Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.
As we look back somberly on the 50 million babies who have died, we mourn for them. We are angered at those in power who have deceived women and men into thinking an abortion carries no more weight than having a tooth extracted or a wart removed. We rail at our leaders to put an end to the legality of this daily mass slaughter. We vote our consciences. We stand our ground.
And we forget.
We forget that after every abortion that takes place, there is a woman
or a man
or both
who need forgiveness.
The Bible says:
…the Lord hates…hands that shed innocent blood, Proverbs 6:16-17
and
You shall not murder. Exodus 20:13
Abortion is a grievous sin against God. It is a dreadful thing for a woman to grasp that she has tortured her child to death. Or for a man, who was created to protect the weak, to realize that he has murdered his helpless son or daughter.
But they must sit with that for a moment of time until it fully soaks in.
Because unless we see the horror of our sin for what it truly is, we will never be able to see the beauty of the cross in its fullness.
And, oh, how beautiful it is. For your sin and for mine.
There is forgiveness for abortion.
Lay the body of your child and your broken and contrite heart at the feet of the bloodied and battered Redeemer.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Update: This article was written June 5, 2015, shortly after the news broke that Josh Duggar fondled several young girls when he was a teenager. I stand by the content of this article as true and accurate to the best of my knowledge at that time.
Yesterday (August 21, 2015), in the wake of the Ashley Madison hacking scandal, Josh Duggar confessed that he had subscribed to the web site, had been unfaithful to his wife, and had been using pornography. These are all egregious sins which have dragged the church, the traditional marriage agenda, home schooling families, Christians in general, and the precious name of Christ through the mud. While Josh has apologized publicly, the more important issue is whether or not he has truly repented before God and to his wife.
What Josh did was heinous, and we would all do well to take a lesson from him to flee from even the hint of temptation as we see its horrendous consequences. But Christians do not stop at the point of the horror of sin. We look past it and repentantly make our way to the foot of the cross seeking the mercy and forgiveness of our Savior. Praise God that the biblical principles in this article remain true, regardless of Josh’s sins – or yours or mine.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
The first time I met him was in a prison where he was incarcerated for child molestation. Years later, after his release, he told me prison was the best thing that ever happened to him because that’s where, through a prison ministry, he met Jesus Christ, who graciously and radically saved him.
God can and does save child molesters. That He can change their hearts and behavior, forgive them when they repent, and make them new creatures in Christ, only serves to prove how deep and and broad and long and high and mighty His grace is to save.
I have seen first hand the life long devastation child molestation wreaks on families and individual victims. I am in favor of child molesters being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and never having unsupervised access to children again for the rest of their lives. So please do not misconstrue what I’m about to say as minimizing either the horror of the crime or the suffering of the victims.
The castigation of Josh Duggar and his parents by fellow Christians has gone on long enough and needs to stop. Disagree? Take a few minutes and listen to this interview with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar in its entirety.
This is not a blog article. It’s not third hand information from a friend of a friend of the Duggars. This is Josh’s parents speaking openly and honestly about what happened and how they handled it.
And how they handled it is:
They made clear to Josh and the rest of their family that what Josh had done was wrong and deserving of punishment.
They took Josh out of the home to keep the girls safe.
They got Josh and his sisters Christian intervention and counseling.
Not knowing what his fate might be, they took Josh to the police station – with a witness – where he confessed everything he had done.
Josh repented of his sin, asked his victims and parents for forgiveness, and subsequently trusted Christ for salvation. As far as can be determined, he has borne fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8) and has not repeated his sin.
I have a great deal of compassion for my brothers and sisters in Christ who have been victims of sexual abuse, and I understand that perhaps seeing this story play out in the news has re-opened old and painful wounds and that that is why you continue to voice your strenuous dismay at this situation, but I have to ask:
What else would you have had Josh’s parents do?
They protected their girls, they got everybody counseling, and they turned Josh over to the police. (And let’s keep in mind, parents don’t have the legal authority to throw their children in jail, no matter what they’ve done. At that point, it was up to the police whether or not to arrest Josh or take other legal action, and they declined to do so.)
Put yourself in the Duggars’ shoes and consider all the actions they took. How would you – in the moment – have handled the situation better or more biblically?
But even if Jim Bob and Michelle missed a step somewhere along the way, there’s a bigger issue at stake here for Christians. Whether you like it or not (and if you don’t, I would encourage you to spend some serious time in prayer examining your heart), whatever he may have done in the past, Josh Duggar is your brother in Christ now, and so are his parents.
