Christian's often referred to as dirty Rotten Sinners

Colossians 2:12-14

Often, I have heard this statement from some well-meaning pastor or teacher;  “you are just a dirty rotten sinner saved by grace.”  When something is rotten it is extremely unpleasant to be around.  You often hear someone say, that person is spoiled rotten, and what he or she means is they have an unacceptable standard of living.  Is that really what has happen to a person who enters into a personal relationship with the Creator, Jesus Christ?  So the question is are we saints that sometimes sin, or are we who have entered into a relationship with Christ, nasty decaying compost?

I must tell you that every time someone makes that statement, my spirit screams; wrong, that’s not what God calls me, He calls me son, He has proclaimed me a new creation in Christ.  In verse 12, He states that the same power that raised Christ has also raised us and we are told that we are now seated with Christ in heaven.  Do I understand all of that, no way, but by faith in God who cannot lie, I totally believe it to be so.  Stop for a moment and ponder these verses 13-14, “And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Once all of us were under the control of sin, but by an act of love, God paid our debt by the blood of His only Son Jesus the Christ.  By the faith He gave us to believe, God also gave us grace to enter into Him and He to enter into us, and that is the most intimate relationship a human can have.  But God, at the moment you by faith ask Him to forgive your sins, and do what you had no ability to do, the canceling of the record of debt that stood against you; you entered into Christ, and you died to the control of sin.  You are a saint who sometimes by choice sins, and the Holy Spirit of God will confront you about that sin and it should break your heart. 

A person who has not passed from death (the control of sin) to life (the freedom to not sin) has little or no remorse for the sin in their life, that is unless they get caught.  But they are not sorry for the sin, but only what must be paid to make restitution.  Jesus Christ has already made restitution by His blood shed on the cross.

Yes, we are saints who sin we are the light of the world.  If you have any doubt about what God calls you go to 1Peter 2:9-10, and nowhere in Scripture does God refer to his Children as nasty, decaying compost or dirty rotten sinners.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice