More Grace Than We Want

One of the ways we sin against God’s grace is simply by not believing it. But when Christians refuse to believe in God’s grace they do it, (ironically) for very pious sounding reasons. I can’t possibly be forgiven because it was the fourth time I did it this week. I can’t possibly be forgiven because I’ve let so many people down. I can’t possibly be forgiven because it’s such a bad sin and I did it so defiantly. But those pious sounding excuses are unbelief, and more than unbelief they are a particularly heinous form of defiance. When sin arises, as it does so frequently, we have the option of allowing God to deal with it or trying to fix it ourselves. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is that you can’t fix yourself. You can’t get the stain out. And yet, in the grip of sin, you frequently pretend you can. You pretend you can by wallowing around in it, by marinating in it, by trying to work up a holy sweat. But don’t you see what you’re doing? You are trying to save yourself. You are trying to fix yourself. But you can’t and you won’t feel better later. You might have momentary feelings of self-satisfaction, thinking you’ve done a good job feeling bad so you must be making headway. But you aren’t. You can’t. The only way to deal with sin is to give it to Jesus, to confess it to God who promises to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But His grace really is offensive. His grace is offensive because His grace is so thorough, so absolute. God simply and wonderfully washes you clean and casts your sins behind His back and completely forgets about them. For the sake of His Son Jesus, He remembers your sins no more. And this is frequently offensive because we want God to make a bigger deal out of our sin. But God already did. He sent His beloved Son and made a big deal about your sin on the cross 2,000 years ago. It’s already paid for, already taken care of. And now when God looks at you, when you come to Him through Jesus, all God sees is Jesus. All God sees is His beloved Son. So as we confess our sins now, do not come wallowing in your sin, trying to work up some good guilty feelings. That’s not what this is for. Here we confess that we are sinners in need of grace, but here we also give thanks that God has more grace than we thought.