There are five words that form what is perhaps the most promising and hopeful sentence ever. The words are found in a letter from the apostle Paul to the new believers in the cosmopolitan port city of Corinth. These people had responded to the gospel message of Jesus and their lives were beginning to be transformed as a result. They were leaving behind their identification with sin and their sanctification was well under way! So, what are those words? “SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU”. Past tense. From an exhaustive sin list, Paul reminds them that the Spirit had washed them, sanctified (set them apart) and justified (forgiven the penalty of their sin) them. This is the reality of my life. I’d rather not tell you what I was, but rather glorify God in who I am in Christ today.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 9:6-11 NASB
How grateful am I for my new identification with Christ instead of my sin? What optimism exists that anyone can be changed by the Spirit of God and gospel of Jesus Christ?
God, as this day begins- I have been thinking about the many who have heard about Jesus, but yet to receive Him. Draw them closer. Spirit of God convict them of sin, their need for a Savior, and that Jesus is the answer. Continue to use me to reach out and love others in Your name. Would you also be very real and close to those who are experiencing the loss of a precious loved. Help them find the hope we have of a life to come!
