Mike Browning

Tag: Grace

  • God Forgives People You Don’t Want Him To

    God Forgives People You Don’t Want Him To

    Lucky for you.

    There’s a part of the gospel we don’t say out loud very often.

    Not because it’s unclear — it’s actually very clear — but because it makes us squirm a little.

    Here it is:

    God has (and will) forgive people you don’t want Him to.

    People you think deserve what’s coming to them.

    People you can’t stand.

    People who’ve made choices you would never make.

    People whose sins look worse to you than your own.

    We talk a lot about grace, but if we’re honest, what we really like is selective grace.

    Grace for people who sin in familiar ways. Grace for people who apologize the right way. Grace for people who fit our idea of “fixable.”

    But God doesn’t use our categories.

    He doesn’t sort humanity into “acceptable sinners” and “unacceptable sinners.”

    He doesn’t forgive based on how easy someone is to sympathize with. He doesn’t take polls or run background checks.

    If someone turns to Him, He forgives — cleanly, completely, without hesitation.

    Even tho they don’t immediately clean up 100% (like you).

    And sometimes, if we’re being honest, that irritates us.

    Because deep down, we think grace should be proportional. The bigger the sin, the bigger the penalty.

    The more damage someone caused, the longer they should sit in the penalty box before God lets them up.

    But that’s not how grace works.

    Grace isn’t earned. Grace isn’t calibrated. Grace isn’t a reward for good behavior.

    Grace is a gift — and it’s a gift God hands out more freely than we would.

    If that bothers us, there’s a reason:

    We’ve forgotten what we were forgiven of. Or we’ve minimized it. Or we’ve convinced ourselves that our sins were more understandable, more reasonable, more “human.”

    They weren’t.

    They just feel smaller because they’re ours.

    The truth is simple:

    The same grace that covers you will cover people you don’t like.

    And the same cross that saved you will save people you wouldn’t choose.

    That’s not a flaw in the gospel. That’s the whole point.

    And if God is that generous with them…
    He’s that generous with you, too.

    Lucky for all of us.

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  • Jesus Died For the Person You Don’t Like, Too

    Jesus Died For the Person You Don’t Like, Too

    Grace covers sin — it doesn’t excuse it (lucky for you).

    Christians say “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but we don’t really mean it.

    What we usually mean is something closer to:

    “All fall short… but some fall way, way shorter than me.”

    It’s amazing how consistent we are about this.

    If I don’t struggle with some particular sin, then that sin magically becomes the “big one.”

    The one that ruins people. The one that’s absolutely unacceptable.

    But the stuff I struggle with?

    Well, that’s different, you see.

    That’s “human weakness,” or “a tough season,” or “something I’m working on.”

    We treat sin like a menu:

    • The sins I’m not tempted by → “terrible, awful, society-destroying”
    • The sins I fall into → “relatable, understandable, complicated”

    It’s convenient. It’s comfortable. It keeps us feeling righteous without actually being righteous.

    The Bible doesn’t draw those lines.

    Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees, “You’re doing great — at least your sins don’t look like theirs.”

    Paul didn’t write, “Here are the respectable sins that don’t really count.”

    Sin is not measured by how socially acceptable it is or how well it lines up with our own strengths.

    Sin is measured by the holiness of God — which means every one of us is on the wrong side of the line.

    The gospel levels the field.

    We don’t get saved by avoiding the sins that never tempted us.

    We don’t get points for being naturally moral in areas where someone else is naturally weak.

    We need grace for all of it — including the sins we pretend are small and including the judgment we pass on sins we simply don’t prefer.

    After you were saved, you didn’t magically stop sinning but you don’t lose your salvation.

    It works that way for people who struggle with things that you see as way worse than your minor sins too.

    Humility starts with remembering this:

    All sins fall short of the glory of God.

    And grace is the only reason any of us stand at all.

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