^‘I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’  (Luke 5:32)

Challenged as to why Jesus associates with sinners, Jesus’ reply no doubt stunned the Pharisees who studiously upheld the Law of Moses and thought themselves ‘righteous’, that is, in a place of right standing with God.

The word that translates ‘sinners’ is the Greek adjective (substantival – acting as a noun) ἁμαρτωλός hamartólos, literally ‘falling well-wide of the target’, but here stands for the most blatant and inveterate of transgressors.

Who is Jesus speaking about?  Every single human being that ever lived apart from himself.

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

‘None is righteous, no, not one.’ (Romans 3:9b-10 paraphrasing Psalm 14)

The letter to the Roman church contains doctrinal exposition on the subject of sin and righteousness in which the apostle Paul quotes the Law and the Prophets, Hebrew Scripture, as his source material.

Paul proposes to ‘prove’ that righteous status can only be granted by God though faith in God, taking as his premise this prophetic declaration:

 ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’  (Habakkuk 2:4)

The ESV offers an alternative rendering from the Hebrew, ‘the one who by faith is righteous shall live (have life)’ and this is the basis of the imputed and salvatory righteousness, which is known as ‘Justification’.

Hence, Paul’s conclusion:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  (Romans 8:1-2) 

But there is an inherent danger in that any reading this, especially if the ignore all or part of Paul’s detailed and carefully constructed doctrine, can end up in the same place as the Pharisees in thinking they can place themselves among the righteous not the sinner. Thus it is imperative to grasp a central point in the doctrine of Justification. God may pronounce a person is righteous, but does not extend the license to anyone that they might declare or think themselves righteous! The only change that happens to those who he justifies (declare righteous) is limited to the heavenly throne room, in that God decides to distinguish differently than before. For the sake of clarity (if not entirely theological accurate as the omniscient knows all ends) God has changed his mind but there is no change in the justified. Being declared righteous, does not automatically result in any behaving righteously!

Justification is a unilateral act, even the prerequisite for being declared righteous, faith, can be mistaken as a reward – therein, lies much misunderstanding.

Firstly, all should remember that faith (specifically, believing Jesus is Lord and God), is itself God’s gift:

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

A gift, moreover, which is always proffered to the thoroughly undeserving: ‘while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son’, says Paul, Romans 5:10.

But the second misunderstanding is, that even if God is now reconciled to accept any, it is not to be upheld and maintained on the basis of exemplary conduct and moral rectitude.  Nobody is morally perfected in their mortal and corrupted being; justification does not purify.

In fact, an honest self-examination should readily reveal to any that even if any believes themselves justified, their sinfulness endures.  This condition then is the basis of the companion doctrine of Romans, that of Sanctification.

This then, the process of becoming more Christ-like is exactly what Jesus refers to by the calling sinners to repentance; therefore, it is vital to understand what repentance is exactly.

In the head quotation from Luke, repentance translates μετάνοια, metanoia, which means ‘change of mind’; repentance then is nothing less that the inner reformation as the result of a purposeful decision-making.  Paul describes this repentance the way:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

This is not a passive spiritual process.  Renewing one’s mind will bring about the transformation, and ‘testing’ one’s thinking allows discernment, but only comes from commitment to put aside selfish desire and ambition that God’s will is done.  This commitment in favour or against God is a choice, one the God graciously offers all.

God deals in binaries.  Before Jesus, one can stand in camp of the righteous or the sinners.  While Jesus can do nothing for the former (for in the self-declaration of righteousness they are independent of God, having presumed to have attained the same perfect status by dint of their own efforts or by birth, race – whatever the criteria); however, for sinners Jesus holds out hope.  This is group he can relate to, because they recognise their need.  There is no pretence of their shortfall or parlous condition; and that the only thing they can bring as a sacrifice is their sin; sin is their gift!

In this dependent relationship with Jesus, it is therefore important to recognise moral failing.  Every day brings a fresh round of failure.  The perfection of sanctification is to be striven for, but can never be achieved and the moment any think they no longer stand with the sinners is the most dangerous of all.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  (1 John 1:8-10)

The walk of Christ is then charting a course between two extremes.  On one side is shame and self-denunciation for constant sinful relapse, which denies that there is no condemnation for those in (with) Christ; and on the other, the delusion that sinfulness is done away, or worse, the Christian has license to do whatever he or she wishes.

The follower of Jesus is commanded to root out all sin and sin no more.  As Paul asks rhetorically ‘are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?’ (Romans 6:1). His answer could never be ‘why not!’  Unequivocally, Jesus requires of the authentic disciple radical surgery:

 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.  (Matthew 5:29-30)

The best the faithful can hope for is that they do not stray to either extreme or bounce between the two extremes, but rather walk a middle path.  Thus, acknowledging one’s continued sinfulness, with constant confession and continual repentance, while at the same time trusting God that He is already seeing you among the righteous even while morally bankrupt.

That Jesus can only relate to those who recognise their depravity and also believe that God has reclassified them as worthy is a deeply difficult and uncomfortable state; and one that it is natural to want to avoid or ameliorate.  Yet Paul teaches by his own example, that is essential that all embrace rather than dismiss their sinfulness, as he veered between disappointment, failure and despair.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  (Romans 7:15-20)

This is the agony of sanctification, which leads Paul to plead, ‘wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (ibid 7:24).  This is a graphic description of the deeply perturbing walk of the repentant sinner – and Paul concludes that there is no escaping this in mortality.  Only in death, will God complete the work of sanctification, when His righteous declaration of the justified will be outworked and the sinner is no more.  

… those whom (Jesus) called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  (Romans 8:30b)