Years ago, a statement made by a pastor one Sunday morning really stood out. He said, “To the guests here, we are not a gathering of a people who have it all together. We do not live perfectly. This is the point for why we gather. To praise the one who did live perfect and through Him we are made perfect.”
This is often missed by both, those who are Christians and those who are not. It is quite easy for those who are outside the faith, to look at those in the faith, and accuse them of hypocrisy. Because we are not perfect. We sin, and Scripture confirms this very thing.
The New Testament writer Paul said, “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Tim 1:14-15
I have felt those words. Some say, “I have no regrets.” This is not me. There are actions in my past that I hate. There are things that I have done that I despise and at times still weep over them when they come to mind. Paul’s words that he was the chief of sinners were only true because I had not yet been born.
Then there is that beautiful phrase, but Christ! There is a gracious, patient and merciful love in Christ which cannot be described by words.
For you those of us who are in the faith, we are perfect. Not by our doing but because we are IN CHRIST. It is your position in Christ. He is the source of your perfection. And He is worthy of our praise.
Joan Osborn sang a song back in the 1990’s. It did lean slightly irreverent however, it did bring up a good thought and point. She pined, what if God was one of us? Just a bum like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home.
In our last time together we referenced Jesus, leaving glory, and the creator becoming the created. God was one of us. He was not a bum, but he lived the day to day life and suffered as we do but was sinless.
This longing of the Osborn song was, God does not know what it is like to exist as we do. The daily needs and sacrifices and losses.
But He does. God has always pursued His people. Think of the Tabernacle. Instructions given to Moses were precise and the location of this tabernacle, this tent, was right in the middle of the people. Not on the outskirts of town or on a mountain or city far away, but right in the middle. Literally the people of God camped around this tabernacle, this tent. God in the midst of the people.
Which is exactly what Jesus did. The tabernacle was a prefigure of Christ. When John begins his gospel, he references the Word, Jesus. Who was God in the beginning and created in the beginning. And this word, John says, became Flesh and dwelt among us.
What does this word dwelt mean? The literal translation of the word is tabernacled. He built his tent among us. Jesus in the midst of His people.
So, the reply to that old song from Joan Osborn is, God was one of us. Innocently and perfectly righteous, but God did take on human flesh and suffering.
Looking back on that one time when I lost two decades of writing. If, at some point in daily living, you struggle, like me, with accepting forgiveness, then let this be a lesson for both of us.
this writing has been read by the author
Several months ago about fifteen years of almost every word that I had written, vanished. They were lost. Gone! After hours of searching turned into days and then days of searching turned into weeks, hope waned. There were many thoughts and notions on how to retrieve those lost writings but with no positive result, I gave up.
This was no welcome defeat. Soon entered the typical stages of grief which is said with some humor but also a great deal of truth.
Mentally, I thought back to some of, what I considered, my better works. These writings can never be rewritten. This birthed sadness. In an age where seemingly everything on the internet never gets lost or deleted, some of the best of me, was lost and deleted.
Hate is a word not strong enough to describe what I think of my past sin. I despise what I was. I absolutely abhor it. There are moments that I reflect upon my past rebellion and ponder how I could ever conceive being associated with such degeneracy.
Equally, it is a constant struggle to believe that purification, justification and forgiveness was freely given to me. I can teach it. I can explain the theological truths of what is called propitiation. I love that word. Some English Bible translations have replaced propitiation because it was believed too complex of a word to be properly understood.
Propitiation means, wrath absorbing. God, being perfectly pure and holy, has a wrath against mankind. God’s righteous wrath is a topic of which many prefer not to hear. I can teach and explain how this wrath was appeased through Christ. He absorbed (propitiated) God’s wrath for believers.
Inasmuch as I can expound this thought and others as they relate to God’s saving grace, there are times where believing He can do that for ME is too difficult to accept.
I believe in God’s forgiveness. I believe in God’s grace. I believe in God’s mercy. I can’t believe it is for me. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!
Then I think on fifteen years of writings. Gone. Deleted. Where are they? There is absolutely, no trace of them. As far as the east is from the west, so far as these pages been removed from existence.
Sound familiar? If, at some point in daily living, you struggle, like me, with accepting forgiveness, then let this be a lesson for both of us.
God removes sin.
How can God remove sin? Does He just sweep it under the rug because we are all buddies now? No! He does it because, the wrath I deserved, He placed upon Christ. Ever question or ponder why Christ had to endure such extreme suffering? It is clearly because He was propitiating a holy wrath for unholy sin.
For our sake, God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin, so that IN HIM we may become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
There will be a time where I will face judgement. Anyone who is reading this, you will also. It is inescapable. Not certain exactly what I will be thinking at that time. Maybe about all those despicable things I did. How great it would be for me to report that those despicable things I hate were JUST those things I did twenty and forty years ago. Not true.
Sadly, I don’t always love my wife like Christ loved the church. I say inappropriate things. I think inappropriate things. At times I treasure inappropriate things. Oh, at times, how I weep at my constant rebellion. Will I be thinking about such things at the judgement?
Here is the reality, just as much as all my writings are gone, so IS all my sin. All if it: past, present and future. That is how the propitiation of Christ works[1].
In one sense there is great sadness over the loss of all those past writings. In another, upon great reflection, a real life lesson unfolded reminding me something I once did, can literally be gone.
As far as the east is from the west, so my sin has been removed from me[2].
