“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I failed. I failed God. I made some promises to Him that I would do certain things or refrain from certain negative behaviors, and I broke them. I screwed up. God must hate me. Why doesn’t He just smite me now. I deserve it.
I’m not saying these things for rhetorical effect — I have actually felt this way on recent occasion. The guilt and shame of sin can be so overwhelming that it effectively refashions one’s entire perspective. Everything is tainted, nothing is spared.
King Saul, as recorded in the Old Testament, sinned against God and through weakness failed to deliver God’s righteous judgement against His enemies. His sin led to a removal of God’s favor upon Saul, and Saul’s response was to dive deep into the black waters of madness and despair. Saul was unable to see God as a merciful God of love but instead only saw the force of His wrath.
King David also sinned against God and had a righteous man put in the line of fire in order to steal away his buxom bride and sleep with her. His sin led to a removal of God’s favor upon David and the death of his son borne by the wife he wrongfully took. But David knew the father heart of God. David knew that He bestowed grace on those who feared Him. David knew that as far as the east is from the west, so far will God remove transgressions from those who call on His holy name (Psalm 103:12). David sought the Lord in grief and shame, calling to him for mercy, and God did indeed honor him in his repentance.
David believed in second chances. Paul the Apostle also believed in second chances. Paul, in fact, had more grace shown to him than almost anyone else in the Bible — the very man who zealously persecuted Christians and presided over the death of the first martyr became the undeniable leader of the 1st-century Christian missionary movement and the author of over half of the New Testament. What a transformation! Paul writes that nothing, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Oh how true this is! If you have rejected God because of the guilt that chokes you, if you have turned away from God because of the shame you carry inside of you — don’t hold onto the lie that says that God has turned His back on you! He loves you with an everlasting love, and nothing you can do or could ever do has the power to change that. He is waiting for you with open arms, ready to forgive you and receive you into His infinite love and compassion. If your sin is so great that He is unable to wash it away and make you clean again, then Christ’s death upon the cross was in vain.
No matter how many times you fail, no matter how many times you screw up, you can start afresh. Begin anew. Make those same promises again. Make those same commitments again. It’s OK to do a reboot. It’s OK. God is in the second chance business!
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