A Very Merry COVID ChristmasSample

Praise God—You Are Forgiven

Recently, I heard about a pregnant party girl who experienced the power of forgiveness.

I met a man at a Christian conference who told me about the young woman whom his family had welcomed into their home. Hoping to help the young woman escape an abusive relationship, this man and his wife opened their doors and offered her a safe place to get back on her feet.

But one day, she showed up for breakfast and whispered, “I’ll leave.”

“Huh?” the man’s wife replied. “Why would you leave?”

“Because I’m pregnant.”

Having grown up in a strict religious home, the young woman was aware that her late-night partying and casual attitude toward sex were not what God wanted from her. Therefore, she assumed that her sin meant her time with this devout Christian family was over.

Until she experienced their forgiveness. 

Immediately after her confession, the wife stopped cooking for her and started hugging her. The husband joined in the embrace, smiled, and said, “This is what we do in our home.” And to this day, both the young woman and her son are welcomed members of the family and, even better, fellow believers in the family of God.

Isn’t forgiveness the best?

I wonder if Paul got emotional about forgiveness when he wrote, “In [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). Through faith, we have the forgiveness of sins. Paul doesn’t promise that we might have it or could get it if we just live good enough lives, but instead he assures us that we simply have it.

In Paul’s original Greek, the word forgiveness implies that something is sent away from you. Like a hat that used to be stuck to your head until a hurricane wind blew it far away, sin is what used to be stuck to your soul until the winds of God’s grace blew it as far from you as the east is from the west.

And notice what Jesus forgives—sins. Not a sin or some sins or certain sins but all of the sins. The “big ones” you did just once. The “small ones” you can’t seem to leave behind. The sins you forget. The sins you can’t forget. All of your sin is what God sent away through the blood of his Son.

Today I want you to picture your Father like that family. “Why would you leave?” God asks as he gets up to embrace you. And as Jesus joins in the moment, he looks you in the eye and smiles, “This is what we do.”

I bring you good news of great joy—You are forgiven.