Some further ponderings on the forgiveness issue . . .
It has often helped me to realize . . . from so many of my own long very dark nights of the soul . . .
that were I to have had the ‘right’ childhood and circumstances, I could have ended up doing virtually any fool sinful horrid thing as anyone else.
ALL OUR HEARTS ARE DECEITFULLY WICKED.
And it is VERY UNBIBLICAL ARROGANCE to think anything else.
God has shown me my ugliness in vivid detail . . . shoved my face in it very excruciatingly and more than once. That is one reason forgiveness is so easy for me.
As Christ said to the prostitute, I think it was . . . or about her . . . those love most who have been forgiven most. I know what that’s like in large measure.
It’s HAUGHTY, self-righteous arrogance to think that our sins are more holy than someone else’s sins.
THERE, BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD—THE GRACE OF GOD
THE
GRACE
OF
GOD
. . . go I.
We prefer to think that it is because of our
—superior intellects;
—RELIGIOUS rituals;
—brilliant confessions and repentances availing ourselves of Christ’s forgiveness;
—uniquely wonderful personalities;
—personally wonderfully kosher choices and behaviors—well—sufficiently—at least better than those publicans/RC’s/Calvinists/Pentecostals over THERE!
—Christian or genetic heritage;
—middle or upper class status;
—education;
—IQ;
—an above average job category and status;
—honorable kids;
—belonging to the right congregation or denomination/institution
—graduating from the right university;
etc.
etc.
etc.
It’s ALLLLLLL FILTHY rags in Biblical terms so graphic the RM won’t allow me to use even the Scripture. It’s all chaff or worse.
Yet we think all our self-righteousness is a grand platform from which to withhold forgiveness from others and to exact punitive judgment on hapless others.
Sometimes, I think RELIGIOUS HAUGHTINESS is the worst kind of all.