Just as I was ready to slip into a dress shirt from my closet I noticed a couple of stains on it. About 99.5% of the shirt was clean and free of wrinkles, but the two spots smaller than a penny stood out, grabbing my attention. Blemishes are like that, aren’t they?
A well-known pastor who is a successful author of several popular Christian books, who leads a growing, innovative church in Washington, DC, reported on his blog that he was ‘mortified,’ by his failure to remember a scheduled wedding this weekend. Only after a phone call did he realize and then showed up more than 2 hours late! His reaction? I quote- “The ceremony was actually a beautiful ceremony. But my ego is fractured, bruised and black and blue. Still kicking myself. Still can't believe it.” (http://evotional.com/2009/12/mortified.html) One moment of failure eclipsed his successes. Mark will recover but the memory, I’m sure, will always make him feel regret.
When someone falls flat on his face, what shows up first in his obituary? His failure, of course. The years of success, the thousands of acts of kindness, the hard work of their lives always follows the lead which is about their sinful moment! Mention the famed preachers - Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, or Ted Haggard - and see what people remember first. It won’t be the best things these fallen men have done; the ministries and churches they built, the books they wrote, or the lives their messages changed. Their moment of moral collapse will be the one thing that eclipses everything else about them. The stain screams for our attention, rivets our eyes.
Today I am not trying to convince us that stains, forgotten appointments, or sins don’t matter. They do! I didn’t put on that stained shirt. I took it down to the laundry pile and applied some stain lifter to the spots. Mark, the pastor who forgot the wedding, acknowledged his forgetfulness and will most certainly be doubly diligent about checking his schedule. It isn’t just the famous ‘sinners’ who need redemption, is it? There are a few chapters in my life story that I’m glad have not been reported on “60 Minutes.” If you’re honest, you have made some decisions that you would not reported either.
The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” The Message says it this way: "We’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us." (Romans 3:23, The Message)
Perhaps your failure isn’t as spectacular as that of another, but it’s still a stain. At least two know about it- God and you! All sin separates us from God; dramatic and public, ordinary and secret – alike! But that does not need to be the end of the story. Let me put that damning passage I just quoted into context where we learn of new possibilities. "Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, … (comes) from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:21-26, NIV)
Jesus Christ came into this world, John tells us, not to trumpet our sins, nor to point out our predicament. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” "God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." (John 3:17, The Message)
Stained by sin? Shamed by failure? Guilty and afraid? Don’t run and hide. Look up and acknowledge what’s been done. Here’s the promise. Believe it, receive it, and live it.
"If we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin. … If we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing." (1 John 1:7,9, The Message)
________________
I was once a sinner, but I came
Pardon to receive from my Lord.
This was freely given, and I found
That He always kept His word.
There's a new name written down in glory,
And it's mine. O yes, it's mine!
And the white-robed angels sing the story,
"A sinner has come home."
For there's a new name written down in glory,
And it's mine, O yes it's mine.
With my sins forgiven I am bound for heaven,
Nevermore to roam.
In the Book 'tis written
"Saved by grace."
O the joy that came to my soul!
Now I am forgiven and I know,
By the blood I am made whole.
A New Name In Glory
Miles, C. Austin
© Public Domain
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