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Can we Christians still be sinners?
No. The Apostle Paul said in
1 Timothy 1:15 that he was one of the "sinners of
whom I am chief," recalling the days before he met
Jesus. In Christian communities today, there are many who
think that they are sinners even after they believe in Jesus.
But it is not true.
We are all sinners before we
believe in Jesus. However, once we believe in Jesus correctly
according to His Word, we become righteous immediately. The
Apostle Paul remembered the time before he knew Jesus and
confessed that he was the chief of all sinners.
Paul, when he was called Saul,
met Jesus on the road to Damascus and realized that Jesus
was his Savior, so he believed in and thanked Him. Then, for
the rest of his life, he witnessed that the righteousness
of God, the baptism of Jesus, had taken away the sins of the
world and that He had to die to blot out the world's sins.
In other words, he became a servant
of God who preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
However, most Christians still think that the Apostle Paul
was a sinner even after he met Jesus. They misunderstand this
passage from the viewpoint of Christian sinners, who are not
yet born again.
The truth, however, is that he
was no longer a sinner after he met Jesus, but one who could
face Jesus whenever he wanted. He had devoted the rest of
his life to preaching the gospel of salvation, the redemption
of the baptism and the blood of Jesus. Even after he passed
away, his Epistles are left to us in the Bible, testifying
that the gospel of the water and the Spirit was the true gospel
from the early church. Hence, the confession of the Apostle
Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 was a recollection of his old days
and a thanksgiving to the Lord as well.
Was he a sinner after he believed
in Jesus? No. He was a sinner before he was born again. At
the moment he believed in Jesus as his Savior, the moment
he realized that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus
through His baptism, the moment he believed in His atoning
blood of the Cross, he became righteous.
The reason he called himself
the chief of all sinners was because he was remembering the
time he had persecuted the followers of Jesus and thanked
God for saving him, the most hopeless sinner.
Who can call him still a sinner?
Who can call someone a sinner if he/she became righteous by
believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus as his/her salvation?
Only those unaware of the truth of the redemption of Jesus
can do that.
The Apostle Paul became righteous
by believing in salvation through Jesus and from that time
on, as a servant of God, preached the gospel of becoming righteous
by believing in Jesus Christ to everyone, the Son of God as
the Savior. From then on, the Apostle Paul was not a sinner,
but a righteous servant of God, a true servant who preached
the gospel to the sinners of the whole world.
Can a sinner preach to others?
It would never work. How can one preach to others what he
himself does not have! When a person has not been saved, how
can the person save others!
If a man was drowning and tried
to help another drowning man near by, both would end up under
water. How can a sinner save others? He/she would only take
them down to hell with him/her. How can a sick man care for
another sick person successfully? How can one deceived by
Satan save another?
The Apostle Paul was a sinner,
but became righteous when he believed in the baptism and blood
of Jesus and was saved from sin. Therefore, he could become
a servant of God and preach the gospel to the sinners of the
world. He saved many sinners with the righteousness of God.
He himself was no longer a sinner from then on.
He was born again and lived not
in the righteousness of the law, but in the righteousness
of God. He became a servant and preacher of the righteousness
of God, and he wined countless souls to God. He was not a
preacher of his own enthusiasm or the righteousness of the
Law, but the righteousness of God.
Was he a sinner to the end? No.
He was righteous. As a righteous man, he became the apostle
of the truth of God. Do not call him a sinner because it would
be an insult to God as well as a clear misunderstanding of
the truth. He was righteous. We should never insult him or
Jesus by thinking otherwise.
If we say he was still a sinner
after he met Jesus, it is calling Jesus a liar. Jesus made
him righteous, and it was Jesus who made him a servant of
His righteousness.
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