Truth
is we do possess the awful power to separate ourselves from God. But the larger truth is nothing can separate
us indefinitely beyond a stubborn refusal to accept His forgiveness and be
reconciled in Christ.
There
are passages in Hebrews 4 and 10 in which the author says sin after baptism
leaves no going back, and persisting in sin places one outside the Kingdom for
which Christ once redeemed him. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 5 that if salt
(us) loses its saltiness it is nothing.
But the Hebrews passages use sin in its Greek noun form; it is a
no-brainer to see that there can be no contact between a state of sin and a
state of grace. It should be just as
much a no-brainer to see that repentance – turning back to face and re-focus on
Jesus Christ – is all He has ever required to cross over from the state of sin
into the state of grace. The over-riding
word against the Matthew passage is always Jesus’ other word that what is
impossible for men is possible for God; he who abides in Christ will never be
forsaken or overthrown.
One
of the stories I told that so moved these estranged children of God was of the
bridesmaid who approached me at a wedding rehearsal years ago. She said she could not bear to be in
church. I asked her why and she
explained that she had been so strung out on heroin at one time that she
prostituted herself to get money for the drug.
At this point, although she had been clean and sober for some time, she
was convinced that God could not stand the sight of her. When I asked her if she wanted to come home
she burst into tears of YES. When I
said, “In the Name of Jesus welcome home,” she fell into my arms – really the
arms of her Lord Jesus as represented by this priest – just like the prostitute
who washes His feet with her tears in Luke 7:36-50.
Another
concerns the elderly woman with such serious arthritis in her hands that her
fingers could not be uncurled from the twisted claws they had become. She confessed that she had been in a state of
unforgiveness with members of her church for more than twenty years. It was not that she wanted or accepted that
condition; she found herself helpless to leave it after stating she had
forgiven her friends over and over. When
I, speaking as a representational leader of the Body of Christ, released her
from her unforgiveness, she too burst into tears of joy. Before I could reach down to touch her hands
in prayer her fingers were already uncurling as God’s healing spread through
her body. God’s love trumps all our
inadequacies. All He expects of us is
that we stay in the game until He catches and releases us.
The
most helpful illustration in the scriptures addressing that crossing over from
the state of sin to the state of grace occurs in John 8 with the story of the
woman taken in adultery and dragged before Jesus in the Temple courts. As Jesus listens to the Pharisees’
incompetence – they mis-read and mis-apply the Law in Deuteronomy 22 – and
being unable to certify themselves as the sinless witnesses the Law requires –
He says (in multiple albeit later places) they remain in their sin even though
they retreat after being unmasked as hypocrites. What He waits for is those of us who are so hungry
to hang with Him that we will step across the line He has drawn in the dust of
the Temple floor – sometimes known as the Line in the Sand. He waits on people so hungry for His company
that they don’t care who else they stand beside as long as they can stand
beside Jesus.
The
only unforgivable sin – the sin against the Holy Spirit – is the refusal to
accept His forgiveness and step across that line. Even that sin is forgiven once we stop
committing it. He is always ready to do
the heavy lifting in forgiveness; all He asks of us is that we stay in the
game.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
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