One of the especially effective hindrances to spiritual prodigals leaving the pigpen of sin and returning to their watchful father is Satan’s suggestion that God is uninterested and His grace is ill-equipped to receive and to forgive them. In Psalm 32:6-7, David declares that such falsehood is emphatically wrong: “For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” When sin’s devastation has come into your life, trust the amazing grace of God to restore your fellowship with Him.
The laser-like focus and purpose of God’s grace is deliverance from sin. Its pre-eminently practical approach is a two-fold. First, to prevent sin in our lives by teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly (Titus 2:12). Second, to seek Jehovah’s forgiveness when we do sin. First John 2:1-2 clearly teaches both ideas. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
The grace of God is never understood accurately when it is viewed as an excuse to sin. It is always understood properly when it is viewed as an eliminator of sin. This is why we can read in Romans 6:1-2—”Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
When sin has been committed and its bitter guilt and deadly poison have overwhelmed us, trust the amazing grace of “the One who lifts up my head” (Psalm 3:3). Confess the sin that you have repented of and enjoy the blessedness of grace’s forgiveness of your guilt and of grace’s comfort as you face the future consequences of your sinful actions.
This is the glory and riches of God’s amazing grace.
