I'm Not (Merely) a Sinner

Words mean a lot to me. Probably too much at times and I get brain tired trying understand what someone really means by what they say. I am probably one of the few people in the world who diagrams sentences in my head while I am talking.

THIS is one of the reasons I haven't finished a Dickens Novel Yet

Not one of the few people who can do that, one of the few neurotic people who would do that.

That's why "merely" is in the title of this post.  The word "merely" changes everything.

I am not merely a sinner. Though there are days like recent days where my bent to live out selfish desires is more apparent to me than ever before, that is not all of who I am.  In all of my striving for humility (highlight for spoiler: striving for humility doesn't work) and as much as shuffling my feet with my head down might give the appearance of a holy attitude, neither of those things deals with the heart of the issue.

"Sinner" is not my deepest identity. "Holy one" is deeper.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18 ESV)

Oh yeah, this too:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV)

I am a holy one, not because I have it all together (far from it), but because Jesus has me all together. I have not merely been declared "holy" because of Jesus death, I have been made holy in the deepest part of me because the Holy One dwells in the deepest part of me.

Here is the good news: because of everything God has given me in Jesus, the most real, authentic me is not dark, evil, depraved any longer. That is who I was- past tense (see below). Jesus changed me in the deepest part of who I am.

Today, I needed the Spirit to walk me through the gospel again...and to preach the gospel to myself.

I am not- merely- a sinner. I am- much more- a holy one.

And you WERE dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved... (Ephesians 2:1-5 ESV)