Response to ‘SMB’

(I received an email from someone overseas and I’m just not 100% sure that it would be wise for me to write her directly. So I’m going to post my response here with the hopes that if she visits again, she will read it and be encouraged to put her faith fully in the finished work of Christ.)

Dear S,

Thank you so very much for writing and sharing some of your life story with me. It seems to me, based on what you wrote, that English is not your first language and I must start out by saying, ‘Wow!’ Your English (as a non-native speaker) is phenomenal and I truly appreciate how you persevered in writing such a long email when it must have been quite a challenge. (I wish I could communicate in a second language that well.)

I must also say how very, very sorry I am for the suffering that you have endured in your life, S. This world is truly, ‘Not The Way It Was Supposed To Be’ and the effects of the Fall are always with us. I am truly sorry that so much evil was done to you as a child—and I do pray that God will give you great grace to run to Him, grieve with Him, and trust that ONE DAY, every wrong will be righted because of the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ.

One day there will be no more suffering. No more abuse. No more tears. Every injustice will be righted! And the damned will suffer in Hell while those who are in Christ will be pardoned because their just punishment will have been put on Jesus on the Cross.

This is our Hope.

You know, S, all of history is on a timeline … Creation, Fall, Redemption.
God is making things right—ultimately—one day.
But until Christ returns or we die, we suffer. We often suffer.

But we grieve with hope!
Because suffering is not the last word.

Christ WILL return and we WILL be with Him if we are born again by the Holy Spirit.

I pray for you, S. I pray that you will believe the gospel! (Excerpts from Pastor John Piper’s explanation of the gospel):

Romans 1-7 teaches that the most fundamental problem in the universe is that God’s human creatures – all of us – have sinned and fallen short of his glory and are now condemned under the omnipotent wrath of God. There is the problem of our condition called sin. And there is the problem of its consequence called wrath. Another way to say it is that there is real guilt on every person because of sin, and there is real condemnation over every person because the Judge and Maker of the universe is just and holy.

Paul’s conclusion after two chapters of as acting the prosecuting attorney is Romans 3:9, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.'” Romans 3:22-23, “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And there’s a good definition of what our sin is and why it has mainly to do with God, not man.

When he describes the sins of his own people in Romans 2:24, the climax of the indictment is this: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” What makes sin sin is not first that it hurts people, but that it blasphemes God. This is the ultimate evil and the ultimate outrage in the universe.
 The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom. 11:36) – who holds every person’s life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe.

The message of Romans 3-7 is that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ into the world to live and die and rise again to be the ground of our justification and the power of our sanctification. If anyone anywhere in the world is going to get right with God or bear fruit for God, it will be through Jesus Christ alone. And he alone will get the glory. He is the great ground of our justification, and the great power of our sanctification.

No condemnation, because of Christ. And deep transformation because of Christ. One is called justification. One is called sanctification. We take our stand daily by faith on the once-for-all, unshakable rock of our Justification in Christ. And then we give ourselves daily by faith to the sanctifying work of Jesus in our lives. Oh, come and trust him.

Unbeliever, come to him and put your faith in him, and receive him as your righteousness, your pardon, your treasure. Believer, come to him, again and again and again and take him as your treasure, the rock of your righteousness before God, and the power of your love toward men.’

Dear S, you can be forgiven! Right with God—FOREVER.

Adopted by The One True God, the Perfect Heavenly Father.
His grace can fill such that you will be able to forgive even the most heinous sin—not because the other person deserves it but because you have been forgiven so much.

Oh, S! I pray that you will run to Christ and trust that there is no power greater than God.
Nothing can thwart His purposes!
And it is our call in life to worship Him. Forever.

Thank you again for granting me the privilege of praying for you!

I wish you all the best—

Prayerfully,
Tara B.