Have you ever really messed up? Or blown so things so badly that you felt there was no way you could ever make up for what you did? So badly that maybe you even thought about just giving up on yourself?
If so, you should know that you’re not alone. As broken people living in a fallen world, all of have our mess up moments. And depending on the size and nature of the mess, it’s easy to become discouraged with ourselves and feel as though we’ve done something irredeemable. Something from which our lives will never recover.
As Christians, however, we should realize that with God, there is nothing and no one that cannot be redeemed. No matter how big a mess we might make of our lives, the Holy Spirit is able to cleanse and restore us.
Consider some of the people in the Bible. Apart from Jesus, almost all the people we admire in Scripture were mess-ups. Isaac deceived his father and cheated his brother out of his inheritance. Moses was a murderer. Samson had his Delilah and David his Bathsheba. Solomon got involved in idolatry. Peter denied Jesus three times. Paul persecuted the early Church, going as far as participating in the killing of the first Christian martyr, Stephen.
Pretty substantial mess ups, by anyone’s standards. And yet God didn’t give up on any of these people. Somehow, God found a way to reach into the messes they had created to bring order out of chaos and redeem what seemed irredeemable.
At the heart of the Gospel is the Good News that no matter how badly we may have blown it or how grievous our sin, in Christ, no failure is fatal. And no failure is final. In Christ, we are never beyond hope. Because in Christ, all sins can be forgiven, all the past can be redeemed, and all messes can be cleaned up.
And the marvelous thing is that God is able to do it even if we have given up on ourselves. I John 4:20 says,” If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts….” God’s Grace trumps our self-condemnation. While you may not be able to forgive yourself for the things you’ve done, guess what? God’s not waiting around for you to work through those issues! In Christ, He’s already pardoned you. That’s why Paul says in Romans 8:1, Therefore there in now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How much condemnation is there for you if you’re in Christ? None. And when does this state of not being condemned happen? At some point in the future when your heart is able to stop condemning you? No. It’s now. God is greater than our heart. Greater than our self-condemnation. Greater than our past. Greater than our mess ups.
That’s why He’s God.
And we’re not!
Grace and Peace
Rev. Dr. Michael Stine
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