This post title might be a bit misleading. Understand, I don’t get excited when people get hurt. I don’t get excited seeing people being taken advantage of. I don’t get giddy about sin and its public revelation.
But anytime I see a church scandal, I realize there’s something deeper going on. What the media sees as moral or ethical failure, I see as a reflection of God’s grace.
Even though there’s pain. Even though there are tears. I believe at the end of it all, we’ll be able to look back at all these church scandals and see the amazing grace of God at work. The cool reveal at the end of it all will have nothing to do with those of us who ran the race well. It’s not that some of us were able to escape scandal. It’s not that some of us were able to stay pure. It’s not that some of us were able to forgive.
I believe the true revelation of God’s amazing grace will be that He was able to use any of us at all.
You see; none of us are above this sort of scandal. None of us are above taking advantage of people or being completely selfish. None of us are above saying things that hurt and damage others.
If any of us were above that, it would be no miracle that God could use us. Instead, though, we should more accurately see ourselves as who we are. We’re unfaithful. We’re unreliable. We’re selfish.
We’re a picture of the prostitute bride that God told the Old Testament prophet Hosea to marry. We get love, privileges, and acceptance despite our filthy selves.
Church scandals are always messy. They’re always hurtful. But what if we began to see them—through the muck and the mess—as amazing pictures of the grace of God. There’s grace for those hurt by the scandal, for those involved in the scandal, and for those of us who finally see God can use anyone—even you and even me.
