Because I Am a Sinner
Eucharistic Meditation
Writing in his journal one Saturday evening, a young Scottish man named Robert Murray M’Cheyne took a moment to examine himself as he prepared to receive communion the next morning. Feeling the weight of his own sin, he wrote a lengthy paragraph listing the many various ways in which he had fallen short in his walk with the Lord.
But rather than allowing the shame and dismay of his sin to keep him from the Lord’s Table, he concluded his reflection with this gospel truth: “I come to Christ, not although I am a sinner, but just because I am a sinner, even the chief.”1
M’Cheyne recognized that we do not come to Christ despite our sin, as if it were baggage we could hide or something we must shuffle past. Rather, we come to Christ for this very reason—we are sinners and He is our merciful Savior. Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). He came to die for sinners (Rom. 5:8).
Therefore, if you know yourself to be a sinner, you do not need to hide from Him or try to make yourself right before coming to Him—neither of which is possible. Instead, you must turn to Christ each and every day, believing His promise to never turn away those who come to Him in faith (Jn. 6:37).
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
This was communion meditation was given on July 20, AD 2025 at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Memoir of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, 17.