The Bible’s filled with examples of people who have made mistakes, big and small — but those mistakes aren’t what ultimately defined them. God loves using imperfect people perfectly, so He can restore them, transform their lives, and use them to change the world. When we choose to follow Jesus, we also need to choose to leave our past behind us and fight forward towards spiritual victory.

We’ve all heard stories about the legal representative handing someone a sealed envelope and saying, “You’ve been served”.  Well, this world, (and our sinful nature we’re born with) is deadset on serving us with everything EXCEPT God’s goodness! However, even with our sinful-nature guilt, God has “served” us with His eternal stamp of approval through Jesus. All we have to do, is receive being “served” by Him and accept His free offer.

When Jesus asked her, “Has anyone condemned you?”, she answered, “No one.” So He replied – as the rocks dropped from the mob’s hands – “Then neither do I. Now go and sin no more.” It’s an amazing thing (and the reason for God’s Gift) to “turn over that new leaf” and experience His forgiveness!

Scripture assures us that no amount of effort on our part can cause God to love us any more or any less. He offers us complete remission from the debt our sin has caused, free of charge. But in order for His gift of forgiveness to be of any use to us, we first have to accept it — and when we do, we find ourselves better able to forgive others, in turn.

No matter what each of us has done, God’s chosen to forgive us and pardon us through the death of His Son. And when we realize how greatly we’ve sinned, we’re able to realize how much greater God’s forgiveness is towards us. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, we have the opportunity to accept the pardon that He’s offered to us.