Sometimes, I encounter people who think their record of wrongdoing is so rotten that God would never — or could never — forgive them and take them back into His family.
And some of these people have done really rotten things, trust me, things that made my skin crawl when I heard their stories.
What I must remember, though, is that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven if the person wanting restoration sincerely cries out to God.
That’s hard for us to wrap our brains around because we’re so contract-minded.
We think in the flesh too many times and the flesh thinks that if a really, really bad deed has been done, there’s got to be some kind of punishment for us, even if we eventually end up forgiven. You know, sort of like the penance thing.
Yes, we know that Jesus took the eternal punishment for us on the Cross because of our sinful lives and we are incredibly grateful for that.
But what about the really bad sin choices that destroy families or cripple congregations or even take a life?
God’s grace is deeper than the tap root of those sins. We just have to ask His long, strong arm to pull that tap root out because we have repeatedly failed to do so in our own weakness.
Using another metaphor, only His arm is strong enough to break the chains that bind us to feelings of unredeemed guilt for what we’ve done.
Every person needs a personal, repentant relationship with God if he or she is to find forgiveness. Even if the sins needing washed away would make Jerry Springer’s skin crawl, the blood of Jesus Christ can wash them away when we confess Him as Savior with our lips and baptism and redeemed lifestyle.
For those living on the margins of society — the kind that church people typically avoid — this is a needed message of hope and I hope you’ll share it.
I was led to write about this today because of the reading in today’s section of the One-Year Bible. I encourage you to check it out by clicking here and then pass its message of hope onto others who want a better life but who think they’ve destroyed any chance of ever having one.
If one of history’s most evil kings can be restored to a position of faith through the patient, corrective, gracious power of God, then anybody can be restored to God’s family if he or she will choose the path of humility and repentance.
Tramps or high-society gossip girls, thugs or corporate thiefs, liars or losers, God can and wants to save them all.
When you meet somebody who wants a better, brighter life but who is deafened by the rattling chains of guilt and hopelessness, tell them about King Manasseh’s turnaround. And then tell them about the Apostle Paul’s conversion.
Then they’ll see that they’re not too far from the reach of God’s redemptive mercy.
As always, I love you
Martin
