The God Who Loves Sinners

I want to introduce you to the God who loves sinners.  Now, before you tune me out and run off, stay tuned.  You might find something refreshing in here.

I have a question for you? 

Are you getting ready to go buy your drugs for the night or are you coming off a three-day binge of intense drug use?

Have you just bought your first bottle in a brown paper sack or have you been on a drunken stupor for four nights?

Are you leaving home right this minute to go meet up with your secret lover, or have you just returned home from an extended rendezvous?

One more.

Are you headed to church so you can complain about the music or the content of the sermon, or have you just returned from church and are fuming over the latest rumor you just heard or laughing over the rumor you just perpetuated?

I am reminded of a story in the Bible that goes something like this.

A near naked woman has been dragged from the bed and arms of her lover.  She is rushed into the synagogue where Jesus is teaching a lesson. 

The mob interrupts and throws this woman to the ground right in front of Christ.  They begin blurting out all her many sins and wrong doings. 

Meanwhile, Jesus is bent down, writing in the dust on the Temple floor.  When they finish their tirade, He stands up, looks from the woman to the angry mob, and softly speaks.

“You who are without sin may cast the first stone.”

He bends back down and continues writing.  We begin to hear stones drop to the temple floor and the shuffling of feet as people leave the building.

Jesus finally looked up and saw only the woman standing before him.  She stands, covering herself as best as she can, and is trembling and softly sobbing.

Jesus looks at her and speaks, “Where are your accusers?”

“They all left” she is finally able to mutter.

“Then neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.”

That was the end of the sermon.  He didn’t even take an offering.

I listed a few despicable scenes that some humans face every day and week of their lives.  They are on the verge of going toward sin or have just returned from a binge of self-indulgence, and following them is this long train of guilt, shame, and the burden of yet one more failure.

And God simply stands there with open arms.  His words can bring healing, if the receiver will receive. 

His words?

“I love you.  I love you as you are, not as you should be.”

Note how Brennan Manning phrases it.

In Jeremiah 31:3 we find this:  “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with tender love and kindness I draw you to myself.”

Romans 5:8 gives us this:

‘God shows His love for us even while we were sinners.”

And I Peter 5:7 encourages us to do this:

“Lay all your anxieties, angst, worries, sins, low self-esteem and failures at the foot of God, because He cares specifically for you.”

Our God, the God of the Holy Bible, is the only God that mankind worships who loves the sinner. 

Oh, how He loves you and me!

Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

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