Steve Patterson: “I’m an ‘Oh Happy Day’ Sinner!”

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Steve Patterson is recognized as an inspiring speaker and has been called upon to preach by many churches and groups, although he is not an ordained minister. In this column, Patterson offers an encouraging word to all of us to understand that the God he references is in the business of forgiving our sins, if we will just let Him.

 

“So, when the Devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and Hell, tell him this: I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ.” –Martin Luther

“People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.”
–William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

 

Ok. Now I’m gonna preach.

Many Sundays ago, one of the Elders at new Albany Presbyterian Church showed up in a brand spanking new suit, looking especially dapper. As I approached him, I reached for our usual hug and said, “My, you look sharp! You must be preaching today?”

He quickly and jokingly responded, “I am. I’m preaching on sin and I’m coming out against it.” We both laughed and took our usual seats near the front of the sanctuary.

As I reflect on that brief encounter, it occurs to me we really don’t hear enough about sin. We don’t talk enough about our struggles with our sinful, depraved nature, or our helplessness in controlling our own proclivities toward sinful behavior.

In today’s whacked-out world, sin is so commonplace, we tend to think it is not a serious problem. We tend to overlook God’s perspective on sin and our absolute need for His mercy. Sadly, I think today’s society actually views sin as a minor infraction, a little misdemeanor, a meaningless foible. Little inconsequential missteps that have no impact on God’s design for the world He created.

I am a sinner. I was born with a sinful nature. In fact, I’m really good at sinning. I’ve had lots of practice. I sinned yesterday, today, and, if the Lord lets me live, I’ll sin tomorrow. The good news is I know my sinful self, and I understand my weakness in resisting the temptations of a sinful world where the enemies of God and the lovers of wickedness abound.

One might say I have sin disease. I was born with it. I will die with it. In fact, I will die of it. An autopsy that could see into my soul would most assuredly show sin to be the cause of my death.

While most don’t realize it, and even fewer acknowledge it, I have this condition in common with all of humanity. Yes, you too have the same malady, the same diagnosis, and the same inability to cope with it on your own.

In my case, I’ve sought treatment from “The Great Physician.” My sin disease may be in remission, but it’s definitely not eradicated. That’s one of the mysteries of this ailment. With Holy treatment, sin can be treated, and its hold on us radically reduced. For those who receive the treatment, it is one hundred percent successful, yet we never totally escape its bondage. No one is ever righteous enough to be completely free of sin.

The treatment first requires faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ followed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which results from that faith. It’s God’s grace and God’s grace alone that saves us. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins and leads to confession, repentance and redemption.

When I call my sinful sickness a disease, I mean it in a metaphorical, Biblical sense. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick,” so says Jeremiah 17:10.

I find myself in the company of the Apostle Paul, who at the end of his life was still calling himself a sinner, even the “foremost” (I Timothy1:15). After a life of service and sacrifice and confession and repentance and, no doubt, a life of righteous thinking, feeling and acting, Paul was still relying on a loving God who sent His Son to save him. As the old adage goes: Paul stayed “fessed up,” and the Holy Spirit, through his faith, dwelled in him and removed sin’s bondage. Yet, even until his final days, he was asking God to crucify the sin dwelling in him.

One of my spiritual mentors, the late renowned Bible scholar, Dr. R.C. Sproul, argued that even the smallest sin involves what he called “Cosmic Treason” — when we tell a little white lie, when we take unfair advantage, when we have lust in our hearts, when we are arrogant, when we ignore the needy and refuse to comfort the weak, when we speak unkind words and engage in gossip, we have committed “Cosmic Treason.” God designed this ole world in such a way that we are called to tell the truth and love our creator with all our heart, mind and strength. And love each other as much as we love ourselves. Sin, even the slightest sin, is a direct challenge to the authority of our sovereign God and His plan for His sovereign rule in His creation.

Just think, without sin in the world there would be no injustice. No pain. There would be no disharmony, no hate, no war, no suffering. God designed His creation in a manner that there was to be peace on earth, love of neighbors, harmony between God and man and respect for His sovereign rule. Sin is a betrayal of that sovereign rule. When we sin, even in the slightest way, we are in rebellion against the designs of a sovereign God. Sin challenges the authority, the dignity, the power, and even the holiness of our God. It is rebellion against God.

Perhaps the sixteenth century Scottish reformer and minister, John Knox, expressed the most compelling view of sin I have ever read. Knox, well known for his thundering sermons, wrote a humble letter to his mother-in-law confessing his sinful nature which said:

“Although I never lack the presence and plain image of my own wretched infirmity, yet seeing sin so manifestly abounds in all estates, I am compelled to thunder out the threatenings of God against the obstinate rebels. In doing whereof (albeit, as God knoweth, I am no malicious nor obstinate sinner), I sometimes am wounded knowing myself to be criminal and guilty in many, yea, in all things . . . that I reprehend in others. Judge not, mother, that I write these things, debasing myself otherwise than I am—no, I am worse than my pen can express.

“In body you think I am no adulterer. Let so be, but the heart is infected with foul lusts, and it will lust although I lament ever so much.

“Externally I commit no idolatry, but my wicked heart loveth itself and cannot be refrained from vain imaginations, yea, not from such as were the fountain of all idolatry.

“I am no man-killer with my hands, but I help not my needy brother so liberally as I may and ought.

“I steal not horse, money, or clothes from my neighbor, but that small portion of worldly substance I bestow not as rightly as his holy law requires.

“I bear no false witness against my neighbor in judgment or otherwise before men, but I speak not the truth of God so boldly as it becomes his true messenger to do.

“And thus in conclusion, there is no vice repugning to God’s holy will expressed in his law, wherewith my heart is not infected.”

 

One of my favorite Christian writers, speakers and teachers is Dr. Steve Brown, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary. Several years ago, Dr. Brown wrote a delicious book with the provocative title, Three Free Sins: God Is Not Mad At You. I encourage everyone to read this book. Dr. Brown writes with a blend of humor and drop-dead seriousness. There are two primary biblical truths that Dr. Brown explores eloquently:

(1) Cheer up — You are a lot worse than you think you are.

(2) Cheer up — God’s grace is a lot bigger than you think it is.

Those two principles pretty much sum up the core message I hope to convey in this essay. Our sins are many, but his grace is more than enough to cover them; our sins are great, but his grace is greater.

When we truly understand the depth of our sin and the power of a righteous God to give us his merciful and undeserved grace through the righteous blood of Jesus, we should feel compelled to fall to our knees in shame and praise God for his amazing grace.

Like the refrain of the old gospel classic:

Oh, happy day! (Oh, happy day!)

Oh, happy day! (Oh, happy day!)

When Jesus washed (When Jesus washed)

Oh, when He washed (Yes, when He washed)

He washed my sins away!

Yep, I’m an “Oh Happy Day” sinner! I will sin today, and I’ll sin tomorrow. I will, like Paul, “stay fessed up,” take no joy in my sin, and always rejoice for the amazing grace of my Savior!

And, for me, today is a Happy Day, just like yesterday and tomorrow. It can be for you, too.