My bible says He who is forgiven much, loves much in Luke 7:47 from which today I will draw a powerful lesson for our lives and for a more vibrant and authentic Christian community. For the sake of maintaining a reasonable length, there will be at least 2 articles on this topic.
What is it that is the worst crime you have seen committed by an individual? Do you know an individual who has stolen a large sum of money? Do you know a guy who has a knack of stealing from innocent passers by? Or maybe you think of crimes that are a bit more heinous as we would deem them and you do not know exactly who has done them.
Maybe you can think of a man who has been convicted of being a serial rapist; or worse a murderer; maybe you know a woman who has committed a series of abortions and anger and pain wells up within you when you think of the lives of the innocent chidren. Maybe you know the prostitute on the road who has broken many a family as men that are supposed to be leading their families in love are trapped by her allure. Maybe you know the serial playboy-the guy who breaks women’s hearts for sport and who has no value for them beyond his own sexual gratification.
I do not know what the worst you know is but I am pretty sure you can think of something. My next question or point I want you to ponder is what do you think of them now when the are in what they are still doing? Do you see them as beyond redemption, beyond hope and you want absolutely nothing to do with them? Do you spend your time trying to reveal to them just how bad their sin is and how they should be ashamed of themselves? Do you just want them to be punished for what they have done so badly they should wish they never did it? Do you want the murderer to be killed? Do you want the rapist’s manhood to be forever removed as a cautionary monument to all who may dare to do similar?
I do not know what you think but the chances are very high your response lies somewhere amongst what I have listed and this is what makes my heart burn-we are yet to fully grasp just how deeply, how passionately God loves the worst of us and wants to see them not die but repent and come to life. Ezekiel 18:23 is such a cornerstone stance we need to take as believers, especially in the way we see people currently living in a lifestyle of sin and total disobedience. God does not want to see them die, He would rather have them repent and come to life.
And believe me, the worse off in sin someone has gone, when they finally get a revelation of the love of God for them personally become the most active missionaries, they become the fearless evangelist and bold and free one. They become the ones who worship exuberantly for they know just how much they have been forgiven-take a look at Paul, who drove people to prisons, probably was responsible for the execution of a number and so much more becoming the person from whom we receive a great chunk of the New Testament; of his own life He so gave it up to the point where He could say for me to live is Christ but to die is gain. Nothing else mattered to Him anymore. Or maybe should I mention Mary Magdalene or the woman at the well who had had 5 husbands (she literally brought the whole town to the well when she received the simple fact that she even in her sin was welcome to have a conversation with the Son of God.
So today if you are born again what I present to you is a challenge; a call to lay down resentment and anger for people trapped in lifestyles of whatever kind of sin but to have the heart of God to not desire or wish them to perish, but to desire to see them come to repent and to life; to love them as they are and to give them the free gift of no condemnation because that very sin you see them committing, Jesus paid the price for and as soon as that person has a revelation of Jesus’ love, they will repent. It is also a call to pray for wisdom that we may whenever called upon we will reveal Jesus as we ought.
As a conclusion; I will share a bit on why I chose the title I have a past for this post for today. I have a past, a story that history has a record of where lust had me as its slave, where anger and resentment founded the core of my relationship to every man and where deceit and trickery were my greatest friends as in front of everyone else I created an image that really was not me. I have a past where my sin is that which Jesus describes as the very worst; hypocrisy-the life of a pharisee that were I was a whitewashed tomb, dead on the inside but with a pretence of purity on the outside. That is just the beginning but it is my story.
Right now as I share, I decide to not be ashamed of it because of the blood of Jesus for me, for inspite of all I was trapped in, He still chose to die for me and call me to be adopted into the family of Heaven. Inspite of it and everything, still Jesus forgives me with a perfect forgiveness and loves me with a perfect love that now more than anything gives me the strength to go on and to become the person that I was born to be. And it is in the knowledge of my story that I grow to love God even more for the grace and forgiveness He has shown me for the weight of my sin.