mercy – m to the 5th

As my friend shared his anxiety and uncertainty about the outcome of his recent job interview, I wished I could calm his fears and instill some hope in him during this time of waiting without knowing what the final decision will be. Turns out there is a reason for this delay in the hiring decision. And this is the very same reason why my friend is nervous, fearful and uncertain about whether or not he will be hired. A background check is required. My friend has an offense still on his record from many years ago. So if the background check goes back far enough, his offense will be discovered and brought to light once again.

I felt the weight of this burden from his past, which still impacts his life today and weighs him down. There was a time when he could have gotten this offense expunged from his record legally, BUT – there was a cost, and the cost was more money than he had at that time. The cost was just too high. So the offense has remained on his record, following him wherever he goes, because he couldn’t pay the price necessary to clear his name. And now that legal option is no longer available to him or to others in the same situation.

Now my friend is not the person that he was so many years ago. God has done, and continues to do, the miraculous, transformative work that only our Creator can do, in my friend’s life. BUT – unfortunately the world keeps score differently than God does. My friend’s current plight got me to thinking about God’s great mercy and all the second chances that God gives you and me.

Our legal system may not expunge things that we would wish to be expunged from our past, from our records, from our identity BUT – God is more than able and more than willing to expunge the stains from my past and from your past too, dear readers. And unlike my friend, who was unable to pay the cost of his expungement, my cost and your cost has already been paid! We can have our past sins expunged from our record for free. God says so –

” ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ ” (Isaiah 1:18)

If that isn’t clear enough, God says this –

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25)

That sounds to me exactly like the definition of expunged, which is “to erase or remove completely.” Removing sin stains is an impossible task for me and for you, BUT – God specializes in the expungement of our sins. I read this in Psalms –

This is definitely good news that God “remembers my sins no more” and that God has “removed my sins (the bad things on my record) from me, even as far as the east is from the west.” However, this “expungement” of my sins from my record must have been quite expensive, and in fact it was. Expungement and the resulting right standing with God cost more than I could ever pay. BUT- God is able to cover the cost! And He has!

Because “the wages (penalty) of my sin is death,” that’s the price, a death sentence for me. If I can’t pay it, there is nothing I can do to clear my own record. God has to do it for me. He did this by sending His Son, Jesus, to die in my place to pay the price for my sin.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The prophet, Isaiah, talks about the One who would come to pay my sin price with His death on a cross, canceling my debt and expunging my record of sin.

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, . . . by His knowledge My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. . . . because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:10-12)

I can have a clean record, a record expunged of all my offenses against God and man because Jesus paid the cost of having my sins forgiven and expunged. I am so grateful, because like my friend, I cannot pay the price of having an offense expunged from my record. The psalmist acknowledges as much when he says –

“If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)

Forgiveness – that is what makes expungement possible. God stands ready to forgive me and you, His word says so –

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

God forgives my sins and expunges my record. The world may hold my friend’s past offenses against him, but God doesn’t. My friend has a place and a job in God’s kingdom, as do you and I. Our past records have been expunged, which means –

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

No condemnation! Forgiven! Redeemed! Record expunged! You and I have joy and hope because we know –

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

sincerely, Grace Day

“Dodged a bullet” – that’s what they say when something bad or harmful or negative could have happened to you BUT – it didn’t. Therefore, you dodged a bullet. It’s a common enough expression, used often, probably because our days are filled with near misses or dodged bullets, even if we are unaware of just how many bullets miss us each day. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I think not. If I truly recognize how many times I have been rescued, how many times I have been spared from some hurt or harm or danger or disaster – this knowledge should lead me to gratitude every time – gratitude to my Heavenly Father, who watches over me, whose mercies towards me never cease. After all,

“My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:2-8)

This has been a week of particularly stormy spring weather here, complete with lightning, thunderstorms, heavy rains, high speed winds and even some tornado touchdowns one evening. We have been under weather advisories multiple evenings and I have found myself driving in some challenging conditions this week. I have definitely dodged a few bullets on the pothole filled roads this week, (post – “pitfalls and potholes”) resulting in multiple second chances for me and for my car.

