TWO KINDS OF SINNERS

There are two kinds of sinners.  On most days we are them, both of them in one person.  Jesus spelled it out in Luke 18:9-14.  Present was a noted religious superior along with a low-life, advantage-taker-of-the-public fraudulent tax-gather.  Both had a problem; a serious sin problem.  One knew it was so.  The other?  He was ignorant of his own sins.

I once believed that we were one or the other on any given day.  Life experiences, however, cause me to question whether we might be a bit of both...well...a large amount of both.  We are either sin-admitters or sin-deniers.  Sin is the force which makes the role of Savior, indeed, essential.

Jesus was profoundly unique in that he was the begotten Son of God; yet, he was the deepest sinner of all because he became the world's sin factors all in one heap when upon the Cross.  Jesus...gets us.

When we absorb the reality that we are two kinds of sinners, we are more likely inclined to cast down our swords of defense.  Apology and repentance are our garb.  Arrogance and comparison are not.  Such a conclusion is a firm blessing to ourselves and to others.  We have the true grasp of our need of His blood.  Simultaneously, we back off from smug criticism of all others.

However crude, rude, or nasty others are, we equal their sins and can raise them two.  We are effective participators within the Kingdom of God because we point the accusing finger toward ourselves first.  No one is more guilty than self.  When this happens, much of our nagging gripes toward others tends to move toward the back of the bus.

Relief followed by inclusion (accepting of others whom we assumed inferior to our elevated walk) followed by joy begins to build the Church in the fashion of its Architect.  The world awaits a saved people who can admit our own weakness and sin.