The Bible makes one humongous, and seemingly impossible promise concerning sin; to forgive it in a faithful and just manner while also crushing it with wrath everywhere it is found.
The book, The Impossible Promise is a story built on that tension. It is a story that you are familiar with. It is the Prodigal's story. But in addition to traveling with the prodigal to a far off land, in this story, you also see what is going on back at home.
Of course there is the waiting and watching father who is ready to forgive and restore. That is what gives the story hope, but there is trouble at home too; many forget about the angry older brother.
The conflict is more than just one brother's anger toward the other. There is also that promise.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The older brother is spurred to anger by that impossibly-stupid promise. What is it faithful to? And what in the world makes it just?
The story culminates when each son responds to the promise, one with a heart of contrition, the other with hands of fury. See more about the book here.
The gospel is full of this tension. You have likely heard, The soul that sins shall die... or, He will by no means clear the guilty... and everybody knows, the wages of sin is death... YET! at the same time, ...the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thankfully we have been given something that cuts the tension, something faithful-and-just in forgiveness AND in the crushing of sin. I mean the sacrifice of 2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Until the next blog, remember Christ,
the author of salvation and the reader of your heart.