The same blood of Christ that covered your sins covered his, too. God took Josh’s sins and separated him from them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He dropped them in the depths of the sea (Micah 7:3). He forgave Josh’s sin and remembers it no more (Jeremiah 31:34).
Just like He did for you.
Is the blood of Christ powerful enough to save you, but not to save Josh Duggar? To forgive you, but not to forgive him? Have you forgotten the great debt which your Master forgave you, as you scream at Josh, “Pay what you owe!”? (Matthew 18:21-35) Have you forgotten that your past sins aren’t any cleaner than his?
When Christ forgives, we forgive. He has not given us the ministry of bringing up a brother’s past sins and holding them agaisnt him. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
My brothers and sisters, we were all Josh Duggar once. It’s time to forgive.
I can tell by the sound of your jaw hitting the floor that you’re shocked.
To repeat the details would be to repeat the offense, so, suffice it to say, it was the metaphorical equivalent of walking across a room and knocking over a really expensive vase. It wasn’t a sin, per se, it was just one of those oafish things we all do from time to time simply because we’re fallen humans living in a fallen world.
Blessedly, God protected the other person and me from the brunt of my bumbling. And then a beautiful thing happened. The other person passed over the incident as if it hadn’t even happened.
Wow.
Now, I can’t tell you the number of times God has had to protect me from my own stupidity (both sinful and non-sinful). One of my favorite passages is Psalm 103:13-14:
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:13-14
In other words, God knit together every cell in our bodies and knows every thought and action of our lives from conception to death. Nothing unexpected there, for Him. He knows what He’s got to work with. So, God being God and all, maybe it’s not so surprising that He might have that perspective. He knows all of our weaknesses and still shows us compassion. (Don’t mistake my lack of surprise for lack of gratitude. I would be a smoking crater in the ground if God didn’t treat me with that kind of mercy and compassion. I am extremely grateful for it.)
What’s down right unfathomable in this day and age of everybody wearing his feelings on his sleeve, and wanting to absolutely obliterate anyone who causes him the least amount of agitation is for one human to pass over the failure of another. Scripture tells us:
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Proverbs 19:11
Not- confront the person and demand an apology. Not- stop speaking to the person and carry a grudge until I feel he’s been sufficiently punished. Overlook. Act like it didn’t happen. Refuse to let it change your relationship with the person. Fuhgeddaboutit.
These days, that’s rarer than a modest outfit on a Hollywood starlet, even among professing Christians.
And it shouldn’t be. Because the Bible also says:
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Luke 6:31
Remember that? The Golden Rule? What happened to treating others the way we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes? Yes, pernicious sin in the Body needs to be dealt with by confronting the person in mercy, love, and a spirit of restoration, but what about those non-sinful, unintentional human foibles that land in our laps? Can’t we adopt that same mercy and grace God has towards us and our weaknesses and extend it to others?
I want to get better at that. Because when you get right down to it, we’ve got enough people freaking out and flying off the handle these days. All that does is make everybody tense and unhappy. Not to get all “peace, love, and harmony” on y’all, but, well…couldn’t we use a little more peace, love, and harmony as we do life with other humanoids? And of all the people peace, love, and harmony could come from, shouldn’t it be coming from Christians first? Let’s extend some extra grace and give people room to be human. Everybody’s going to need it at one time or another.
After all, the next bumbling moron to come along just might be you.
These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.
Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 43 ~ Oct. 19-25 Matthew 15-18, Mark 7-9, Luke 9:18-11:54, John 7-10 Sin-opsis
Sin. That word can cause us to think of a lot of different things, from our sin, to people who have sinned against us, to forgiveness. Today, we’re going to hear what Jesus has to say about five different aspects of sin.
Matthew 18
Causing Another Believer to Sin (1-5, Matthew 20:20-24)
Have you ever noticed that the disciples asked a lot of interesting questions? Why do you think they wanted to know who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Pride? A desire for clout or recognition? The disciples and Jesus lived in a society in which people were acutely aware of who had rank, recognition, and power (the Pharisees, scribes, Saducees, lawyers, priests, and Levites), and who did not (everybody else, including Jesus and them), when it came to the way Judaism was structured. We talked last week about what people, even the disciples, expected the Messiah to be: a conquering king who would overthrow Rome and restore Israel to prominence and prosperity. Here, as in the case of Mrs. Sons of Thunder asking if her boys could sit on either side of Jesus’ throne (Matt. 20), they were likely thinking of their offices in the new government they imagined Jesus would head up once He reestablished the kingdom.
