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👞 Church Shoes 👞
When I was in first grade, I was a little bit mischievous.
2 Corinthians 5:19
When I was in first grade, I was a little bit mischievous. My parents one Sunday morning told me to go get ready for church, which was fine except for my church shoes. I absolutely hated my church shoes. So one morning I had a good idea, if my parents can’t find my church shoes, I don’t have to wear them. So when they weren’t looking, I grabbed my shoes. I ran downstairs and I stuck them in a box way in the corner and it worked perfectly. My parents couldn’t find my church shoes, and so I got to go to church that day wearing my sneakers, my fast shoes, as I called them.
It just so happened, though, that that morning in Sunday school, my teacher was talking about temptation, about repentance. And so she asked us straight out, has there ever been a temptation that you just could not say no to? My hands shot up and I said yes. Just this morning I hid my church so I didn’t have to wear them. I lied to my parents, I tricked them. Thankfully, that teacher knew the difference between law and gospel and how God wants to use them in our lives. Because she could have told me that is so naughty. That’s a terrible thing to do. But she knew that I had already felt the weight of the law on my heart and was able to tell me I was forgiven.
Even as those sneakers were still on my feet and those church shoes were still hidden in a box in my basement. My sin was not remembered any more by my God. It had been removed from me forever because of what Jesus had done for me. What an awesome blessing it is to hear those words. “You are forgiven” and what a blessing it is to say them too. Second Corinthians, chapter five verse 19 says this
That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
So that word reconcile it means to resolve, to reestablish a close relationship. And that’s what God did for us through his Son, Jesus. Our relationship with God was broken because of sin, a sin that exists in the heart of every single person. But Jesus came having no sin of his own, to lay down his life in our place, to pay for our sin, to take the fault and the punishment for what we have done wrong. Through the gift of faith, we have experienced that reconciliation ourselves. We have received the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Our relationship with God has been reestablished. We have received unity with our God once again through the gift of faith.
What a blessing it is for us to carry with us this good news, this wonderful message that where there is repentance, where there is sorrow over sin, there is mercy, there is the grace of God, and there is forgiveness. Amen.
