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Pardon over Parole

Hank1 was still incarcerated when I first met him, and now that he was released, I asked him about life on parole. “My parole experience has been a positive one,” he began, speaking from his charitable heart. As we talked, however, it became clear that “positive” didn’t mean “perfect”—that living on parole has its challenges, even for optimists like Hank. “The worst aspect of it is having to notify my parole officer of every movement. And it infringes not just upon me, but now upon my family. My wife comes under parole supervision: there are some Constitutional rights restrictions that she has to abide by, because she is married to me.” Though they live as free people among society—both he who was once incarcerated and she who never has been—they remain under the scrutiny of the penal system. Such is the nature of parole: it places additional duties and restrictions upon some otherwise living in liberty.

But not so, pardon! Freedom for those living under pardon is as complete as if they had never been convicted of their crimes in the first place. Their names are cleared of their wrongdoing (usually by a head-of-state), and all rights are restored. Any further repercussions are eliminated, gone forever. Of the two—pardon or parole—which would you prefer? Yeah, me too.

Sometimes we believers, who in Christ are free from sin, place ourselves and/or others back under the confines of the law, as if to strive for God’s favor by our own good efforts. Legalism can threaten liberty through worship style expectations, “service project” gold stars, or even the way we adorn ourselves. It is like having been pardoned, only to live under the expectations of parole. When this happened in the early Galatian church, Paul exhorted them, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”2 We might add: And don’t shackle others under our legalistic expectations, either! On another occasion Paul taught, “Through [Jesus Christ] everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.”3 We who are liberated by the gift of pardon must not subject ourselves or anyone else to the demands of parole. Rather, Jesus has set us free, and “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”4

Father, thank You for freeing me from sin and the curse of the Law. Grace me to discern deceptions that would lure me away from grace, and fill me with great joy and power as one who has been forever pardoned. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Name has been changed for this post.
2 Galatians 5:1
3 Acts 13:39
4 John 8:36

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Devoted to Him Who Is Devoted to Us

Do you remember the crush you had in high school on someone who didn’t like you back in quite the same way? The girl I liked fancied a few guys and eventually chose one, but I was not even on her list. Unrequited love; teenage heartbreak. “Let’s just be friends.” (Sigh.) “OK.” (By the way, golf is like this, too, for some of us—though we love it, it merely likes us in return. But let’s not digress.)

Jesus taught the gathered crowd, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”1 It was a warning to choose wisely that in which we invest ourselves and place our affections: we can “store up for [ourselves] treasures on earth . . . [or] treasures in heaven.”2 And just to be clear, Jesus added, “You cannot serve both God and money”3—we must choose the object of our devotion. Sometimes, like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable4, we prefer the Father’s blessings over the Father himself, for the allure of self-indulgence can be as overpowering as it is deceitful. God or things, things or God—which will we love, and which will we use?

But as to God’s devotion to us, there is no dilemma, there is no equivocating. Speaking through His prophet Joel to those who oppressed Israel, God declared the worth of His admittedly rebellious people: “For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples. You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem . . . ”5 Did you catch it? God’s people are His silver and gold. We are His finest treasures. He has chosen us as His own, and where His treasure is, there His heart will be also—with us.

Then may His steadfast love for us draw us in an unshakable love for Him, that He would be our finest treasure, as well. If we have esteemed earthly riches over the richness of God, or if we have tried impossibly to “serve both,” then let this be the turning point at which we redirect our devotion entirely to Him who is completely devoted to us. Like the prodigal son who “came to his senses”6 and returned home, we will discover our Father’s love for us to be far richer—and far more satisfying—than any worldly wealth without Him.

Father, grant me wisdom to seek You and only You. Your blessings will be there as You choose—I know this full well, for such is Your character and Your devotion toward Your people. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 6:21
2 Matthew 6:19-20
3 Matthew 6:24
4 See the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.
5 Joel 3:5-6
6 Luke 15:17

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How To Handle Personal Praise

What parents in their right minds would let their college freshman spend Spring Break in New Orleans? (“Let’s talk about this!”) Yet our son Matthew and his friends were not going there to party, but to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina—more than six months after its devastating landfall. Matthew couldn’t begin to describe the damage, exacerbated by months of rotting and infestation of vermin, but the most revolting thing they encountered were the insides of refrigerators left untouched for over half a year, and with no power source to cool and preserve even the most imperishable of contents. Can we even begin to imagine? These common kitchen appliances are not meant to be the end point of the cycle from harvest to consumption, but a brief stop along the way. Like streams of water or electrical circuitry, they are means of movement.

In a way, we, too, are designed to be conduits—God fashioned us to be conduits of praise, not its endpoint. “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness,”1 celebrated the psalmist. He understood the temptation to accept from others glory that is not rightfully ours—to let personal praise stagnate in our soul instead of flowing through us to God, where it belongs. “The crucible for silver, and the furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise he receives,”2 wrote Solomon. He understood, as well, our tendency to let praise spoil into pride. For as Paul says, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”3

Then how do we resist the temptation to harbor praise that ultimately belongs to God who blesses us in the first place? How do we keep pride from rotting and spoiling inside? Paul, again: “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”4 We are called to good works,5 yes, but not for our own praise, rather as Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”6 We were created for God’s glory7; it is in Him that all praise rightfully resides. Then “let the one who boasts boast in the Lord”8 —may we humbly and gladly pass along to Him the glory He deserves.

Father, may I never accept glory that belongs to You, but forever be a conduit through whom praise flows to its rightful place—Your throne. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Psalm 115:1
2 Proverbs 27:21
3 1 Corinthians 4:7
4 1 Corinthians 10:31
5 Ephesians 2:10
6 Matthew 5:16
7 Isaiah 43:6-7
8 1 Corinthians 1:31