You Are Wrong, And You're Forgiven
People believe that other people can be wrong. This is a nearly universal belief. Even those who say they believe that nobody can be wrong will struggle to find a category for you if you disagree with that belief. People believe that other people can be wrong. If you need confirmation, open a social media app and begin scrolling. Turn on a 24 hour news channel. Drive in rush hour traffic or watch a presidential debate. If you still don’t see it, ask your spouse or roommate, a sibling or a friend. People believe that other people can be wrong.
People do not believe that other people can be forgiven. Other people can be mocked, ridiculed, shamed, hash-tagged, doxxed, fired, canceled, exiled, assaulted and even killed for being wrong. Other people cannot be forgiven for being wrong. That’s what terrifies people. If other people can be wrong and if all those things can happen to other people when they’re wrong, then it is best not to be wrong. Define wrong however needed. Change the definition, if necessary. Find like-minded people and build the ideological walls high because if other people cannot be forgiven when other people are wrong, then you better never be wrong because you cannot be forgiven. It was never about other people.
Friends, hear the truth. You needn’t exhaust yourself trying to run from being wrong. God alone defines right and wrong and his word tells us that all of us - all of us and all of the other people in the world - have been wrong before him and have fallen short of his glory. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have [not been wrong before God], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
His word also tells us that you can be forgiven. Other people, too, but look at me - you can be forgiven. I can be forgiven. The next verse says, “If we confess [our wrongs before God], he is faithful and just to forgive us our [wrongs before him] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You can be forgiven! And not kind of forgiven or forgiven with an asterisk. You can be cleansed from all unrighteousness because God loved the world in such a way that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.
Father, we confess that we easily fall in with the world. We mine for the wrong in others and deny our own wrong before you. We pile on and we join the mob. We condemn in judgement with measures we would not want used to measure us. We do not forgive others because we do not believe you when you tell us we can be forgiven. We multiply our sins. Please forgive us. Forgive us for our gracelessness even as we stand in the shadow of the cross. You have heard our corporate confession, God, and now we ask that you hear our private confessions in this moment of silence.
Father, thank you for sending your Son, Jesus. His guiltless sacrifice and victorious resurrection secure our pardon. We are set free from the bondage of wrongdoing - fully and without condition for if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. Help us, Lord, to live as free people in this world - a people freely forgiven and free to forgive other people. We cannot do this in our own strength and so we ask for the help of your Holy Spirit. We as this in Jesus’ name. Amen.