At church this morning, the Pastor’s sermon was entitled “Throw Away
the Chalk!” The Pastor told a story that was similar to one here.
In the Pastor’s story, a lady saw a vision of a man who had lived a
dissolute life when he was alive. (This man was now dead.) The man was
required to put a chalk mark on stairs leading up to heaven for each
sin that he did. The man then saw his pastor coming down the stairs to
get more chalk, for the pastor had to record more of his own sins!
My Pastor’s point this morning was that, on account of Jesus Christ,
we can throw away the chalk. I’m not entirely sure what this means.
Should we ignore our own sins? There are people who believe
that Jesus Christ has put us in a situation in which we are saved by
grace, and so we do not need to stress out about our sins. The people
I’m thinking about here are not pro-sin or antinomian, mind you, but
they believe that we can grow when we are free to make mistakes, without
being afraid that God will condemn us for those mistakes. Grace, in short, is an opportunity to grow.
Is there a place for us to enumerate our sins or character defects? Perhaps
doing so is destructive if it leads us to guilt and
self-condemnation—-or at least the guilt and self-condemnation that do
not lead to anywhere positive. If guilt leads us to embrace God’s love
and forgiveness or to become better people, then it may be a good
thing.