Pastor Jeremy

It is said that one of the old czars of Russia had a trusted general who was dying of his wounds. When the soldier was on his deathbed, the czar promised to raise the solder’s young son and provide for him. After his death, the czar made good on his word. He gave the young o the best of places to live and he best education. He was given a commission and entered the army. However, the young man had an addiction to gambling. Because he couldn’t cover his gambling debts, he began to embezzle from his regiment’s funds. One night he was sitting in the tent looking at the books and he realized that his embezzlement was about to be discovered. he could hide it no longer from the accountants. He sat drinking heavily as he prepared to kill himself. He had the revolver by his side and he took a few more drinks to strengthen his resolve for the suicide. But the drink was too potent and he passed out on the table.

That night the czar was doing what he often did. Disguised as a simple soldier, he was walking through the camp and the ranks, trying to assess the morale of his army, hearing what he could hear. he walked into his foster son’s tent and saw him slumped over the book. He read the book and realized what he had done and what he was about to do.

When the young man awoke hours later, to his surprise the revolver was gone. Then he saw a letter by his hand. To his shock, it was a promissory note, saying, ‘I, the czar, will pay the full amount from my own personal funds to make up the difference found not his book.’ And it was sealed with the czar’s personal seal. The czar had see the young man’s sin clearly, the full dimensions of what he had done. But he had covered and paid for the sin personally.

Here is why you can say to your spouse who has wronged you, ‘I see your sin, but I can cover it with forgiveness, because Jesus saw my sin and covered it.’ It is because the Lord of the universe came into the world in disguise, in the person of Jesus Christ, and he looked into our hearts and saw the worst. And it wasn’t an abstract exercise for Jesus - our sins put him to death. When Jesus was up there, nailed to the cross, he looked down and saw us, some denying him, some betraying him, and all forsaking him. he saw our sin and covered it.

I do not know of any more powerful resource for granting forgiveness than that, and I don’t know of anything more necessary in marriage than the ability to forgive fully, freely, punishingly, from the heart. A deep experience of the grace of God - a knowledge that you are a sinner saved by grace - will enable the power of truth and love to work together in your marriage.

And by wielding this power in the knowledge of his grace, you are helping your spouse become something glorious.