Right now, your life may seem a hopeless mess of shattered pieces, but your divine Lover treasures every fragment, even those life experiences you have suffered that seem worse than useless. Discarding nothing, he will lovingly treat each incident in your life as a critical piece of a jigsaw that only a supernatural genius could solve. He will reassemble every meaningless disaster, shameful failure and hideous sin, until together they form priceless beauty that no one would ever guess could emerge from such evil and chaos.

Will God really turn our sin into something that glorifies him? Yes. Obviously, things would have been better still had we not sinned, but when we come to Christ for cleansing, he not only removes our shame and makes us sparkle with his purity, he works all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

Consider, for example, the apostle Paul’s atrocious sin. Christianity was in its vulnerable infancy. Like perhaps no one else in all of history, Paul had the opportunity to permanently wipe from the planet every memory of Christianity. And he was intent on doing so. God intervened, of course, but had Paul’s determined plans succeeded and Christianity were eradicated before any of the New Testament were written, all of us today would be without the Gospel, destined for hell. He tortured and tormented Christians, trying to make them blaspheme their Lord, hoping to force them to abandon Christ, thus destroying them eternally. Given the eternal implications, this makes serial murder seem like a parking offense. How could even the God of the impossible wring any good out of that evil? And yet he did.

The book of Acts recounts Paul’s conversion testimony not once or even twice but three times (Acts chapters 9, 22 & 26). That’s how significant to God is Paul’s sinful background. That the apostle Paul was once violently opposed to Christianity has been the critical fact that has convinced countless thousands throughout history of the power and authenticity of the Gospel.

What about sins after conversion? Though you would be excused for expecting the opposite result, throughout history literally millions of Christians have drawn comfort and inspiration from Peter denying his Lord three times. “If there’s hope for Peter, there’s hope for me,” they gladly conclude. The same is true of King David’s shocking adultery and murderous cover-up. Moreover, who alone out of David's many sons did God choose as heir to David's throne and ancestor of the Messiah? Bathsheba's son, Solomon. This man should never have even been born. His mother should still have been married to the man David murdered. And yet God so forgave that he chose the product of David's greatest moral fall to be a key figure in Jewish and redemptive history and the one he endowed with astounding wisdom.

Because God bringing good even out of sin is so mind-boggling, I’ll give just one more example. Suppose you had an abortion. No matter how appalling the sin, the Lord is keen to forgive and once he forgives you, amazing things can happen. The Lord could, for example, use the experience to deepen your awareness of the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, or to keep you from falling into pride, or to give you ministry and witnessing opportunities by increasing your empathy for others who have suffered that way. Should we sin that grace may abound? Of course not! But our sufferings move God far too deeply for him to let them be wasted.

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son . . . (Emphasis mine.)

This seems to be saying that the good that God works toward by manipulating all things that beset us is not that we get our selfish pleasure but that we end up conformed to the image of Christ. If that disappoints you a little, you haven’t thought it through. To be like Christ is something far more wondrous that any cheap thrills you might have had in mind.

To be like Christ is to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit – love, peace, goodness, self-control, and so on. That’s thrilling, but there’s more. To be like Christ is to be not just dignified but regal, not just powerful but ruling from heaven’s throne, not just smart but having access to divine wisdom, not just attractive but radiant with unsurpassable inner beauty, not just morally upright but perfect in the piercing eyes of humanity’s holy Judge, not just happy but overflowing with inexpressible joy, not just youthful but eternal, not just sympathetic but empowered to transform lives.

There’s More:
Innocent! You are no longer the person who sinned!

Warning: These Pages Won’t Help Everyone

Some people terrified about being unforgivable just need Bible-based reassurance or an explanation of a disturbing Scripture. If vast amounts of rational support and biblical exposition are the answer, keep following the links. Many Christians, however, presume this is what they need but it turns out that no amount of biblical proof or sound, theological argument or even spectacular spiritual experience can put their minds to rest. If you have already sought much help but worries keep resurfacing, you most likely need a totally different approach. You should skip these pages (you can return later if you wish) and go straight to Scrupulosity.

Not to be sold. © Copyright, 2008, Grantley Morris. Not to be copied in whole or in part without citing this entire paragraph. Many more compassionate, inspiring, sometimes hilarious writings by Grantley Morris available free at the following internet site www.net-burst.net Freely you have received, freely give.

Vital Help

I suggest you follow the above link but if you want a change of pace, the following is here for you.

Urgent Questions?

The Beginning The only way to not miss any of this feast of uplifting webpages about false guilt is to start at Feeling Condemned? There’s Hope! and follow each link. You won’t regret it!

Feeling Rejected by God An important part of this series of webpages

Unforgivable? The part of the series that deals with the unforgivable sin

Testimonies They thought they were unforgivable

Scriptures Some of the vast number of Scriptures proving that you can be forgiven

God Loves Me? Receive Your Very Own Revelation of God’s Love A separate, very important series

Demons The beginning of a series of webpages

Dealing with Depression and Discouragement

God & Suffering Coping with fears that God might be harsh and unloving

Becoming a Winner Breaking addictions and besetting sins

Encouragement When You Feel Defeated

Index to Entire Site A treasure trove of stimulating, compassionate, often humorous, webpages for Christians by the same author on a vast number of topics. This website is enormous!