Day 9: The Example

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

”I’ll have a party in hell.” “I’ll meet you in hell.” “I can’t go into a church without bursting into flames.” “I am already too far gone.” “There is no hope for me, I have rejected Christ, and I love my sins too much.” “You are all just a bunch of hypocrites!” These are all things I’ve heard before (Sadly). When people reject the gospel there is really only a few reasons for it. The most common of reasons is that they have had some sort of hurt by people in the church. The sad truth of the matter is, most hurt does come from the church. The reason this is, is because we are a bunch of broken, sinful people, gathering together with other broken, sinful people to hear about a perfect sinless God who came to earth and died for our broken sinful lives.

Sadly, when we are saved, we do not jump to straight and narrow living. When we are saved it requires a complete rewiring of the brain. You suddenly understand those things you thought were fun and cool are no longer fun and cool because they go directly against whom you’ve given your life to. You become so in love with Christ that you are willing to get rid of the old lifestyle so you can live this new one. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

When I got married, I did not do so because I wanted to tie myself down and make sure I could go nowhere else. I got married because God ordained it and because I loved this girl and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I can happily say after 6 years of marriage, I am still in love with her, and it is not hard for me to only have eyes for her. I love her so much and respect her so much that I would never want to do anything that would be displeasing to her. With that said, I will of course make mistakes, but love forgives. It is this style of love that Christ has for the lost. When we are saved, we experience the sacrificial love of God, and it‘s because of this that we do not want to displease Him. “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

We have the same understanding as Paul does here. We are the worst of the worst. No one may be able to outmatch us in how terrible of a person we are. However, if you are saved today, you can confidently say that you know of one who is not hypocritical though we might be. We know of one who has not rejected you, though we might to Him. We know of one who loves you and does not desire that you spend an eternity in hell away from Him “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 Point everyone back to Jesus, because He is the only example we can depend on to be right.