A Sufficient Grace

I have kept God in a small box for a great majority of my life. And it all started with my outlook on sin. I looked at my own sin as something small rather than something that truly separates us from our Father. As I said yesterday, I didn’t drink or smoke or go to any crazy parties so I thought I was good. I didn’t do any of the “really bad sins” as we like to call them. But God has absolutely broken me down from that over the course of this year and even more so this summer. My sin is just as disgusting, filthy, and wretched as anyone else’s. And it nailed the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, to the cross. Just because my sin hasn’t been something that a lot of people see or easily recognize, that does not make me any less guilty before the Lord. And because of this God has continued to convict me for looking at others with judgment and condemnation. Who am I to condemn someone else for their sin? I am just as filthy as the person next to me. But, luckily for me and for the whole world, God’s grace is sufficient. It covers all of our sin. Not just the little sin that we think we have in our own lives, but all of our sins, even the ones that we struggle with every single day. Am I saying that because God’s grace is sufficient for us then it is now ok for us to sin and live in it? Absolutely not!

“What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means! We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  --Romans 6:1-4

But what I am saying is that before I go and look at someone else and judge them for their sin, I need to take a good long look in the mirror and realize how dirty my sin is in the eyes of God. No sin is worse than another and I have forgotten that for the majority of my life. Does this mean that I just sit back and watch friends continue in sin without speaking up? Again, absolutely not! But now rather than approaching with judgment and condemnation, I want to be able to hold my brothers and sisters in Christ accountable with love and kindness. And not just my brothers and sisters in Christ, but also the rest of the world who need to know Christ as Savior and Lord. No one is ever too far gone for the Lord to save or bring to repentance. If God’s kindness can bring me to repentance (Romans 2:4) then why can I not spread that same love and kindness to another and let God bring them to repentance as well? When I write others off as too far gone, I am making an all-powerful God powerless. God loved me when I was unlovable, and I should be willing to do the same for others. God commands it. There is healing in our Father’s hands, and only He can give us rest and peace and comfort. We just have to come to Him and trust Him. Love and kindness brought me to the Father, and love and kindness will bring the rest of His children to Him.