BUT – in truth, is this me dodging bullets, due to my skill, dexterity, wisdom and wits? OR – is this me receiving God’s freely given, undeserved grace, mercy and protection over my daily life? I think we both know this is the latter and never the former. I am not a skilled bullet dodger in the least. But God is a skilled protector and a merciful giver of second, second chances. And I am the thankful recipient of all those second, second chances that His mercy and His protection give to me. My response? I definitely say with the psalmist –

“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2-5)

My Heavenly Father “forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases” cancelling my debt and setting me free again and again. (just like the fellow in my previous post – “second chances”) I experience this on a daily basis, although some of my rescues are more dramatic than others and some of my cancelled debts are larger than others. Nonetheless, I want to be aware of and thankful for each and every one of my second, second chances, of every forgiven sin, every cancelled debt that I never could have paid myself.

Just this past week, I received yet another kind of second chance. It started with a medical test that required “more testing”, meaning – maybe something is wrong, let’s take a closer look. So in the interim between first and second tests, I lived with the possibility of this diagnosis being reality. When the second test revealed “nothing to see here, false alarm”, it was for me a new beginning, a clean slate. I was freed from the burden that this diagnosis would have entailed, a great weight was lifted from me, my debt was wiped away, there would be no “jail time” for me due to illness. I have been given yet another second chance.

Now that I have been set free, what will I do with my new-found freedom? Go back to my old life? Do what the guy in my previous post did when his debt was forgiven and he was set free? FYI – he was so grateful to have his debt forgiven, that his first act as a forgiven, free man was to go out and send to prison the first person he came across who owed him an inconsequentially small sum of money. (Matthew chapter 18 – the parable of the unmerciful servant) No, that is NOT how I want to live out my debt free, sins forgiven, bailed out of jail life.

Maybe I should think about sharing the good news that I have experienced with others, letting them know that they too can have second, second chances in this life. God is not stingy with His forgiveness, nor with His mercy and lovingkindness. In fact, in Psalms I read –

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:10-14)

It’s not that I have been getting better at dodging bullets, or that I have been dodging bullets at all. The truth is that God is being gracious to me and continues to give me undeserved, unearned second, second chances every day as I walk with Him. I want every second chance God gives me, to conform me a little closer to His image and to His will. So that the next time God forgives me for saying harsh words instead of kind words, His forgiveness will change me, so much so, that when given that next second chance – I will say the kind words He desires, instead of the harsh or hurtful words I might speak if left unchanged by His forgiveness and love.

However, I will allow God’s forgiveness to change me. I will not squander away the precious gift of second chances, (like the unmerciful servant) nor of second, second chances, nor of all the second chances God gives after that. Each second chance is a gift. I will thank my Heavenly Father for each and every one of them that He sends my way. And God gives me these second chances at just the right time. Just when I think I’ve messed up too bad to come back from whatever it is, I’m reminded of others who must have thought this very same thing. They believed that they too, had used up all their second chances with God.

There was the prodigal son, the disciple Peter and the thief hanging on the cross beside Jesus, to name a few. Each one of these had messed up big time with some really bad decisions. BUT – each one was rescued, forgiven, and restored to family, to their calling, and to eternal life respectively. The Good News of the Gospel – you and I are offered a second chance every day. I just have to humble myself, confess my failure and ask God for forgiveness. God is faithful to respond by giving me that second chance. Then I must be brave enough to accept the opportunity and face the challenge that a second chance always brings with it. In humility I pray King David’s prayer –

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. . . . Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . . Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:1-2, 7, 10 & 12)

Second, second chances – King David received them multiple times. And so did a most unlikely woman – the infamous woman caught in adultery. Her second chance encounter with Jesus was truly dramatic. She was called to account publicly, in front of a large crowd, by the religious leaders of the day. However, this situation intended for public humiliation of the woman and for catching Jesus in some legal misstep, didn’t unfold as the religious leaders had planned. Instead, it ended with the woman receiving a much needed second chance in life. Their law demanded that the woman be stoned to death for her crime of adultery. BUT – Jesus said to the crowd,

” ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ . . . At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ ” (John 8:7-11)

This woman received her second chance – a clean slate, her past forgiven, her sin debt paid, no jail time, no more death penalty hanging over her head – she was free – free to go and live a new life, a life free from the bondage of sin! Talk about your second chances! Yours and mine, dear readers, our second chances are no less miraculous, no less life changing, no less undeserved, but just as earnestly desired and needed as was this woman’s.

Every second chance is a miracle. Every second chance is a gift from God.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for every second chance You give me. May I not waste a one of them!

sincerely, Grace Day