Beyond all
shame—the grace of God,
Beyond all
shame—is Divinity’s Nod,
Beyond all
shame—is the sweetest peace,
Beyond all shame—is comprehensive
release.
***
No matter what people think of
God, whether they believe or not, there is the irrefutable fact that there is no shame
beyond the reach of God’s grace. Because of what the Saviour, Jesus, has done, no sin known to
humankind puts humanity out of the scope of redemption.
Nothing we have done, or do, or
will do puts us beyond hope. In God’s eyes we are never hopeless. This is one
thing we ought to never forget: shame is just as easily converted into godly
grief.
Godly grief, as the apostle Paul
put it, sets our shame apart from hopelessness and reconciles it back to God
via plain repentance.
The Induction Of Godly Grief
“For godly
grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but
worldly grief brings death.”
~2 Corinthians 7:10 (NRSV)
Repentance is the vehicle that
takes us from utter personal contempt, even to that which we transfer onto
others in anger, or that which has us cowering, and projects us into the
geography of grace. What that means in plain terms is peace becomes us, purely
because we were authentic, before God and before humanity.
The induction of godly grief is
the moral portion of honesty, targeted personally, that honours the truth and
finds its way back into the realm of life.
Godly grief is the despicable
moment pushing us toward repentance. It compels us to face our denial. It makes
us face up to what is, essentially, our fault. There is no shame in being at
fault, and as soon as we admit our fault, which was engineered by godly grief,
we begin to experience the peace of grace meandering through our spirits.
The Experience Of Salvation
Out of definitive scope,
presently, is the fact of salvation, though it equally applies. In scope is the experience of salvation: to experience the forgiveness
of God that comes in a felt peace. When God forgives us, no peace compares.
The fact of salvation is that it
occurs once: saved once, saved for all time. The experience of salvation,
however, is more about feeling saved.
What is needed more and more in
life, by all of us, is the experience of salvation—to know God can and does
forgive every mortal sin.
There is no shame beyond grace.
Grace covers all human lack—if we will let it.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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