A Wretch No More

I am very honored to share the following post written by my wife of 19 years. Enjoy and be encouraged. – Rocky

If we are honest we have all done things in our past we wish we had not done. We bear the scars of past mistakes and often are reminded of them in the knowing glances of people we used to know that we see in Wal-Mart or at the reunion.

One of the most famous songs of Christianity – an anthem if you will – is “Amazing Grace.” Even those not proclaiming Christianity can likely sing along with the opening lines of, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!” We feel so in awe that Jesus loved and died for someone so broken, wretched, and unlovable as we are. And yet, there we stand in that one moment – wholly exposed and yet wholly loved. At that moment, a transformation takes place. you give up your birthright of sin, shame, and condemnation and take on the birthright of Jesus.

But we don’t truly understand the gift we have been given. It’s not just eternal life at death, but a new life now – from pauper to prince within a moment. As is often the case, we do not know what to do with the gift and we leave it in a box, unopened and unused . . . too holy to touch. So we go on through our lives continually thanking God for loving a wretch that we are. We can’t accept the fact that we are, in fact, wretches no more!

One of the greatest parts of Christianity is to realize that not only are we forgiven, we are not who we were: Abram has become Abraham, Sarai has become Sarah, Jacob has become Israel. No longer do we need to have one foot in grace and one foot in condemnation.

We need to step away from the wretch, take off forever those dirty garments, and instead put on the garments of royalty – a house that we are gratefully adopted into.

We are a wretch no more.

Shannon