Into the Fire

So, do we really kill our wounded?

We’d sure like to, I know that. Darn them! Why’d they have to go and do that and bring disgrace down on all of us? I wonder if they were really “saved” or if they were just faking it? Just couldn’t keep his pants on! . . . She just wouldn’t leave him alone! . . . Taking all that money from all those people who believed in his ministry! . . . And then lying about something so important! . . . Hypocrite! Liar! Cheater! Pervert!

Welcome to the failure of the human race. Welcome to the list of temptations that have caused us to fail. Welcome to the dire straights of human conduct gone bad.

There can be no doubt about sin. To a Christian sin is real, well-defined, a constant battle to resist it, and a blaring, glaring stain when exposed instead of overcome.

On one hand if we forgive easily, we enable each other to take lightly the offense. If we withhold forgiveness, we condemn the individual and give him no offering of grace. It’s a paradox at best.

The example of the adulterous woman apparently caught in the act brought to Jesus by the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, ready, willing, and able to stone her for her transgression, baited Jesus with their “quandary”. One can’t help but notice they didn’t bring the man along.

Jesus so cleverly gave them time to think over their response to what he was about to say to them by scribbling some things on the ground in the dirt. When he said to them, “Let him who is without sin, throw the first stone,” they were dumbstruck. I would guess the most humble of the mix left first (in John 8 it said the oldest ones were first to leave), but when it was all said and done, there was only the sinful woman left behind. Jesus graciously dismissed her with a word of caution, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? If we sense the humility of repentance in the wounded soldier of the faith, we have a tendency to rally silently around him. There’s a trick to not making excuses for sinful behavior while not condemning an individual for the failure. I guess it comes from the fact that we are all “with sin” and suffer from the same temptations as others. Sometimes we stand staunch and resist, and other times we succumb in misery. For that one tantalizing moment or moments when sin captivates us and offers us what we can’t refuse because we give in to the sneaky belief that we simply can’t live without it. You’re a fool if you tell me you’ve never been there.

So, when one of our own fails, what the heck do we do? Real Christians know we can’t get away with sinful conduct—at least not for long. Because if we do have a genuine relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will work on us to admit and flee from the ugly thing, but when God has finally had enough: LOOK OUT. I don’t say that lightly. If ever you’ve been carrying on in sinful behavior and avoiding the conviction of wrongdoing the Holy Spirit is serving up to you, when God finally steps in to remind you that your sin has found you out, it is devastating. Humiliating. Degrading. Unforgettable. And if you truly love the Lord, repentance producing. As it should be. We know better. To our shame. And our disgrace. Because we have brought dishonor to our Lord—the One who withstood such anguish to depict the punishment for the very conduct we have just been demonstrating. We struck him and spit on him and kicked him and whipped him and drove spikes into His hands and feet. It was us. All of us. Him, who with love has each of our names engraved on His hands (Isaiah 49:16), we crucified Him.

I don’t have an easy fix. I know I’ve carried on in lingering sin a few times, and, believe me, I’ve experienced the horror of God having to say, “Enough!” It’s the worst. A few words of advice: Don’t, I repeat: Do Not argue with God. He’s right. You’re not. And He will prove it to you. To your shame. To my shame. The good part is when you repent, He lets you know you’re His, He loves you, He is restoring you. You’re good to go. Just . . . “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

So, in a way, I guess it doesn’t matter what anyone else does to you because the only thing that really matters to your heart is your restoration to fellowship with God. Jesus is the Savior, not mankind. How they handle forgiveness is up to them. If you truly repent and turn away from your atrocious sin, God will take you back. The damage is done, the consequences sometimes far-reaching, but God will take you back. It’s all about Him, not you, not them.

Father, you are full of loving kindness, slow to anger, abounding in love. We fail, you forgive. Jesus, thank you for making the way to enter into the throne room by way of your perfect shed blood. Wash me whiter than snow, I pray. Holy Spirit, continue to instruct and convict. Make me more like Jesus as I am willing. Please. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.