The Tale of Two Sinners

Charles Dickens wrote his novel The Tale of Two Cities in which he weaved a story of the real existence of both evil and redemption.  His focus was on what was happening in London and Paris during the French Revolution.  In the end a friend takes the place of his friend at the guillotine; an image that takes us back to the cross.  Although the environment is very different today than it was during the French Revolution we still struggle with the existence of evil and the hope of the Gospel. As we live out our lives as Christians we have a desire to share the Good News of Jesus, the only hope for eternal redemption.

But before we can make an impact in the communities where we live we need to understand how to apply the Good News in our own lives.  Sometimes we may look at our own lives and wonder, "How can I share the message of salvation when I am not much different than those who live their lives without Christ?"  But if you are a believer you are radically different from those who still don't know the Savior; you just might not recognize it. 

That's where we come to the title of this blog, The Tale of Two Sinners.  On the one hand there are sinners who scoff at God's commands.  Some could care less about even appearing to be righteous whereas others want to justify their sins by coming up with a myriad of reasons why they are still righteous even though there  may be a gnawing sense that something is not right in their hearts.  The other kind of sinner is the one who is grieved by their sins.  They do not like the way they are and they long to be free.  If you are reading this blog I suspect that you are among the second kind of sinner.  Sometimes you are downright disgusted at actions, attitudes, thoughts or words that come out of you.  You may wonder why and where these things come from.  But it is to such as these that the Gospel expresses such incredible joy.

Old Martin Luther put it this way: "The saints of God are still encumbered with many sins; like other people, they feel in both body and soul a resistance to both Tables of Moses (viz. love of God and love of neighbor), especially to the First Table: impatience with God and a questioning of His acts and judgments.  Christians experience this as much as anyone.  But it is wrong!  I must not see, feel, know or recognize anything.  I must only listen and cling to the Word, basing everything on the Word alone." 

Those who scoff at God's law are spiritually dead.  The Good News of redemption through Christ has as much value to them as pearls have value to a pig (not my analogy).  It was Jesus who said, "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you" (Matthew 7:6).  As we live in an increasingly lawless society we find it more difficult to share the Good News.  People don't see the value of this Good News because they scoff at God's law or they become defensive, wanting to justify their choices.

So what are we to do?  We are to wait on the Lord until He prepares their hearts.  The Good News is that even scoffers can be saved.  But how does this change take place?  Usually it takes difficult experiences.  Sin has a way of coming around to bite us in the posterior.  That's the basic story line of the Biblical book of Judges.  Meanwhile we are to cling to the Word for our own hearts.  The Good News will produce the fruit of peace, joy and love.  Instead of judging those who are outside of Christ we will pray for them, remembering what Paul wrote, "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Of course, we still speak the truth about God's demands and their failures (and ours) but it will take the Holy Spirit to open their blind eyes.

Still there are others whom God has already prepared to hear His Good News.  I love the story of Lydia in Acts 16.  Paul and Silas are in the city of Philippi and there is no Jewish synagogue. Their usual approach was to begin their work in a synagogue until the scoffers threw them out.  Then they would preach to those whom God had prepared among the Gentiles.  But, as I said, there was no synagogue in Philippi.  So on the Sabbath day they went down to the river where they thought there might be a place of prayer for the Jews.  They were right and one of them was named Lydia.  It is written, "One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (Acts 16:14).  Notice that it took a work of God to open her heart.

I remember meeting a young "hippie" many years ago named Louis from an orthodox Jewish family.  After high school he took a road trip with some friends around the country and in one small town was asked by a Christian if he was "saved."  His answer was, "I'm Jewish."  The response was, "I didn't ask what your religion was; I asked if you were saved."  Not even knowing fully what that meant he said, "No."  "Do you want to be?" was the response.  Louis said, "Yes."  The Good News was shared with him and he became a believer in Jesus Christ and eventually went to Bible School.  He ended up becoming an Old Testament professor.

This brings us back to the Tale of Two Sinners. If we want to share the Good News we need to first believe it ourselves; that Christ has taken our sin upon Himself and given to us His righteousness. This is nothing more than believing that the Good News is for us, that God's Word is to be believed because it is God's Word. We don't have to understand it; we just have to believe it. Then we need to pray and be open to those whom God has prepared for this Good News. There's a reason that witnessing is compared to fishing. You need to know what bait to put on the line and where to throw it. This is what Paul meant when he wrote inColossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Having salty speech is not cursing but dropping lines that would get people to think about spiritual things, like offering to pray for them when they mention some trouble in their lives. Mainly we need to probe in our conversations and discern which kind of sinner they are. You never know when you might run into a Lydia.