Remember too that your Daddy's view of things is the only view that matters. What some would count gain, He calls loss and what is by all other accounts a loss is great gain.
Yes, a living being's existence is cut off by abortion. It is murder, heedless of Supreme Courts and counselors, legal and psychological. It is one of so many violations of the law. There's not one person who hasn't broken a part of God's law. Yet there is one Advocate Whose counsel even God heeds, the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth. He's the only One Who can plead our case before the Judge of all creation.
He died, but he's not dead. He lived a sinless life, laid it down of His own choosing, and then He took it up again, incorruptible and whole, appearing to more than 500 people in person. Yes, that Man is Jesus. He's your personal advocate before His Father, God, if you'll just ask Him.
Yesterday, it was easy for me to post about abortion because, thankfully, I've never been in the position where getting one was a temptation. Yet, that's not because I was "pure as the driven snow." I was a sexual addict. I was introduced to pornography at 7 years-old. I was led into temptation, and I led others into temptation. Is it easy to talk about? No. My addiction led me to take relationships with girls my age and older than me and allow the sex that should have been within a committed marriage relationship and let it grow without that commitment. Physical and emotional intimacy became a glue that bonded us together and when we eventually separated, it tore at our souls and left gaping wounds in our hearts. The sex never satisfied, and the consequences could have much greater than they were. I often regret the hurt I caused, but I continue to pray that God would work in their lives for good.
I sinned big. I am guilty. Regardless of my contrition, I am worthy of being stoned under some Middle Eastern legal systems, according to Eric Metaxas. In chapter 14 of (deep breath) Everything You Always Wanted To Know About God (But Were Afraid To Ask): The Jesus Edition, Metaxas writes, in an advanced Q-and-A format,
Q: Wasn't Jesus all about forgiveness and love, while the God of the Old Testament is about judgment and anger?A: No.
Q: Why not?A: Because Jesus made it absolutely clear that if you want to know what the God of the Old Testament is like, look at Him--at Jesus. He actually says that.
Q: But how can that be?A: It's true that Jesus is all about forgiveness and grace. But it's not sloppy forgiveness or cheap grace! He still sees sin as horrible. But that's what makes the forgiveness so important. If sin were no big deal, then forgiving sin wouldn't be any big deal. But it's a very, very big deal. Take the passage where Jesus saw the woman caught committing adultery.
Q: I'm not sure I know what that passage is. Care to refresh my memory?A: Of course. It's the scene from the Gospel of John, where Jesus came upon a woman who was about to be stoned because she had been "caught in adultery"
I need to break in at this point for two reasons, neither of which are truly important, but it's my blog, so thbbt. First, where's the guy who was presumably the other half? If it takes two to tango, where's the other partner? The guy might just have been someone powerful enough to evade being charged. It always bothered me until I realized Jesus knew who it was, regardless, and justice did not escape him.
The other reason is the scripture he's referring to:
John 8
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 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. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:1-11, New International Version, ©2011)
Now, back to my block quote...
Q.They really did that back then?A: Yes, and they still do it today in parts of the Middle East. It's an awful way to die. Many of the early Christians were stoned to death. Stephen, the first martyr of them all, was stoned to death.
Q: Okay, so this woman was about to be stoned.A: Yes. She was about to be killed. Executed. And it's because she committed adultery.
Q: Sounds harsh.A: It is harsh. It's extremely harsh. But Jesus stepped into the situation and said, "He how is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
Q: What does that mean?A: Well, first of all, it's amazingly clever. As I've said earlier, Jesus always said things that made the listener really think. He immediately stopped everything and made people thinkmore deeply about the situation. So in this case, He said, yes the Law of Moses says we are supposed to stone those who commit adultery. Correct. And who can disagree with the Law of Moses? After all, Jesus said that he had come to "fulfill the law." But ... and here is the big but ... He then said, okay, whoever among you has not committed a sin can throw the first stone.
Q: I don't get it.A: He didn't say not to follow the Law of Moses, but He showed the limits of living by the law. He said that it's easy to point our fingers and to have no grace for someone else who has sinned, but what if we think about our own sins. That changes things.
Q: So then what happened?A: Then, one by one, the men who accused this woman slinked away. None of them was able to remain, since each of them knew that they were themselves sinners. As soon as they thought about it, they realized they were guilty too.
