Repent and Believe – It’s No Mistake

Read: Luke 7:36-50 There’s a big difference between a sin and a mistake. A mistake: I don’t really have to ask you to forgive me. I can just say, “I’m sorry. Can we just move on?” A sin? That’s a different thing altogether. Here’s the biggest difference between a sin and mistake: if everything I do wrong can be dumbed down to where it’s just a mistake, that makes me a mistaker, which means I don’t have sin. If I don’t have sin, I’m not a sinner. If I’m not a sinner, I don’t have any need for a Savior. If you’re just a mistaker, then all you have to do is do better. Mistakers just have to try harder. Mistakers just have to break a nasty habit. Mistakers just have to be more consistent. Mistakers just have to try harder next time. But if I’m a sinner, that seems to be more fundamental to who I am. If I’m a sinner, then simply trying harder isn’t going to get it done, because I probably owe somebody something. I probably deserve something I don’t even really want to know that much about. If I’m a sinner, trying harder isn’t going to help me. If I’m a sinner, I need a Savior. Jesus responded: It’s both—you’re terrible, and God loves you. You’re worse than you thought, and God loves you more than you imagine. If that wasn’t enough, Jesus comes along and whacks the hornet’s nest on the whole matter. In his ministry, he taught two opposing ideas that seemed like they shouldn’t come out of the same person’s mouth. He came along and made everybody feel worse about themselves. He raised the bar. He came into an environment where they dumbed down God’s law to say: It’s not as hard to be godly, it’s not as hard to be righteous; God wasn’t as serious as maybe you thought he was. Jesus pushed the bar way up high and said: Oh, no, no, no. It’s worse than you thought. You thought you were kind of bad; you’re really bad. You thought you were good; you’re not good. You thought you were righteous; you are not a righteous person. Nobody’s good enough to be in God’s good favor. But then he also came along and said: Oh by the way: God loves you just the way you are. The people were confused: Wait a minute, which is it? Either I’m terrible, or God loves me. Jesus responded: It’s both—you’re terrible, and God loves you. You’re worse than you thought, and God loves you more than you imagine.  ]]>