Once again, Jesus had to set them straight. “It’s not about how high on the power ladder you can climb, Boys. It’s about how humble you can be, as humble as a little child.” And why did Jesus have to set them straight? Because they had been, skandalizo, “entrapped” or “tripped up” as verse 6 puts it, by faulty teaching from those who were responsible to rightly handle God’s word. The disciples would soon be in the position of teacher and preacher themselves. It was imperative they had a correct understanding of God’s word and God’s ways so they could accurately teach the new “little children” coming into the church.
When we share the gospel with others, teach the Bible, offer others advice or counsel, etc., we must make absolutely certain we have a correct understanding of what God’s word says. Otherwise, we might be tripping others up by leading them to believe things that are in conflict with the Bible. Jesus takes that very seriously saying (7) “it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Pretty strong words.
Recreation of a millstone used for pressing olives in Nazareth, Israel.
When I Am Tempted (7-9) What about when someone else tempts me to sin? Again, Jesus has strong words for anyone who entices someone into any kind of sin: “woe.” What are some ways we can cause people to sin or be drawn into someone else’s sin, even in the church? Gossip, adultery, inciting other church members against the pastor or other leaders, playing “politics”, etc.
But whether tempted by a church member or the world, Jesus paints a serious picture of how we should respond to that temptation. Now, Jesus isn’t suggesting we literally maim ourselves, because, if you think about it, even a blind person can lust. Sin is an issue of the heart. Jesus is saying that we are to get away from temptation to guard our hearts, whatever the cost. Your relationship with Christ is worth it.
What might “gouging your eye out” or “cutting your hand off” look like for someone facing a certain temptation? For a person tempted to drunkenness, it might mean not drinking at all or not going to certain social events where they know the booze will be flowing freely. A person tempted to lust and adultery might need to make certain she is never alone with a man she’s not married to. She may even have to avoid spending any time with certain men she’s attracted to. Sin is serious, and we sometimes have to take big, inconvenient steps to stay out of it, but our relationship with Christ is completely worth it.
When Another Christian Sins (10-14, Romans 8:1) Our brothers and sisters in Christ are going to sin. There’s just no way around it. How should we respond to a fellow Christian who has wandered off into sin? Ignore it and hope she’ll stop? Stop speaking to to her? Castigate her? No. We are to respond to her the same way Jesus does with the lost sheep:
10– We are not to treat any of our brothers or sisters unkindly; we are to treat all with kindness and love.
12– We remember that Christ came to save the lost from their sin. Of course, He does not want those He has saved to wander off back into their sin. Jesus goes after the wandering sheep to bring it back into the safety of the fold. We are to do the same. If someone wanders off, we don’t just let her go. We go after her in love and concern to bring her back to where she needs to be.
13-14– “If he finds it…” If is kind of an interesting word to use here, since Jesus is the shepherd in the story. Will there ever be a case in which Jesus can’t find someone who has wandered off? No. God is sovereign over all things. He knows where we are, what we’re doing, and the state of our hearts at all times. These verses are referring to the lost sheep who is willing to be found and return to the fold with Jesus. When a Christian repents and returns to Christ, Christ rejoices over her. While there may be consequences of the sin to face, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom.) Isn’t that awesome? When that repentant sheep comes back to the fold, we are to have the same loving, embracing, and forgiving attitude towards her that Christ has. Christ’s desire is always restoration and reconciliation, and that should be our desire as well.
When Another Christian Sins Against Me (15-20) One of the most important things we can focus on in this passage is the word “sins”. In the church body, there are going to be times when things happen to us that we don’t like. That doesn’t necessarily mean these things are SIN. Maybe we don’t like the style of music, or a particular mannerism of the pastor. Maybe somebody tells us a truth we need to hear that stings a little, or someone is annoying or inadvertently hurts our feelings. Our feelings don’t determine what sin is, the Bible does. When deciding whether to confront the person, we first need to determine if what she did is sin according to the Bible (not according to our opinion), or if it’s a non-sinful offense, and we can overlook it and extend grace, realizing that people have probably done the same for us on many occasions.
