It’s hard to love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one.

This statement captures so well the struggle between good and evil in us all. But it is also the struggle between following the law and receiving God’s grace. The law is all about not sinning. “Thou shalt not…” And if any one of us could actually obey all of the law then we would have the right to say anything we want against sinners. We would have the right to only respect those who earn it. We could even despise those who don’t, because our righteousness would vindicate us every time, and condemn them. But alas, the law has condemned us all, so that no one can pass judgment on anyone else, and no one can earn anything.

The law was given, not so that we could follow it, but so that we would break it, and in doing so, find out who we really are. We are those who can lock arms and sing along with Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash and anybody else who might want to join in: “Lord help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it so; help me, Jesus, I know what I am.” The law teaches you that. It teaches you what you are really made of. And those who spend their life refusing to believe that, and try to follow it instead, are going to have a hard time loving sinners. And they will have a hard time loving themselves as well.

Trying to be good. Trying to be better. Trying to make spiritual compromises in your mind between yourself and others that make you come out on top, is a formula for disaster. Not only because it doesn’t work, but because you end up adjusting your view of reality to accommodate the fact that you think it does. In short, you become a Pharisee, looking down on “sinners” who are not as good as you. And that’s why it’s hard to love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one.

You can only love sinners when you realize that you are one. And not just one, but the worst one of all.

“But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:22 NASB)