Luke 7:42-43 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Recently I was doing a Bible study with some guys in the Omaha Correctional Center and was struck by the power and reality of this verse. As I talked with some of the guys, one individual was overcome with praise, joy, and thankfulness for God’s gracious forgiveness towards him. My friend is a convicted murderer. He will more than likely never live a day outside of this facility. But as we talked he talked as one who was a convicted and who was forgiven. He spoke with joy, praise and confident delight.
I marveled at the goodness of God’s grace on this day. It was indeed the flooding of divine grace that caused this man to rejoice; for he new his sin and he knew forgiveness.
I sat and wondered about how our lives would change if we were all guilty of murder. How would the unfailing reminder of my crime change my life?
This really isn’t an if question though, is it? We are guilty of murder. We are culpable. On one level we have a history of homicidal rage as we slay people with our thoughts, words or actions. We hate folks, and the Bible calls this murder (1 John 3.15). We slander people to cut them down (James 3).
But this is not the extant of the rap sheet. We have not just lashed out against fellow image bearers but we have lashed out against the divine image himself, the Lord Jesus (Col. 1.15; Heb. 1.3). We all, apart from Christ, have rejected God’s kingship and enthroned ourselves. This is done on a daily basis through the failure to acknowledge God’s own supremacy and value through our promotion of ourselves and our stuff instead of him and his glory. However, it is seen most clearly and dramatically through the fully matured expression of sin’s seedlings when God incarnate was executed in a bloody rage by image bearers. Yes it was here upon the blood stained tree of Calvary where Jesus was murdered by a sinner like me. I am there. I have the murder weapon in my own heart. I delighted to see righteousness die, for I delighted in sin and I hated all of its restraints. Jesus Christ bowed his head as the just penalty for my injustice.
So here I sit today a convicted murderer. And my crime is the greatest (most substantial) crime ever. I have been implicated in the death of righteousness, holiness, love, and mercy incarnate. But like my friend in prison, I rejoice. I rejoice because this glorious King Jesus died to pay for my very sin. He died and forgave me. He died and showed mercy to me. He died and loved me. He died to showed grace to me.
I need to think of myself as a murderer for I am one. I need to see myself as guilty in the worst crime imaginable, for I am. But I need to see Christ not only as my greatest crime but also my greatest glory. So today I rejoice, delight, praise and sing to Christ Jesus who died that I would live. And it is here, in my living, that God desires that I would glory in him by recounting both my great sin and his great mercy.
I think I should live differently since I am a murderer. How about you?