The full nature of sin and salvation

I once shared an article criticising a bigoted gay couple who sued a Christian florist for holding to her Christian faith by refusing to provide flowers to the gay couple’s so-called “wedding”. Naturally, this lead to the usual unpleasant debate about the morality of homosexuality. One man, a bisexual, was angry with me for “judging” him, and brought up the fact that he has often heard me swearing.

His criticism was, in some ways, fair. I readily admit that I struggle with bad language, and I in no way seek to justify that. Another of his friends pointed out that I actually used to be gay myself, another accurate assessment. However, none of my actions, past, present or future, disqualify me from saying that sin is sin, and we all need to repent of it. If a murderer came out of prison and declared “murder is wrong”, it would be somewhat hypocritical of him to say so, especially if he committed yet another murder following that statement, yet he would still be correct: Murder is wrong, and murderers do need to repent.

The Bible says three definite things about sin. The first is that we’ve all done it (Romans 3:23). The second is that we will never cease to do it in this life (1 John 1:8). The third is that by God’s grace, our faith in Him is sufficient to save us from it (John 3:18; Romans 8:1; Ephesians 2:8-9 etc.) When I, as a Christian, preach about sin, I am not doing so as a perfect man. I am not even necessarily doing so as a man who has completely overcome the specific sin I am preaching against. I am preaching as a man whose sins spread as far as the South is from the North, but who also loves a God whose love spreads as far as the East is from the West. All of my sins, past, present and future, have been nailed to that cross, and when I preach, my goal isn’t to condemn sinners, but to invite them to receive that same salvation. As an alcoholic inviting his alcoholic friends to Alcoholics Anonymous, I am a sinful man who seeks to bring other sinners to the salvation that can only be found in God.