The mother of my best
friend growing up loved to tell a particular story
about him. One day as he was going out to play she
warned him not to get his pants dirty. He was
wearing a new pair of white jeans. Quickly
forgetting his mother's words he proceeded to get
into a game of football. When the dust had settled
fear gripped his body. He looked down and both knees
were grungy green and brown. Days and weeks passed
and his mother had not seen those white jeans since
day one. Finally when she was cleaning out his room
she pulled a crumple of clothes out from under his
bed. Amongst the pile was the pair of jeans,
wrinkled, dirty—and with the knees cut out with a
pair of scissors. She always laughed when she told
that story.
I wonder if
you and I amuse God at our attempts of fixing the
messes we make in and of our lives. We've all got
our dirty laundry: our secrets, our fears and our
failures. And most of us have tried, metaphorically
speaking, taking a pair of scissors to “fix things”.
But our lying, denying, blame shifting and
destroying the evidence won't make the problem go
away. Because the stain is deep, dark and embedded,
not on our clothes but on our souls.
The Bible says in Ephesians 1:7, “In him
we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the
riches of his grace.” Did you get that? Not
according to the meagerness of my efforts but
“according to the riches of his grace”. Then Paul
writes that, “God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been
saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with
him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that
in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7). God’s grace is so
great, so amazing, so rich that it cannot be
measured. Though none of us can keep track of them,
in our lives we commit a finite number of sins. God
knows how many. We lost count long ago. But
regardless of how many or how bad my sins are, God’s
grace is greater. The Bible says, “Now
the law came in to increase the trespass, but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that,
as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign
through righteousness leading to eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans
5:20-21). Sin terminates in death. Grace resonates
through life. Sin is man walking away from God.
Grace is God reaching out to man. Sin gets you lost.
Grace gets you found. Grace is not a license to sin
(Romans 6:1-2). It can and has been misrepresented
as such. But it’s greatness and sufficiency cannot
be overemphasized. Without it we literally don’t
stand a chance in hell. With it, we have our home in
heaven. You can choose to walk away from it. But
none other can take it from you.
The song by
Julia H. Johnston says, “Dark is the stain that we
cannot hide, What can avail to wash it away? Look!
There is flowing a crimson tide, Whiter than snow
you may be today.” Ananias asked the sin-stained
Saul, “And now why do you delay? Arise, and be
baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His
name” (Acts 22:16).The sin on our souls can only be
washed away by the blood of Jesus. All other
attempts are scissors on grass stains.
God bless you,
Brad Fry
