel and Adamic humanity, Jesus died for the forgiveness of humanity. Then, he rose again to show that he had reversed the curse’s effects. Hence, through Jesus, God promises humans a renewed fellowship with him and immortality in resurrection bodies in the coming age. Those who repent, receive Jesus as Lord, and are thus born of God do not continue to live sinful lives.