"And Such Were Some of You" - a Christian Response to an Unchristian CultureSample

We must maintain gospel clarity in response to the challenges that we face in society. The answer to the challenges that we are facing is not to relabel and repackage sin as something that is acceptable or “no big deal” to God. The answer is to be clear about our sinful condition and God’s remedy through Christ! And oh, how great a remedy it is, which leads to a final response.

We must respond to our present societal moment with gospel confidence! Or, another way to state this would be to say we must respond with gospel hope. As I have reflected upon much of the public conversation that has taken place over the last few years, I have witnessed a lot of lamenting. I am not saying that there is no place for lament and sorrow, but what I am saying is that we need more than lament and sorrow. We need hope! Confidence in the power of the gospel of Christ!

We cannot simply read 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 and not read verse 11, which says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Paul had confidence in the power of the gospel to transform people. Yet, I fear that, at times, Christians get so caught up in the “sinfulness of sin” that they forget the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I scroll through social media, I sometimes get the feeling that people know something that I don’t know, like maybe someone had found Jesus’ bones in a tomb in Jerusalem or that someone had definitively proven that the Scriptures were false. But that is never the case. Instead, it seems that people are just surprised to find that humanity is sinful, and somehow that sinfulness has trumped the power of God to save and transform people.