May 4, 2023

I Corinthians 6: 9-11 Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (NIV)

Contact with Jesus . . . changes the unclean to clean.*

Is your “signature sin” included on this list? If not, is it worse than, or not as bad as, these? Is Paul addressing an occasional sin or a sinful lifestyle? If you got drunk once, does that make you a drunkard? If you cheated once, does that make you a swindler?

Perhaps we don’t know enough about the gospel if we think any of those questions matter. As Paul proclaims in Romans 3: 23, all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We are sinners. But Paul wasn’t trying to compose an all-inclusive list of iniquities in this passage. It wasn’t his goal to shame his readers. He wanted to remind us of the very good news: Our condition has changed! All those bad things? That’s what we used to be.

Do we still sin? Yes, we do. But we were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit. Every time we get our hands dirty, Jesus is there with the antibacterial soap to make us pure again. In the words of another writer, “When we are saved . . . we actually become forgiven persons and live in a state of forgiveness as long as our trust in Jesus remains alive.”*

If you don’t believe his blood is powerful enough to wash you clean, your trust in him is weak – perhaps even dead.

Is it possible that He would so love us as to die for us, give us His likeness, adopt us into His family, seat us in heavenly places, and do many other things then leave it up to us as to whether or not we remain in that position?*