Gospel

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On July 22, 1991, two Milwaukee police officers noticed a handcuffed man running frantically through the streets. When the man approached the officers, he told them he had been assaulted and kidnapped by another man, but had managed to break free. He led police officers to an apartment complex, where they were to make one of the most gruesome and macabre discoveries in the history of American law enforcement. Inside the apartment, they found a human head and human organs in a refrigerator, severed human hands and penises, human torsos, seven human skulls, photographs of mutilated bodies, and a makeshift altar. This of course was the home of notorious serial murderer Jeffery Damher, the killer of 17 people, a name synonymous today with the very idea of depravity.

From 1976 to 1977, David Berkowitz, the notorious "Son of Sam" shot to death six people and wounded seven others. He held one of the largest cities in the world in fear and claimed that he was demon-possessed. He joined a satanic cult, and indulged in drug use, violent pornography, petty crime, and killing dogs before graduating to murder.

Besides their despicable penchant for murder and all things deranged, these two men have one other thing in common: they were both saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Dahmer, while incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, received some Christian materials from his father, and later declared himself a born-again Christian. Dahmer, a man whose crimes included murder, sodomy, necrophilia, cannibalism, rape, mutilation, sadomasochism, homosexual acts, drug addiction, and alcoholism, was born-again by the spirit of God. Roy Ratcliff, a Church of Christ pastor, baptized Dahmer at the prison. Dahmer was later killed by a fellow inmate in 1994 while on work detail in the prison's gymnasium, and regardless of how much anyone dislikes this idea, he is now in heaven.

In 1987, Berkowitz was handed a Gideon's Pocket Testament Bible by a fellow inmate while serving 6 life sentences in Attica. According to Berkowitz, his conversion came about after reading Psalm 34:6. Berkowitz has asked the state of New York several times to never grant him parole, claiming he has no desire to be released, and is fully dedicated to bringing other inmates to Jesus Christ.

These men represent the unforgivable. They are those whose deeds and crimes have surpassed any human willingness by communities to forgive, and are classified as society's trash--unredeemable and no more then hideous monsters without souls. If 90% of the population had their way, these men would have been executed long ago. The prison system is where you find those whom society has condemned and forgotten. They languish inside of cold grey walls and are seen as merely numbers instead of human beings.

Very often, one of the common barriers to salvation by Christ for many is the idea that whatever evil, whatever immorality they've committed during their life is so reprehensible, that God could never pardon it. Operating by societal standards of forgiveness, they resign themselves to an expectation of fearful judgement when they take their last breath. They cart around the guilt of their sins influenced by a culture that ignorantly proclaims that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Certainly, if you told them that Damher and Berkowitz both were forgiven their sins, they would scoff and jeer at such a suggestion. I even suspect some Christians couldn't accept such a proposition, but we have to bear in mind that God's standard of mercy is much more extended, and much more gracious then is ours.

The shed blood of Jesus Christ covers all sins in their various types and degrees. But just how can we really be sure that anyone as wicked as Dahmer was could possibly attain salvation by grace? For the answer, we need some biblical examples of some very nasty men who eventually turned to God and received that grace.

Nebuchadezzar is of course the powerful Babylonian ruler who plundered Jerusalem mercilessly and took Israel captive as described in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadezzar was impulsive, mean, and had an explosive temper. His men were petrified of him, and in Daniel chapter 2, he has a troubling dream and calls in all his mediums and witch doctors. He informs them that if they can't interpret this dream for him, then they shall be cut into pieces. And when they failed, he, in a rage, began butchering every wise man in Babylon. Nebuchadezzar was also a dedicated idolater--which was one of, if not the worst, sins against God. He constructed this monstrous gold statue, and decreed that every person in Babylon must bow down to this thing, or he'd burn them alive. Of course we know from Daniel 3 that three of Daniel's buddies refused to do so, and were thereby thrown into a furnace that Nebuchadezzar ordered to be seven times hotter than normal, indicating his sadistic tendencies. This of course didn't go so well, and eventually Nebuchadezzar's rule was ended by God, and he was made homeless and destitute, dwelling with wild animals. Verses 34-37 of Daniel 4 describe Nebuchadezzar's repentance and his new reverence for God, and he was awarded grace--forgiven forever.

