Sunday, March 8, 2015

I am the first sinner.

"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." (I Timothy 1:15 NKJV)

I've always read the word "chief" to mean "the worst of sinners", which is surely an appropriate way to read it.  

However the word can also mean "first".  As in, my sin was the first sin, or that I was the first sinner.

In Christ's view of time, my life doesn't happen after Adam's, but in a sense happens at once with all of reality.  When He looks upon me, he can, if he pleases, view all of creation from the perspective of its beginning with me.  

What an honor it would be, to have God consider me first, not in the context of a history forced upon me, but choosing to view me first, only defined by what I am in and of myself.  

When he takes the opportunity to do this, I am the first of creation, the object of His creative Love, and my sin is also first, followed by and even the cause of all other sin.

Thankfully no matter who he looks at, or how the beginning they establish manifests itself, there is always a future beyond that beginning where Christ has come into the world to save the first sinner, every one of us.