I Corinthians 1:1-9 Sanctified In Christ Jesus

This Sunday we begin a new series, “Cross Current: Living Out of God’s Grace in Difficult Circumstances,” based on Paul’s book to the Corinthians. This sermon is an excellent way to reframe your thinking about yourself and the coming year. Corinth was a wealthy decadent port city located on the trade route between Asian and Rome. It was cosmopolitan, pluralistic, and notorious. To call a woman a “Corinthian” was considered an insult. But here we find an unlikely people in an unlikely place struggling with unlikely conditions embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Corinthian church had within it all the problems and vices of Corinth. And yet, Paul calls them a “holy people, because this is who they are and will be in Christ Jesus. Our biggest problem is not what we do, but what we believe about ourselves. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians who they are in Christ. It is God who changes us and keeps us. This is the gospel; this is good news.