Leave Your Sin There

The Gospel humbles the proud, and exalts the humble. Nowhere is that more evident than when we come to the Lord’s Supper. The pride of man thinks that the more you earn, the greater your fame, the more talented you are, the better your spot at the table and the better portions you should receive.

The table of the haughty insists that you must earn a spot at the table. The fellowship of the self-righteous is tenuous, however. They must continually adjust for popular opinions about what constitutes moral behavior. They fence the table by conforming to the fads of the time. The haughty heart wants its sins overlooked, while others, whose sins just recently became detestable according to public opinion, must be left out. 

But this table, where the signs of our Lord’s humilition are brought to view, rebukes everyone’s sins. Petty and trite sins to criminal and deranged sins. Murder and envy, lust and sodomy, lying and defrauding, laziness and bank heists. Christ died not so that we could smuggle our sins into His banqueting hall and hide them under the table. He died so that we need carry our sin and our guilt no more.

The humble have had their eyes opened by grace to see the horrendous grotesqueness of their sin and the holy glory of Christ’s sacrifice for that sin. The humble say, “Amen,” to the evil of their sin, and say another “Amen,” twice as loud, to the forgiveness and eternal life offered them in the Gospel.

So, to all the world, to sinners of all stripes, to the child who tells habitual lies, to the businessman who rages at his employees, to the cross-dresser, the stripper, and the self-righteous Pharisees, the Word of the Gospel is this: come. Come here, and leave your sin there.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…