Venia

I have no story this week that connects to what I'm going to say. I have no anecdotes or quips to make a strange tie to the subject of this post. I have no links to off-the-radar information or jokes. I simply want to tell you about something which is probably a stronger reminder for myself than it is for you:

I am not above anyone, nor am I in a position to tell you anything about faith or life in general.

Through recent mistakes and sin, I've come to realize just this. I'm messed up. But let me make something perfectly clear: it is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ that I have been forgiven. And it is through His forgiveness that He has allowed me to be in any position of leadership.

I simply want to talk about forgiveness. Now forgiveness is a pretty wide topic, so let me talk about something specific: our reaction to sin.

Whenever we, as Christ-followers, sin, we tend to clam up and avoid God for a while. In the meantime, we try to be better and "clean up our act" so that God will look upon us more favorably when we finally come before Him.

If not that, then we might come before God with so much shame and guilt that we feel like we can't be too close to Him because He's too holy and we're too disgusting. So we pray, but we just sort of accept that we won't be able to be close with Him for a while - at least until we've been away from our sin for a couple days or something. And it sounds all good and spiritual but it is. just. not.

TRUE!

Let me explain something to you that forever changed how I came before my Maker. I realized that all of my sins (and I do mean "all") were forgiven by Jesus. That means that all of my past, present, and future sins were taken care of on the bloody cross. Don't believe me? 1 John 1:9 says, 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

See? All.

It is for this very reason that Hebrews 4:16 says, 

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Let me say it this way: in our darkest, most sinfully wretched moments, we are still children of God - purified by His Son and entitled to a powerful relationship with Him. Always.

Now some people might say, "You're taking it too far! If you tell people about this much grace and forgiveness for sin, they're going to take advantage of it and sin all the more!"

To this I would say a few things:

1) Forgiveness comes from true repentance. 2 Corinthians 7 says, "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." In light of this, someone who lives in sin and expects Jesus to forgive when there is no deep remorse and hatred for sin is actually leading himself down a road to death.

2) Paul addresses this exact issue in Romans 6, where he says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!" A person who abuses the forgiveness of Christ does not understand the message of the Cross and, consequently, forgiveness itself.

Knowing these things, God's forgiveness is free and overflowing. So no longer should we come before God with timidity and trembling, but with boldness! Because, before God, we have been already made perfect and spotless. The price has been paid.

All this being said, I have a video to show you. It was made by Campus Crusade for Christ and stands as a reflection of God's forgiveness, which allows us to truly forgive others.

Venia.

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