Thursday, March 22, 2018

A Profile in Amazing Grace


The Apostle Paul once referred to himself as “the chief of sinners.” I trust that he meant it. After all, the closer any man draws to God, the more undone he is by his own sin legacy. Paul could not fathom of anyone with acts more grievous or stains darker than his own. Any sin is sufficient to estrange any person from God. Yet, what truly devastates any of us is a glimpse of God’s holiness, which shines the light of truth upon all of our sins, revealing them to be the horrors that they truly are.

However, if we can step back and look at things from an historical perspective, reflecting on the damage that one man’s actions have done to the world around him, Paul is hardly the first man we think of when we consider the most evil men who ever lived. Paul’s claim to the title “chief of sinners” is challenged. It was a real claim to him, but it takes on an aura of rhetorical flourish for most of us. If we simply limit the competition for chief of sinners to Bible characters, I am not persuaded that Paul would even qualify for the tournament, much less make the Sweet 16 or the Final Four.

In the annals of the Old Testament, there may be no more notorious sinner than Manasseh. He was as evil as any king who ever led Judah. What is somewhat perplexing is that he was the son of Hezekiah. Manasseh’s father was not a perfect king, but he did walk as closely with God as any king since David, and no king in Judah more righteous than Hezekiah ever followed him.

5He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.  – 2 Kings 18:5-7

Nevertheless, great advantages and a sound fatherly example did not prove sufficient to restrain Manasseh from the vilest sins conceivable for any king over God’s people. Everything that his father had built in terms of restoring the worship of JEHOVAH in Judea, Manasseh dragged down. Hezekiah fought against idolatry. Manasseh reintroduced it with brazen abandon. He even erected idols IN the temple of God.

Still, undoing his father’s reforms barely scratches the surface of the despicable things Manasseh did. He worshipped the heavenly bodies. He practiced divination, sorcery, witchcraft, and he consulted mediums. HE OFFERED HIS OWN SONS AS SACRIFICES TO PAGAN DEITIES!  Under Manasseh, Judah fell into such a deep spiritual morass, that God’s judgment against the nation could not be reversed. In fact, the inspired historian specifically referenced the sins of Manasseh in later days as the cause behind the fall of Judah.

3Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.  – 2 Kings 24:3, 4

Not even Paul could list anything quite like that on his resume when applying for the moniker, “chief of sinners.”

But, there is a “page 2” of the story as Paul Harvey might have put it, not so historically significant, but even more captivating. An earlier siege sponsored by the Babylonians actually occurred during Manasseh’s reign. The military commanders of the king of Assyria attacked Jerusalem and took Manasseh captive. As their prisoner was Judah’s king, the Assyrians felt compelled to do all they could to humiliate him. They carried Manasseh away to Babylon, bound in bronze shackles and with a hook in his nose. However …

… when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.  – 2 Chronicles 33:12, 13

Down is not the worst place to be, especially, if by the grace of God it causes a man to see the helplessness of his own estate and to cry out to God. That is precisely what Manasseh did.

It would be difficult for even the most tender of Christians to look upon Manasseh’s repentance without some degree of skepticism. I distinctly remember when serial-killer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer professed to have turned to Christ. There were people in my church who scoffed; they did not buy it for one minute. One of my favorite people ever was a tenderhearted prison minister. She went through seasons when even people close to her thought she might be a little gullible when she rejoiced over some inmate turning to God. I do not mean to come across as gullible by mentioning such anecdotes. I lack the insight to monitor the authenticity of another person’s repentance.

This I do know: God’s grace is more than adequate to remove all such stains. The great Reader of human hearts sees that which we cannot, and God was moved with compassion in response to Manasseh’s pleas. Not surprisingly, God will always be right even when the skeptic is wrong. The repentance of Manasseh was genuine. Once the king was restored to his home in Jerusalem, he did what he could to reverse the harm he had done. The damage was too great, and the future of the nation was sealed, but Manasseh was a changed man.

Have you ever wondered if there is such a thing as going “one sin too far”? Take comfort in knowing that Jesus came to save sinners and simply put, God’s grace is greater than the deepest sin of even “the chief of sinners,” that is, whoever really owns the title.