05/19/2018
I read this week about realizing the depth of our sins, but it took a different view of them, and turned the depravity of our wrongdoing from the heartbreak of remorse into the amazing heights to which they are raised by our forgiveness. This author encouraged those with the darkest of sins to confess them, repent from them, and ask the Lord for forgiveness because the love they would feel between themselves and God at the moment of their relief would be amazingly great.
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."”
Luke 7:47-48 ESV
I was in a McDonalds adjacent to Centennial Park in Nashville. I had ordered meals for my family and was taking the trays of food to the table when I overheard an ongoing conversation between a man and the woman at the register. His credit card had been denied and he didn’t have enough cash or another card to pay for his meal... he was pleading for her to run it again.
I took the food to my family and returned to the register. In a quiet voice I asked the lady at the register how much his bill was, then with disapproval written across her face, and in a sharp tone, she told me the amount. So I handed her my card and said... I will pay his bill. She made it obvious that she didn’t like me doing this, but the man thanked me repeatedly by saying “God Bless You sir!” Over and over again. It was as if I had given him a steak dinner.
This was not an act of pity; it was an act of love for a hungry soul, a neighbor, and he blessed me back the only way he was able... by asking God to bless me. I wonder from time to time if he realized how much he had overpaid me... a few earthly dollars for heavenly treasure. Sometimes we need someone to step in and pay the price that we can’t possibly pay, and that is exactly what Jesus was doing in our scripture reading today, and ultimately what He did with His life. He was impressing on his disciples the immense love for God that comes from someone who has just experienced forgiveness. In the moment of forgiveness we are refreshed...
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
Acts 3:19-21 ESV
Have you ever been in need, I mean in a place where you just didn’t see any way out of your quandary? If so, how did that situation get resolved, and how did you feel when it was behind you? Are you refreshed in the love of God? Being saved from huge problems brings us great relief... much more so than someone simply letting you into a line of traffic during morning rush hour (although that does feel good). The greater the predicament, the greater the joy and refreshment when it is over. In the story of the woman and Jesus, her sins were many, and as a result, the love she exhibited following her forgiveness was large!
Jesus wasn’t telling us to commit many sins so that we could experience increased love... he was saying that sometimes the burden of a sin feels unforgivable, or even brings us to a point of hopelessness, but it can be lifted. He is telling us that sometimes it takes being forgiven a sin which is so severe that we are reluctant to even imagine its forgiveness in order for us to understand the degree to which we are loved by God, and the enormity of our love for Him in return. Love... it is like the blessing of the destitute man I encountered in McDonald’s... it is all we have to give in payment for God’s mercy to us, and it is more valuable than all the treasure on earth. The relief of sin refreshes our soul, and the joy of that wells up in us as love... immeasurable love.
Have you ever felt the refreshment and love of forgiven sin before? Are you in a place today of hopelessness that seems beyond your ability to escape it, or beyond your faith in asking God for its relief? Well there is an immense spring of love within you that is pent up behind the dam of your sin, and it is pressing to break through it. Those waters are the blood of Christ and they are waiting to wash over you, and remove all those sins in your life that have held you in fear of damnation, and feeling hopelessly beyond the reach of God. Come to Jesus, and kneel before the throne of God... there is relief, joy, forgiveness, and love awaiting you right now.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the refreshing of our souls that comes from your forgiveness, and thank you for the blood of your Son Jesus Christ that washes away the stain of our sin that we once thought of as permanent. Forgive me now Merciful Father for all those things I have done, and left undone; feel my contrition as I weep before you, and lift me up in your loving arms as you forgive and refresh me. Let your joy be mine as I am relieved by your Son of the labor and burden that those sins had placed upon me, and let me find rest in Him. As I have prayed this prayer today, and repented of my sins. I know that you have forgiven me Father because I feel the love flowing from me like a wave. Thank you Father for forgiving me thus, even from the overwhelming nature of my sins, and for loving me so much that you sent your Son Jesus Christ to die that I might be reconciled to you, and have life everlasting. Strengthen me Gracious Father and protect me from temptation, for today is the first day of my renewed and refreshed life in you. Blessed are thou Father, and great is my love for you. Holy are you Jesus, and Holy, Holy, Holy, is my God... my forgiver of sin, and the source of my love and joy forever.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Matthew 11:28-29 ESV
Rich Forbes