Forgiveness For The Foremost Sinner

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” [1]

What is the worst sin you can imagine a person committing? Is there a sin so heinous, so horrific that it would exclude you, or anyone, from God’s mercy? If you can envision such a sin, what would that sin be? What is even more essential to the message today is for you to ask yourself whether you have ever committed a sin so monstrous, a sin so vile, a sin so wicked that that sin has condemned you to eternal banishment from the love of God? Is there a sin that nags at your mind, rising up to condemn you each time you struggle to speak with the Lord, and always causing you to question whether you are saved or not?

The front page of the September 18, 2005 New York Times featured an inside look at the daily workings of an abortion clinic located in Little Rock, Arkansas. [2] Doctor Russell Moore describes the newspaper article as revealing the calloused, yet tortured, consciences of women awaiting the abortion of their unborn children. The women seated in the abortuary didn't wish to be seen, or even to make contact with others in the waiting room. Even more striking though, at least in Doctor Moore’s estimate, as in my own estimate, was the religious connections of the women involved—including Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists. Many of these women represented denominations that stood in stern opposition to abortion as an act of taking the life of an innocent and vulnerable infant.

One Baptist college student, having her third abortion, was quoted in the article as saying: “My religion is against it. In a way I feel I'm doing wrong, but you can be forgiven. I blame myself. I feel I shouldn't have sex at all.”

A woman named Regina said, “I've done this once and swore I wouldn't do it again. Every woman has second thoughts, especially because I'm Catholic.” Regina noted that she went to confession. “The priest didn't hound me,” she reported. “He said, ‘People make mistakes.’”

Regina's story could be understood by the clinic operating room supervisor, Ebony, whom the article chillingly describes as rinsing “the blood off aborted tissues.” As is true for those she treats in the clinic, Ebony has also had an abortion. “As a Baptist,” the article said, “she still considered abortion a sin, but so are a lot of things we all do, she said.” In this, Ebony sounds like many of us who justify our sin by minimising what we do. The article closes with Ebony's words to the Catholic undergoing the abortion: “No problem sweetie. We've all been there.”

We perhaps imagine that the women ushered into a death clinic, for that is what the abortuary is, are secular feminists; perhaps we imagine that these women are doctrinaire liberals who detest the Faith. What appears to be evident from this article is that these are girls who could be from Notre Dame parish or who could be numbered among the New Beginnings Baptist youth. If you conducted a telephone survey and happened to reach the phone of any of these women, they would undoubtedly be counted as “pro-life.” They know all the right answers concerning the sanctity of life. Yet, even with this background, they wait together in the abortionist’s waiting room.

In the article cited, Doctor Moore made a telling point when he wrote, “Whatever the very real soteriological debates exist between Catholics and evangelicals, they share, at least in the waiting room, the same doctrine of grace: ‘Let us sin that grace may abound’” [ROMANS 6:1]. [3] Each Christian in this day needs to confront this point honestly. We have slipped into a pattern of presuming against grace among the churches of this day. As Christians, we sin and appear to imagine that we can got away with our sin because we were not immediately arrested or struck down by Holy God. It is not only our youth that have concluded that sin is a minor indiscretion, but this virus has also contaminated vast swaths of those counted as being among the faithful!