If you walk down the pasta aisle in your local supermarket, you are faced with many choices. There’s rigatoni, linguine, lasagna, penne, fettuccine, spaghetti, angel hair, pasta fusilli, thin spaghetti, and the list goes on and on. You can choose what your pasta is made from such as rice, whole grains, or even vegetables. The options are endless but when you boil it down (pun intended!), they are all still noodles.
Sin is the same way. There are many different types of sin. They look different on the outside, but when all the labels are taken away, they are still just sins. God doesn’t differentiate between sins. In His eyes, a sin is a sin. He doesn’t look at sin the way we do. We sometimes think that one sin, such as murder, is worse than another sin, such as lying. We believe ourselves to be better than someone who has committed a sin that we think is worse.
I would like to share a story from the Old Testament with you. It is found in the book of second Chronicles in Chapter thirty-three. It is the story of Manasseh. Manasseh became the king of Judah at the age of twelve and was a very evil man. He worshiped idols, and built altars to them in the Lord’s temple (verse four). He sacrificed his sons in a fire, practiced sorcery and witchcraft and consulted mediums and spirits (verse six). It is also believed that Manasseh had the prophet Isaiah sawed in half.
In verse eleven it says, “the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him in bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.” Ouch! Can you imagine being marched cross-country with a hook in you nose? I have to be honest when I say I think Manasseh deserved every bit of suffering the Lord put him through.
Verses twelve and thirteen are where you will find my whole point in sharing this story. In verse twelve it says that Manasseh sought “the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly”. Verse thirteen tells us that God was moved so much by Manasseh’s prayer that he returned him to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Can you imagine God being humbled by this mans prayer? After everything he had done as a king, he sought God so humbly that his prayer moved the Lord!
For many Christians, the concept of being completely forgiven for all of our sins is hard to grasp. We sometimes think there is no way God can forgive us for what we have done. We harbor this fear in us that we have done something that is just too horrible for God to forgive us. I hope you realize that there is nothing God can’t or won’t forgive you for. He loves us so much! Even before He sent His son to die on the cross for us, He loved mankind so much that a man like Manasseh was completely forgiven! Colossians chapter two, verse thirteen tells us that God forgives us all our sins. Not just the small, seemingly un-harmful ones. He forgives all of them.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for forgiving us. Thank you for loving us so much that you sent your son to die on the cross so that we could one day live in your presence. Please help us to remember that sins are sins no matter what label we put on them and all we have to do is sincerely humble ourselves before You and You will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Amen
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