The 57-to-1 Ratio

As an application point in my sermon from Sunday I asked everyone in the congregation to think about one area of their walk with Christ where they’re presently experiencing failure/guilt/shame/lack of progress. I then asked the questions:

“In that area of life, are you more aware of your failure/guilt than you are of God’s love and grace for you?”

“Do you know that God wants you to be more aware of the work he’s already accomplished on your behalf than of the work you have yet to do for him?”

I then spent a few minutes explaining what I call “The 57-to-1 Ratio” in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15  is made up of 58 verses. The final verse, verse 58, is a verse that deals with our work as Christians, a big umbrella command to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…” I then highlighted how this verse about our work only comes after 57 verses about Christ’s work–57 verses that explore in rich detail the life, death, and resurrection work that Christ accomplished on our behalf.

It’s as if the message the apostle Paul is trying to get across is that for every hour of our day we ought to spend 57 minutes aware of the gospel-work Jesus has accomplished and spend only 1 minute or so thinking about our work. Unfortunately, most of us have this ratio backwards. If we were to adopt this 57-to-1 ratio in our thought life/our pursuit of sanctification, I think we’d observe and experience some wonderful changes.

Note: my friend Toby Kurth gets the credit for directing me to this structure in 1 Cor. 15