Paul writes, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-21).
One of the most terrible things that can slowly kill a Church is the silent assumption that church people are basically good. Oh, we may have little sins here and there, and of course someone may go off the deep end every once in a while, but for the most part, church people are good people. But this is a lie, and it’s a lie from one of the deepest pits of Hell. Satan loves to lull the people of God into an apathetic blindness to their sin. And it creates apathy because there’s nothing really that urgent to be done. Church people are basically good people, and therefore, there’s nothing too urgent to change, to fix, and certainly very little to repent of.
But we are not good people. That’s not why we’re here. We’re bad people. We’ve thought perverse things this week. Men and women have lusted, have fantasized, and have entertained degrading desires. We’ve said bitter and biting things in our hearts and out loud this week. We’ve murdered others in our hearts with anger and resentment and wrath. We’ve obsessed over ourselves, our fears, our worries, our bodies, what others think. We’ve lied to God, to ourselves, and to others. We’ve covered up, pretended away, and imagined that God cannot see us. We are not good people. That’s not why we’re here. We are here precisely because we know that we are not good. Compared to the infinite glory and goodness of God, we are disease-infested, deformed, palsied. We are covered in the maggots of sin. We are sinful beyond measure. But do not despair, where sin has increased, grace abounds even more. Where sin once reigned, grace reigns through righteousness. You are not good. But God is good. And His goodness is big enough for all our sin. We are not good. But God has come in Jesus Christ in order to bear our sin and to be our goodness.