Sin Erased, Shame Forgotten

It’s hard to look in the mirror – literally or figuratively – and not see it…

The evidence…

The scars…

The stains that are so obvious to us and, we’re sure, to the world around us.

Let someone float a compliment our way, and up they rise, at least in our silent thoughts –

The objections.

The dismissals.

That internal whisper that says, “If only they knew the whole story…”

Know what?  Somebody does.  And He’s the only one who has lived your story and His.  And His declaration over you is the final say:

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

Make no mistake about it.  This is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, crowned with glory and honor, seated at the right hand of God the Father.  When someone speaks of righteousness, He gets it.

He also gives it away, and He’s given it to you.

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

This is love.  Not the love of a sentimental poet or a magical-thinking martyr.  It’s the tough, gritty love that conquers enemies, including the last enemy to be destroyed – death.  It’s the love that lays down His life for His friends, then calls you His friend!  It’s the love of One who called Himself The Truth.

And Truth is the lens through which He sees you.

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

His is a love that transforms.

Sin says, “I can’t face Him.”

Shame says, “I must fix myself first.”

He says, in a way only He can, “Why don’t you leave that to Me?”

And as we gaze at the beauty of the One we love, and rest in the promise of our now-and-forever home with Him, a strange transformation begins to happen.  The more we see Him – really see Him – the more like Him we become.

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

Sin erased.  Every accusation against us.  Every rejected commandment or act of defiance.  Every public or secret expression of disobedience.  Every wound we have ever inflicted on somebody else.  Everything and anything that would stand between Him and us… gone.

Shame forgotten.  Every haunting whisper that says, “never enough.”  Every lame comparison between us and somebody else.  Every secret reminder of the fraud we think we are… all of that and more a thing of the past.

The sin and the shame are relics of a world that you and I are less and less at home in.  And the longer we live in this world, the less like home it feels.  But that’s all part of the plan.  This never was intended to be your final anything.  This world is a refugee camp – temporary housing until your permanent residence has been completed.  And in the process of preparing a home for you, your Builder and Designer is preparing you for the home.

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

Soon – sooner than you think – He will call you home. That’s more than a euphemism for death.  It’s a way.  Truth.  Life.

No more masking the sin with dead religion.  No more hiding the shame with outward performance.  Intimacy and love will take on a whole new meaning.  All that you have longed for that sin has blocked, every desire that shame has defied will all be realized in His gaze and embrace.

Sin erased.  Shame forgotten.

You’ll be home.

And it could be today.

Tagged as: Grace, Heaven, Shame, Sin, Transformation