Imaginary sinners

Everyone is a sinner. Everyone also sins. It's easy enough to admit that you are a sinner-- very few would claim perfection, if only for fear of having their closest friends point out just how far that is from being true. To admit your individual sins, though, and to see those specific sins as they play out very significantly in your life and the lives of others, hits harder. When our own specific instances of weakness and sin and failure are thrown in our faces, we so often want to crawl in a hole and give it all up. We daily claim our identities as redeemed sinners, but one individual sin is enough to finish us completely and make us doubt the grace of Christ. I know He forgives all, but can He possibly forgive this? Yes.

"The true Christian daily pleads guilty before God, and seeks forgiveness through the blood of Christ. And the gospel salvation is so free, that the poorest is not shut out; and so full, that the most burdened conscience may find relief from it."
-Matthew Henry, from his commentary on Leviticus 5

To doubt the power of the grace of Christ to forgive one sin is to impugn the power of the Cross. It is to say to the One who gave it all, "It's just not quite enough." His grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in weakness. Grace is made perfect in the sin it covers over.

"God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world."
-Martin Luther