“An Amazing Transformation”
1 Timothy 1:12-17

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost—October 23, 2022

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven”?  That bumper sticker is a good summary of today’s Epistle Reading, especially the verse which is the basis for the hymn we’ve just sung: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.” 

Paul is not exaggerating at all when he says, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.”  The first time we meet Paul in the New Testament is at the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  Paul also goes by the Hebrew name Saul.  “They . . . dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. . .  And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church . . .  Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.”

The next time we meet Paul, he’s on his way to Damascus: “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”  Paul confesses in Galatians, “I intensely persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.”

But then something happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.  He later remembered it this way: “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. . .  ‘I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness . . . ‘”

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.  Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy . . .”  “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”

There are four lessons we learn from Paul’s example:

Point #1) In Humility Confess And Repent Of Your Sins

When Paul says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst,” he is not just talking about himself.  What Paul means is, that should be the motto of each one of us.  In humility and repentance, every one of us must apply those words to himself: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.” 

The bad news is you are not perfect; the Good News is, you are forgiven, for “Christ Jesus came into the world to SAVE sinners.”  Jesus says it this way: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

Point #2) Nothing Is Too Great for God to Forgive

In 1 Corinthians, Paul gives a list of very vile and wicked sins, and then he says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  “The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from EVERY sin.”  “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy . . .”  Nothing is too great for God to forgive.

Point #3) People Can Change by the Power of God’s Mercy and Grace

Acts says that after Paul’s conversion, “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.  All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who destroyed those in Jerusalem who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here for that purpose, to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’”  In Galatians Paul says the other Christians were baffled by the change in him: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

It is certainly the most amazing transformation in history.  Paul tells us what brought about this transformation in his life: “I was shown MERCY . . .  The GRACE of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly . . .”   People can change by the power of God’s mercy and grace.

Point #4) God’s Mercy to Us Despite Our Sins and Shortcomings Is a Powerful Witness

Paul says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”  “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”  God’s mercy to us despite our sins and shortcomings is a powerful witness.

Next week for Reformation Sunday, we will sing the first hymn authored by Martin Luther.  In “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice,” Luther tells us in song the story of his spiritual journey. He begins in the opening verses with a very moving confession of his sinfulness, and his great despair and spiritual torment:

Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly over me,
Sin was my torment night and day;
In sin my mother bore me.
But daily deeper still I fell;
My life became a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.
My fears increased till sheer despair
Left only death to my share;
The pangs of hell I suffered.

Then Luther relates the turning point in his spiritual journey, when he came to understand the true meaning of the Christian faith:

But God had seen my wretched state
Before the world’s foundation,
And mindful of his mercies great,
He planned for my salvation.
God said to his beloved Son:
“It’s time to have compassion.
From sin and sorrow set them free;
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with you forever.”

Like this autobiographical hymn of Martin Luther, 250 years later John Newton wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” to describe his own amazing conversion, from a wicked, cruel sea captain of a slave-trading ship, to a devout Christian, faithful pastor, and author of over 275 hymns, including “Amazing Grace” and four others included in Lutheran Service Book.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!

Like these autobiographical hymns by Martin Luther and John Newton, telling the story of their conversion, the autobiographical confession of the Apostle Paul is a powerful witness of God’s mercy to us, despite our sins and shortcomings .