No Condemnation

We talk a lot about forgiveness in the church, but it's easy to preach of it and listen about it and not truly grasp what it is to be forgiven. I don't think you can fully understand the worth of forgiveness until you find yourself looking into the darkness of your own heart, realizing how unworthy you are of receiving anything other than the consequences of your own selfish actions and coming to terms with the fact that the only thing that can save you from sinking forever into the black mire that is made of your own mistakes is the undeserved mercy and grace given by the one you've betrayed.

It is then that you can begin to understand what it means to stare at discarded stones and hear the words, "Go and sin no more." It is then that you begin to feel what Peter must have felt over a breakfast of fish one spring morning with a man that he denied ever knowing. It is then that you begin to perceive what it means to be one of ten brothers standing before Joseph, David in front of the altar, a tax collector coming down from a tree, or a condemned thief asking to be remembered. It is only then that you can fully appreciate the truth in the words The Master uttered when He said, "He who has been forgiven much loves much."

Those who are strong enough to forgive as well as those who are weak enough to know that they need to be forgiven understand the cost and value of grace and mercy that will never be known to the proud and the self-righteous.

The question that comes next and the one that has been the question of the church to the world for the last two thousand years is, "Will you accept it?"