On the other hand, if the person IS sinning, we can’t shy away from an awkward conversation with her about it. Remember the wandering sheep? We need to have the same love for that wandering brother or sister and try to restore and reconcile him/her. First, we go to the person privately -not in front of a group, not on Facebook- one on one, and, remembering the way we would want someone to approach us, kindly and lovingly, yet firmly, talk to her about her sin. If she repents and returns, let the rejoicing and forgiving commence! If she persists, we take a couple of other Believers with us to kindly, lovingly, and firmly approach her again. If she still persists in her sin, the next appropriate and required step is to take the matter before the church body for disciplinary action. If the person still refuses to repent, we are to treat her as “a Gentile and a tax collector.”
What does that mean? Are we supposed to shun her? Hate her? No. Look how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors (like Matthew and Zacchaeus). He loved them, shared the gospel with them, and called them to repent and believe in Him. In other words, He treated them like the unbelievers they were. People who persist in unrepentant sin show us that they are not Believers. When we have exhausted all attempts at restoration, we agree with their behavior that they are not Believers and treat them that way. We remove their names from church membership and remove them from any positions of leadership or responsibility in the church, but we keep loving them, keep sharing the gospel with them, and keep praying for their salvation.
Why We Forgive (21-35, Ephesians 4:32) This parable can be summed up in the words of Ephesians 4:32:
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Who is the king in this parable? Jesus. Who is the first servant? Me. How big is our sin debt to Jesus? Verse 24 describes it as ten thousand talents. One talent was a unit of money equal to twenty years’ wages for a laborer. Therefore, ten thousand talents would have equaled 200,000 years’ worth of wages, an impossible amount to even begin to repay, just like our sin debt. But when we throw ourselves on the mercy of Christ and repent, He forgives us that enormous debt. Just wipes it right out. Any sin that anyone can commit against us, no matter how egregious, is peanuts (verse 28 calls it 100 denarii, or 100 days’ wages) compared to the grief and agony we put Christ through on the cross. How can we, knowing how hugely we have sinned against Christ, refuse to forgive others anything they might do to us?
The “Sin-Opsis” There’s an old Carman song that contains the line
“Black is black, and white is white.
And Hell is hot, and sin ain’t right.”
It’s a pretty good “sin-opsis” of the what sin is. It is Christ’s desire that we stay out of sin ourselves, not lead others into sin, rescue others who have fallen into sin, and forgive those who have sinned against us.
Don’t lift a finger for people who won’t lift a finger for you.
Don’t allow people in your life who don’t deserve to be there.
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see something like this on Facebook. Clearly, there are people who are violent that we need to stay away from for our own physical safety, and marital problems absolutely must be resolved, but those aren’t what this line of thinking seems to be addressing. It’s talking about the difficult people. We all have them in our lives. You’re probably thinking of some right now.
The constant complainer.
The drama queen.
The narcissist.
The annoyance.
The just plain unlovely.
Maybe it’s a family member, a neighbor, or a co-worker. Somebody who’s in your life for some reason, only you wish she weren’t.
The world’s advice: abort people. If they’re negative, if they don’t further your success, if they drain you, if they’re somehow undeserving of your time and attention. Just cut them out of your life. Abort them.
The world’s advice: abort people. If they’re negative, if they don’t further your success, if they drain you, if they’re somehow undeserving of your time and attention. Just cut them out of your life. Abort them.
Christians are on the front lines of the battle against literal abortion. “Every life is precious,” we say, and that’s as it should be. But somehow, the world’s abortive mentality has crept into our thinking when it comes to the relationships we have with others. Babies are being killed because they’re inconvenient, they’ll hinder someone’s pursuit of success, or they have a disability, and we’re – rightly – grieved and outraged, but do we have any pangs of conscience when it comes to throwing away that inconvenient friend or that personality-handicapped family member? Is every life really precious?
Do we have any pangs of conscience when it comes to throwing away that inconvenient friend or that personality-handicapped family member? Is every life really precious?
We serve a Savior who loved the unlovely. Took time for the inconvenient. Invested in the drains. He felt their loneliness and rejection and knew the pain of being scorned.
Because He was one of them.
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:2b-3
Jesus stopped along the roadside, not for those who would further His success, but for those who were needy. He called the awkward and personality impaired “brother.” He called a betrayer, “friend.” Even those who wielded the whip, embedded the thorns, and drove the nails didn’t hear, “Go to hell,” but, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Yes, there are people who are so difficult that we may have to love them from afar, taking time between each encounter with them to pray, recover, and forgive.
But we must remember who we were called to be.
I love, not because people deserve it, but because He first loved me.
