Scars
June 25, 2000
Dear Friends:
When I was about six years old, a couple of older neighborhood boys decided to make me their hostage in a game of pirate. They tied me to the mast of the ship (a tree) and proceeded to throw six foot long spears (sharpened sticks) at me in a less-than-skilled version of the circus knife thrower.
As you can imagine, the result was a six foot long spear protruding from my thigh a couple of inches above my knee. The spear penetrated my leg only to be stopped by my thigh bone.
A couple of stitches later on my part and a couple of sore rear ends later on their part, the event was forgotten except for the scar on my left leg. Even today I have an indention of about the size of a nickel on my left leg.
Sin is like that hole in my leg. Like the miracle that is the human body, God heals us from sin through the power of redemption and forgiveness. The amazing restorative power of God’s grace in our lives fills the holes that sin has gashed in our mortal frames.
But as cognizant as we need to be of God’s grace, we should be equally aware of the scars that sin leaves behind. Each time we sin, whether in our youth or in the last days of old age, sin leaves scars.
When I dedicated my life to Christ in the waters of baptism in October 1983, I came out of that water a new creature. God, through his tremendous and wondrous capacity to forgive, had wiped clean my sins of the past. I was given a new start in life. But that new creature that I was still had that scar on his left leg just above the knee just like that new creature had emotional and spiritual scars from his life of sin.
If we are a recovering alcoholic when we are baptized, we become a forgiven recovering alcoholic. If we suffered at the hands of another sinner such as an abusive parent, when we come into Christ, we become a redeemed person that was an abused child. This in no wise tarnishes God’s forgiveness nor his restorative powers. It is abundantly clear that any person who relies on God and Jesus to help them with their problem, whether self-inflicted or inflicted upon us, has the greatest allies that man can have. But still, sin leaves its mark.
The point is that we can mistake God’s forgiveness for something it is not. We can adopt a casual attitude toward sin because we know we have an avenue to forgiveness.
The apostle Paul grieved for the rest of his life over his ignorant persecution of the ecclesia while a Pharisee. David suffered tremendously, both physically, spiritually and psychologically, for the remainder of his days for his sin with Bathsheba. Did these men not believe in the power of forgiveness? Did they not know that God had wiped away their sin? They most certainly did. But they knew something else that we must never forget -
Sin leaves scars.
Have a great week!
