I've Done Horrible Things- I Can't Be Saved.

Have you ever heard it said, "I've done horrible things. I can't be saved. God could never forgive the _______ I've done."

I've heard it. More than once. Over the years more than a dozen times. Have you ever thought this about yourself or someone you know?  In this blog I hope to assure anyone [by "anyone" I'm including the most vile, depraved, repulsive, degenerate human beings labled by our society] that no sin is greater than God's love. To me, this is one of the most important truths in Scripture because shame can make a person believe they are beyond God's reach when the very opposite is true.

A person can commit something so terrible that they can hardly bear to look at themselves afterward. They may think, “If people knew what I had done, they would never forgive me. How could God possibly forgive me?” Shame says, “What you did is so terrible that you are now beyond redemption.” But the Gospel says something very different: your sin can be enormous without God's mercy being insufficient. The Bible does not minimize terrible sin. God doesn't say, “It wasn't that bad.” Instead, He says that His grace is greater than sin. Paul wrote, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).

Think about that wording: where sin did abound—>where sin became plentiful, overwhelming, seemingly impossible to overcome—> grace did much more abound. MUCH MORE  And Paul himself is a remarkable example. Before becoming an apostle, Paul violently persecuted Christians. He imprisoned them and participated in their persecution. He even called himself the “chief” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). And what did Christ do with him? He didn't say, “You have gone too far.” He redeemed him and gave him a purpose!

There is also David. David not only committed adultery with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, impregnant her, then arranged circumstances that resulted in a Uriah's death to hide his sin! He murdered an innocent man after stealing that mans wife. His sin was extraordinarily serious. Yet when David genuinely repented he could still cry out to God: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness”,  (Psalm 51:1) Notice David didn't say, “My sin isn't really that bad.” He knew exactly how terrible it was. He went toward God with his shame rather than running away from God because of it. And that's the distinction I think is so beautiful. Conviction says: “I have done something terribly wrong. I need God.” Shame says: “I have done something terribly wrong. Therefore God could never want me.”  The first can lead you back to God. The second can drive you away from Him.

Sin can still have it's consequences in our lives when we sin with the body. Example, the adulterous affair between David and Bathsheba, resulted in the death of the child from their unlawful union. Several other David's actions weakened his reputation and authority as King which later contributed to rebellions against his crown. While God forgave David AFTER HE REPENTED, the earthly consequences and generational strife within his family remained.

The same consequences of sin can happen to us even AFTER WE REPENT. Forgiveness removes the spiritual guilt, but we still live with the physical wreckage of our past choices.

Examples:

1. adulterous relationships (maybe a husband discovers his wifes betrayal and she's murdered by him).

2. abortions (maybe injury/disease/or even deep guilt manifest later in life to affect reproductive organs or mental stability).

3. pedophilia (maybe 25-30 years later the offense is discovered and your career and reputation is destroyed through public humiliation)

4. homosexuaity (maybe this sin results in aids or a veneral disease that plagues your immune system for the remainder of your life)

5. rapists (maybe found guilty, convicted, you're sent to prison where you now become the victim of the same horrible, painful rape you inflicted)

Realize, God's forgiveness isn't based upon the atrocity. Sin is sin regardless of how we as humans define or measure transgressions. It is based upon God's mercy being greater!

That's why Jesus' invitation is so astonishing. He promises::

“Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37) IN NO WISE, NOT EVER, AT NO TIME! Regardless of what you've done. Jesus will forgive your sin. He'll wipe it away off your slate forever if you approach Him in prayer, repent, turn from it, and seek His ways. Follow. (Daniel 9:9).

Jesus DIDN'T SAY..

Not “unless your sin is particularly horrible.”

Not “unless you've done it too many times.”

Not “unless you're too ashamed to come.”

He said, “Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” --->PERIOD! The depth of your sin is inconsequential.

That doesn't mean there are no consequences for sin, and genuine repentance isn't merely saying “I'm sorry” while deliberately continuing in the same wrongdoing. Forgiveness also doesn't necessarily erase the earthly consequences of what happened as I said. But the size of the sin does not make the blood of Christ too small to cover it. That's my point.

Perhaps the simplest way to say it is: There is no sin so deep that a genuinely repentant person can fall beyond the reach of God's grace. And sometimes the person who feels the most unworthy of forgiveness is precisely the person who most needs to hear Christ saying: “Come to Me.”

Until He Comes,

-Pat-