The other day, I was in my bathroom getting ready for the day. While I was putting my make-up on, I was ruminating over the sins and transgressions of someone I know. Their mistakes didn’t even really affect me, except maybe in a very distant, abstract way, but still — I was bothered by their actions, and thinking about what a mess they were making of their life.
I was making a mental list of everything this person was doing wrong — and my list was getting quite long — when a thought flew in my head that stopped me. Silenced me.
Ready?
“Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
It’s found in Romans 5:20. I’ve used that verse a lot, and quoted it a lot, mostly to myself as a panacea, if you will, when I’m guilt-ridden by my own poor choices.
But this time, while I’m (perhaps smugly) listing another person’s very obvious sin(s), God was reminding me of the same verse I use to quiet my own contrition.
“Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
And it occurred to me that maybe I’ve been getting it wrong all along.
Maybe the people who are entrenched in their (obvious to me) sin are the ones who Jesus is drawing the nearest to, while my self-righteousness, and dare I say smidgen of piety is actually serving as a barrier between Him and me.
Maybe it’s the ones who have the most obvious need of Him who are actually nearest to Him.
Maybe Jesus is the closest to the ones who are knee-deep, waist-deep, neck-high in their own shortcomings, and my arrows are pointed the wrong way.
I love the lyrics in, “Jesus, Friend of Sinners,” by Casting Crowns:
“Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth’s become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they’re tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I’m so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours“
Later in the song it says: “Nobody knows what we’re for only what we’re against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines and loved like You did.”
These words arrest me. And, frankly, shame me. Because I realize how many times I look at others from the end of my pointed finger, forgetting that these are the very people He is running towards.
In the parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15 – 24), Jesus went after the undesirable, the outcast, the rejected, and urged them to come. The people I am judging are the exact same people He is pursuing.
Why am I so quick to assume that my personal standards — I might covet or tell a white lie, but at least I’m not doing what they are doing — are God’s standards? Isn’t all sin, both mine and others, a result of brokenness? Aren’t we all the same sinners desperately in need of a Savior?
When I realize that God has no level of sin, no hierarchy of what offends Him more — when I realize that the drug-addicted murderer is every bit in need of Jesus, and as free to drink from the same cup of grace that I drink from — then I become painfully aware that the only person whose sin I can tally is my own.
Ephesians 2:8,9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.“
So.
Maybe if the story of the woman caught in adultery was happening today, the sins He would be writing in the dust would be mine.
And maybe I should pay attention to that.
“Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
I want to be where the grace is. I want be where grace abounds.
And more importantly, I want to show people grace. Let them never turn away because I do anything but show them the unmistakable, constant, pouring out, unconditional, abundant, unmerited, undeserved, free grace that was given to me.
I want to drink from their cup.
“Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy.”
