What if I Already Messed Up? {Part Two}

By Guest Writer, Jordan Elizabeth

{Continued from yesterday}

Yes, there are Christian girls who have already ‘messed up’, or who have gone willingly down the wrong path leading toward sin and are now sorry. What do we say to our sister who has given away her purity, who no longer measures up to the standard we have set? What do we say if we are that sister?

Is hope left for someone who has made a big mistake?

Short rabbit trail: Define big. Tell me a story, plot your scheme well, because I don’t demand of you a tri­fling tale of an accident of which you had no control. Explain why a “Big” mistake, a big sin, changes the gospel message. All sin separates us from God. Jesus died for the angry thoughts as well as the murder; He died for our bad attitudes as well as our bad actions. He died for the women who compromised themselves physically as well as for the girls who never kissed a boy until their wedding day.

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Yes, tell me how big the sin was, but also let me tell you how big God’s grace is. He can more than handle impurity. He didn’t come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. He came to take the impu­rity from us and clothe us in His righteousness. He has provided a way through repentance for us to go on serving Him from where we are, not where we would have been. He is a loving, gracious, and an ALL-POWERFUL God. He can give us grace to move on.

 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all good­ness and righteousness and truth ;) Ephesians 5:8-9

However true this is (and it is), there is still a problem. Sin, in all of its deceptive non-glory and ugliness, is discouraging. I believe everyone has asked themselves this question before: Why bother going on trying to ‘do good’, to be pure, as it were, if it’s really too late. I can never get it back, so why should I care?

True believers, repentant Chris­tians who are brought to the understanding don’t choose to sin because they know God will forgive them, we choose not to sin because we know God has forgiven us.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Romans 3:10

In God’s view, there is none who is truly pure, none who is without blemish, who is ‘clean’. Only through Him can we be given purity and righteousness. Our seeking to be pure in our lives is a reflection of His purity in us, showing an understanding of God’s law and God’s forgiveness; showing that we love Him and desire to please Him.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them, as thou hast love me. John 17:23

All of his children are under grace. All of His people are redeemed from wickedness. All have been given the purity of Jesus. Those who have sinned ‘more’ or in different ways than others are great examples of His sav­ing glory; those who have been spared much sin and heartache are also a great picture of God’s mercy and love.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revela­tion in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

Ephesians 1:17-19