In a letter to his protege Timothy, the Apostle Paul calls himself the worst (1 Timothy 1:15).
I think we all need to look at ourselves as among the worst of sinners, because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of us have lied, have cheated, have harbored anger, have held ill will towards others, have acted selfishly, have manipulated. We sin.
Our society likes to undermine sin, and call it freedom. We like to deny sin and blame other factors such as society and upbringing. We like to undermine the culpability for addictions and call them diseases.
But we regularly, freely, reject to carry out the will of God.
The higher the view we have of sin and of the cost of our sin, the greater the appreciation we can have for the grace of God. Because in the gospel, in spite of our sin and imperfection, we see Jesus dying so that we could be redeemed. We have a savior who died to save the worst of sinners. And on that cross, he shows that sin is costly. The cross makes no sense otherwise. Jesus died to make the ungodly, Godly.
May we rejoice in that.
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Susanna Wesley was the mother of 19 kids, but her two most famous, were sons John and Charles. The Wesley brothers, along with George Whitfield founded Methodism. John Wesley was one of the most prolific preachers of the 18th century, preaching an estimated 40,000 sermon in his lifetime. His brother Charles was a great hymn writer, considered by some the best ever. Charles wrote classics such as “Hark! The Herald Angles Sing,” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “And can it be that I should gain,” and “come thou long expected Jesus.”
