Outrageous

“In your religion, do you believe God could forgive him?”

The questioner’s face betrayed an intense curiosity. She wanted my answer. The surname of the person in question was bin Laden.

Shortly after the September 11 attack, American intelligence agencies identified lead players responsible for the terrorist carnage. The assault here on American soil – the most brazen and vicious since Pearl Harbor (1941) – guaranteed the enshrinement of another date to “live in infamy”. The principal schemer and mastermind was revealed to the public and in a matter of hours the name Osama Bin Laden became synonymous among many with unspeakable evil.

The young woman from the Far East, whose husband was pursuing an engineering degree at our campus, had directed the question my way amidst an informal visit on life and faith. Her knowledge of Biblical Christianity – its foremost tenet being sacrificial love – was foreign to her mind and she drove the question home.

Can God forgive the bin Ladens of the world?

I responded in a quiet tone. ‘Yes’. God’s mercy was somehow big enough to cover even an evil such as this. “If he were to confess and turn from his sin, yes he would find pardon”, I responded, hoping my voice carried a conviction I did not deeply feel.

The student spouse wouldn’t buy it, “No”, she replied, “such a wrong like this done by someone cannot be forgiven!” She was not to be persuaded otherwise. Not today, perhaps not at all.

For my own part, I frankly entertained a subtle wish in the moment that it might not be true, that even divine pardon had its limitations. As with the Prophet Jonah in the Old Testament with his condemning heart posture toward the barbaric city of Nineveh and its inhabitants, I could, at least momentarily, want God’s wrath directed toward particular elements of evildoers.

But then, where would that leave me and the rest of humanity. I knew, at least in my mind, the answer. Forgiveness, indeed full pardon, extends to any and all presenting themselves in contrite repentance.  Some label such mercy as outrageous. And so it likely is.

“The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. . . Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”*

©2024 Jerry Lout                                        *Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 3:18

Curious Coincidence

 

Home from the whirlwind prayer journey and recovered from a jet lag episode worthy of a Guinness Book entry, I answered our kitchen phone.

“Hi Jerry, and welcome back to the States!”  The party on the line with warm Pennsylvania voice was primed to offer intriguing news.

She and her husband had committed to pray for our team in far-off China throughout our just-completed two-week prayer-walking venture. During that fortnite, they received a surprise phone call from the adult son of a Chinese friend from long ago. The father was a former international student befriended by the American family those years before.

“I am serving in government and am now in your state leading a delegation of other officials from my province”, began the caller.

“I have a request, please. May I bring our group of twenty to learn something of your American religion?  May we gather somewhere so that somebody of your choosing* may share with our delegation on the topic of Christianity?”

“Certainly, of course”, came the reply.

My PA friend’s mind raced. She and her husband had been praying intently for the precious people of this young man’s homeland – and specifically for the very province he and his accompanying cadre represented.

The visit was made and a culturally-clear presentation on the story of creation, redemption and of life lived in Jesus given. Printed resources in their language, including a Bible for each of the twenty, were presented to an enthusiastic, grateful company of visitors.

It happened that the presenter was son to missionary neighbors of ours in outback Africa of the early 1970s.*

“God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out.”        Romans 11:33 Msg Bible

©2024 Jerry Lout