I don’t remember the first time I said, “I am a sinner.” It’s not recorded in some kind of faith journey baby book in which I’ve recorded my milestones.

What I do remember is how everything else seemed to fall into place when I was able to be honest with myself about myself.

Think about it. The whole redemption story doesn’t make sense unless there is something to save. So, good news/bad news.

Good news – we have a Savior who has saved us by dying for our sins. Bad news – we are sinners.

If we weren’t sinners, there would be no need for a Savior. Kind of like, there would be no need for a lifesaving cure if there were no deadly disease in the first place.

Sin. Disease. Death. Sounds kind of dark, doesn’t it? Well, it is. But it’s a necessary part of the story. It’s a truth we simply cannot ignore.

Before I had a relationship with Jesus, I wasn’t able to admit the sin that is in me. I didn’t even think about sin. If you would have asked me then about the kind of person I was, I would have said I was mostly good, trying to work hard, meet my goals, build my life, and be kind to others. My answer would be based on all things I had done.

What was my method for determining what was good? What was my measuring stick? I don’t know and I didn’t have one. All I had was my own judgment, mixed with input from family and friends.

You might ask, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t using your own judgment and taking feedback from others a good thing? Well, sure, if your own judgment and feedback from others is based off of the ever-present and unchanging moral truth of the Creator, and not from the mortal and always-changing feelings of the creation.

The most helpful thing I could have heard in my younger years was that I was in fact a sinner AND that there is a loving, just God who wants to save me from all that. That He’s not just some abstract being who’s out there somewhere; He’s here now, and I can have access to Him.

It comes down to this: I didn’t know I needed a Savior because I didn’t know I needed to be saved. This absolute truth has made all the difference.

Once I was hit with the truth of my own sin and accepted it, I was able to realize how great my need for a Savior was – that I couldn’t do this on my own and was never meant to – and I was able to develop a relationship with Jesus.

I’d like to say that once I accepted Jesus, the Holy Spirit flooded into my life and everything changed instantly. In truth, it’s been more of a trickle. My independent and skeptical nature has slowed this down, but I can feel the work of the Holy Spirit refining me day by day. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s pleasant. Always, it’s needed.

I’m writing this for my own reflection, and sharing it because it might help someone else see the truth of their own sin and be offended enough to do something about it. In a culture that finds offense in everything, this is one that can lead to being saved from yourself.

It’s likely I would have rejected this truth about my own sin if someone had tried to convince me that I needed saving. My pride would have gotten in the way. But truth doesn’t stop being true because we refuse to believe it.

So with love, I say this. I am no better than you and you no better than me. We are equal at the foot of the Cross. Sinners in a broken world, with a Savior to hold us, heal us, and prepare us for what’s to come.

The bad news isn’t the end of this story. The good news wins.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:23-24