Not Damaged Goods
One of the negative effects of being at home all the time looking at four walls is giving voice in our heads to failures of our past, regrets. It is often something a long time ago, but we have kept it with us. It makes us wonder if somehow we are not permanently damaged goods. Most people don’t know about what it was that happened, and likely never will. But WE know, and we carry the shame that says, if anyone knew about this they just wouldn’t like me.
When we go through a store and we see something that has a tag on it that says, “as is”, the assumption is there is something wrong with it, it is damaged goods. Likely it is just fine, but it is not pristine, out of the box, or perhaps someone returned it because they wanted something else. We don’t consider that if they returned it because it was broken, then it would not be out on the shelf and available. Often those willing to take a chance get something really nice for a bargain price.
All of us come to the world “as is”. Everything that is there is pretty good, not perfect but it works well, and really has a lot to offer. We might not see that in ourselves, but others do. But there is still the “as is” that comes to us in quiet thinking moments and makes us wonder if we are really not damaged goods. The good news is, if we have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, there is no damage to our goods that we cannot put behind us!
Let me illustrate with a story from the Old Testament.
If we would play “word association” and throw out the name “David”, the optimist would say “Goliath”, the pessimist would say “Bathsheba”. This is a man who did a lot of good in his life, wrote most of the Book of Psalms, received the promise that the Messiah, Jesus would sit on David’s throne in His kingdom someday. But square in the middle of his greatest period of success, he committed adultery with a friend’s wife, and orchestrated his murder to cover it. (The story is in 2 Samuel 11). This was as bad as it gets, and it was multiplied by trashing his spiritual leadership and betraying a lot of trust. So he’s done, damaged goods, no earthly good forever, right? There are a lot of people who think that, but they did not read the rest of the story.
God Forgave David
Sure there were consequences in his life and his family, there would have to be, and no doubt the face of Uriah his friend was always with him. But when he was confronted by Nathan the prophet, immediately he confessed his sin and repented. “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’. And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die’” (2 Samuel 12:13,14).
Note the words, from God, through Nathan. “The Lord has taken away your sin”. He forgave David. He took away his sin. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). You are forgiven, you are clean, and you are NOT damaged goods forever. God is not declaring that this thing is for you to beat yourself up with forever, so that ten years from now you sit and wonder if He forgave all your sins but that one.
Life After Failure
Consider this. David had a lot of life after his failure. He did a lot of good things, and he wrote a fair portion of the Psalms we read after Bathsheba. Not only that, Solomon her son was his heir, and in the line of Jesus Christ. After his death, this is how he was remembered as other kings were compared with him. Of Abijam, “He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David” (1 Kings 15:3). Not even an asterisk or “as is” tag to go with it.
When God says He has taken our sins away, He really means it. Are we willing to receive the forgiveness that God has to offer? We are not damaged goods forever. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). All those things about being forgiven in the Bible? God really means those!
Chasing Sunsets – Pastor Clay’s Devotions
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