I will humbly and boldly share the truth that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but that God made a way for all to be saved through Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:23
. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Oh, God, this matter of sin is simply uncomfortable and often offensive, especially for those who don’t know how loving, kind, and gracious you are to us. All too often it feels like we’re casting a judgment, to point out the fact that we’re all sinners, rather than revealing the amazing extravagant gift you gave us in Christ.
God, in our world where sacrifice is a dirty word and selfishness is the norm, the cross is incomprehensible unless you open the eyes of the blind.
So do we even need to talk about it? Can’t we just pray for those to see you and recognize how their sinfulness is a desperate cry for a Savior? Oh God, forgive us for our lack of courage. Please make us braver to share the truth and point to Jesus.
Forgive us, God, for not calling sin as it is and instead softening the blow with “I just messed up.” Oh, could we be more wrong. To mess up means we had a chance to do it right in the first place.
Forgive us God for making much of our mess and so little of the sacrifice our sin cost you.
Forgive us, God, for even trying to be good enough! As sinners, wewon’t ever be righteous enough!
You love us so much that you accept us as we are, but don’t leave us that way. Isn’t that why you sent your son to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin? Help us to not make light of Jesus’ blood sacrificed to satisfy the debt of our sin.
In the Strong Name of Jesus, Amen.
Ah, sin. I hate it.
Who doesn’t?
And yet, our hatred of sin doesn’t keep us from sinning.
Maybe it deters us from a sinful course a time or two, but it doesn’t eradicate it from our lives.
That’s because being sinful is inherent to who we are. While God created us perfect, His perfect creation didn’t obey His commands. As my youngest is most vocal about expressing, “Why did Adam and Eve have to disobey God in the Garden of Eden and bring sin into this world?” Yep, our wayward course can be traced back to the very beginning.
In our family, you’ll find us often talking about sin, because I’ve been bent on dealing with mine for a long, long time. I’ll be the first to admit that my sin manifesting in anger issues could have wrecked my family, along with years of stored up bitterness and unforgiveness. But owning my mess before God and yielding to His work in my heart has truly transformed me from the inside out. It hasn’t made me perfect or sinless, but it has made me want to shine the light in the darkness of sin and see God set us FREER today than we were yesterday.
Without Jesus, our mess stays messy.
But with Jesus, our mess is called out as sin, and that sin has been paid for by His blood shed on the cross.
Jesus wasn’t just about providing us with salvation. He’s also all about our sanctification.
Being saved might be a once-and-done experience, but being sanctified is God’s lifetime work in our lives.
That sanctification manifests in an honest, humble, and holy relationship with God, where we call our “messes” sin and quickly seek His forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if it’s the kind of public sin that all can see, like lashing out in anger, or the private kind in which pride oozes from your heart but can’t always be called out by others. It doesn’t matter if it’s the kind of sin that is kept in secret for a decade or the type that is like a firework going off that quickly dissipates into thin air.
Sin is pervasive for all of us. As Eugene Peterson says, “Every congregation is a congregation of sinners. As if that weren’t bad enough, they all have sinners for pastors.”
Yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us can echo Paul’s words to Timothy:
1 Timothy 1:15
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.
We all need Jesus to save us from our sin.
So what will it take for us to embrace this truth personally? What does it look like for us to keep short accounts with God? What does it look like to be quick to own our sin with family and friends? And in what ways is God leading us to be Brave Women who share the both the of our sin and God’s love through Jesus Christ with those who don’t yet know it?
To continue this journey of living brave and inviting the next generation to join you in the journey, get a copy of Brave Together: A Conversation Starter for Cultivating Biblical Mentoring Relationships.
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