From the book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’, Jerry Sittser wrote:
God promises to forgive us through the unfolding of time. It is an act of pure grace. This grace is free but it is not cheap. God abhors sin and evil, and he judges sin for what it is, an affront to His greatness and glory. But God is also good, kind and gracious. He love sinners and wants to show mercy. He sent Jesus to uphold His integrity and justice and to show mercy. The cross of Jesus is the crossroad where God’s justice and mercy meet. It demonstrates how serious God is in dealing with sin, yet it also proves how earnest He is in giving mercy. The cross should sober us about the serious consequences of sin. It should also woo us back to God, who embraces us, prodigals though we are, as his children.
We need God’s grace to do His will. Without that we remain prisoners. Without that, we remain prisoners to our past and future, dominated by regret and bitterness or by fear and worry. Grace changes everything. It draws us back to God, placing us in the center of his will, no matter what we have done or how bad our circumstances. No one is so sinful as to be beyond God’s grace*. We can be alcoholics, prostitutes, embezzlers, abusers, liars or murderers. What we have done matters little; what God has done matters a great deal. Once we turn to him in sincere repentance and faith, we become recipients of God’s inexhaustible grace. From that moment on our life starts over, though the circumstance of our life may stay the same.
Neither past sins, however regrettable, nor future circumstances, however unwanted, can cut us off from God’s grace, once we truly repent and turn to God. We could be sick from a lifetime of smoking, flat broke from bad investments, on trial for past crimes. It doesn’t matter. The past is over, but God is alive and well. Once we turn to Him, we are immediately at the center of His will. God will begin at that very moment to work redemption into our lives, writing a story that will end in triumph. He will bring the consequences of the past upon us in the form of a blessing. There is no place so distant from God that he is not present. 1 . . . What a comfort to know that we can be in the center of God’s will once we turn to Him! God’s grace is that radical! ~ Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life: Zondervan, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49530, 2000,2004), 144-45 (Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