Q: What about the woman?A: Jesus then said to the woman, "Where are those accusers of yours?" And she said that they had left. And then Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." So obviously Jesus hadn't taken lightly what the woman had done. He called it a sin.
Q: I have to say, I don't normally think of Jesus as someone who accused people of sin.A: Right. And He didn't accuse her, really. But He did call a spade a spade. Adultery is a sin--and a particularly grievous sin that harms a lot of people, not least this poor woman. But Jesus showed grace and love toward her. That's what was so new and shocking. He immediately offered her grace and love and forgiveness. That's not something we see in the other religious authority figures. They seemed to have no idea what grace and love and forgiveness were.
Q: That's the Jesus I have an image of, the one who is forgiving and kind.A: Yes! But keep in mind that you can't offer forgiveness if you don't also say that there's something to forgive--as in a sin. Adultery is a serious offense. It's heartbreaking. Jesus didn't sugarcoat that. But He also realized the woman needed grace and forgiveness in the midst of her sinning. She didn't need condemnation. And He didn't condemn her. He realized that she was already condemning herself. She was already sorry. What she needed was love and forgiveness. And of course that 's what He gave her.
Q: So Jesus is all about forgiveness.A: But again, it's vital that we see forgiveness for what it is. God graciously forgives us, but He does want us to misunderstand. He's not offering us cheap grace, to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Q: Who?A: We'll get back to that. The point is that sin is ugly and harmful--to us and to others. It's not a small thing to commit a sin. And to forgive sin is to do something that is costly. And that's what Jesus does. He loves us and forgives us at a cost to Himself. Ultimately we see that in His death on the cross, but forgiveness is always costly.
Q: Okay.A: So He wants to forgive us for our sins. But He doesn't treat it lightly. The more you see how awful sin is, the more you realize how important forgiveness is. So the God of the Old Testament's attitude toward sin is no different from Jesus' attitude toward it. He wants us to see how awful it is precisely so that we can turn away from it, so we can ask for forgiveness and be healed. But if we don't see how awful it is, we won't take it seriously enough to turn away from it. We need to know how bad it is; otherwise, we won't ask for God's forgiveness.
Whew! Sorry for the long quote, but Metaxas puts it just the way I needed to convey it.
There's a quote from Braveheart where William Wallace is about to be executed by torture. The judge, who oversees the ordeal with authority to cut the torture short and end Wallace's life if Wallace confesses his wrong, calls out to the crowd, "Now behold the awful price of treason!" Jesus Himself suffered an even greater torture before His death. Mel Gibson produced both Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ, which accurately portrays the torture and death of Jesus. Gibson himself knows his own need to be forgiven, even before his widely-publicized sins, when his left hand appeared in The Passion, holding the nail for it to be driven into Christ's hand, pinning it to the cross.
Under the law, I am a traitor, committing treason, sowing sedition, and blaspheming the name of the King. Under the law, I held the nails to be driven into His hands--the hands that that created me and my world. He forgives me? I cause such irreparable harm, and he chooses to heal me? I was Malchus, sent to arrest Jesus as a criminal, a fitting wound from Peter, cutting off the ear that listened to Caiaphas and his lies, and yet He picks up my flesh, restores it to me, and then goes on--unasked--to redeem my life? How? Why?!
I am a great and terrible sinner. I have no worth on my own. Yet my weakened, cracked clay pot is the one He chooses to place inside the greatest treasure. Why? Such short words come in answer: Love. Grace. Mercy. Such tiny words so full of meaning, all the posts in all the blogosphere could not do a rendering adequate to what He's given. The God who created the stars and other amazing beauties craves to love me, craves my love in return? How is that possible? Whatever the answer, I have an eternity to figure it out. What's more, if He could love me, I know He can love anyone, especially you.
Will you let Him? Will you open the door? Answer the door of your heart. It will change everything.
As it is, in my humanity, I easily lose sight of the grace. I too easily slip into the mob and join the accuser. I fall in my pride, and need to be reminded. Someday, I will not forget so easily. He will keep me in His grace and love and forgiveness faithfully, even when I am faithless. Someday, I will not forget. Someday, and that's my hope.
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