As evil as Nebuchadezzar was before his repentance, he had nothing on an earlier king of Jerusalem named Manasseh. His father Hezekiah who had been a godly king before him, had constructed places of worship to God. When Mannasseh took power, he destroyed every one of them, and built altars to a pagan deity named Baal in their place. He even went so far as to build these altars inside the temple of God. Manasseh also sacrificed his own sons by fire--a terrible example of his penchant for child sacrifice. He was heavily into the occult, using witchcraft, mediums, and sorcerers. He enticed all of Jerusalem to abandon worship to God, and 2 Kings 21 says that the debauchery of Jerusalem under Mannaseh exceeded that of the surrounding pagan nations and those that came before. He also murdered people right and left, and although not recorded in scripture, Jewish tradition suggests that it was he who ordered the prophet Isaiah sawed in half. The bible says that he "shed much innocent blood" filling Jerusalem "from one end to another". He was a mass murderer, an occultist, an idolater; an infanticidal maniac who committed more evil than even any pagan who had come before him. But, as in the case of Nebuchadezzar, he was on borrowed time. His reign was numbered, and the Assyrians eventually captured Mannaseh. When he was taken prisoner, 2 Chronicles 33 states he was "taken with hooks". Ancient kings who were captured were often treated with sadistic cruelty, and one form of that was to impale a large metal ring through the jaw of the captive king, and lead him around by a chain attached to it. In his despair, Mannaseh, probably for the first time in his life, cried out to God for mercy, and the bible says God "received his entreaty", and brought him back to Jerusalem. Mannaseh in repentance, removed all altars to Baal, restored every holy place, and commanded Jeruselum to return to the faith of their fathers. This monster received grace--forgiven forever.

It is often forgotten that the man who wrote 14 of the New Testament epistles was once a enthusiastic killer. That of course was Paul the Apostle, formerly known as Saul. His mission in this life was to rid Jerusalem and it's surrounding cities of this rebellious sect known as Christianity. His most violent acts are recorded in Acts 8, 22, and 26 . Saul would enter Christian worship services and "compel them to blaspheme", enter homes and haul men and women off to prisons, and would chase the followers of Jesus far and wide, assaulting them, binding them, and killing them. Although the number of Christians killed by Paul is relatively unknown, it is assured that he put more of Christ's people to death than every infamous serial murderer we know of combined. And yet, this man would be knocked from his horse by the glory of Christ and transformed into the gentle, godly, self-sacrificing person we learn so much from whenever we read the New Testament. The crimes of Paul in his former life surpass anything any Christian of today can name in their previous unsaved life. Paul, a merciless man was awarded mercy.

The five men I've just described are among history's worst moral and spiritual offenders. Whatever you've done, whatever sins you have on your record, nowhere near equal the atrocities these people committed. Society has categories and degrees of forgiveness, while God does not: He forgives the unforgivable. The mercy of God is far beyond human understanding. He is the only one that exists that would ever award forgiveness to the men I've just discussed--that's why, as I always say, God is nothing like us. His holiness demands that He give grace to creatures undeserving of it. The reality is that despite the horrific carnality and ruthlessness of the men aforementioned, we ourselves no more deserve the mercy shown to us then they did. Christ died for the whole world(1 John 2:2)--that means everybody. He takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), not just the sins of what we consider to be "good people". And He died for all sin in its various manifestations. If Christ did not die for all sin, then He couldn't have died for the whole world, which we know is false.

People who remain fearful that God could never forgive them need to ask themselves if they've ever out-sinned Mannaseh, or Dahmer, or the others. If they haven't, then they can be 100% assured that God's love will blanket them with mercy and forgiveness if they so choose to receive it.

The bible demonstrates even more profoundly, besides the examples of Mannaseh and company, the incredible mercy of Jesus Christ. Here is Jesus--a sinless man, an innocent man, a man who had wronged no one, did no evil, and meant no one an ounce of harm--nailed to a tree after being beaten, spit upon, scourged unrelentlessly, thorns twisted into His skull, and ridiculed like no other; and what does He ask God His father to do? He says "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do". That God could forgive the killers of His own divine begotten son is nothing short of astonishing. We have men and women languishing in prisons all over the globe--discarded and forgotten; regarded as trash and filth by us; whom we would never offer up even a passing thought of forgiveness to, and you can be absolutely certain that God will forgive every one of them no matter what their crimes may be, if they repent and turn to Christ. The fleshly human intellect cannot fathom such mercy, that kind of grace is only found in Jesus Christ. The thief on the cross never even asked Christ for forgiveness, and yet because he gave glory to Him and rightly recognized him as an innocent man and the son of God, he was pardoned.

Imperfect, sinful human beings demand so much in return for their own forgiveness, yet the perfect, holy sovereign creator of the universe asks almost nothing except humility.

How many people cheered when they learned of Dahmer's death? Human beings display much the same ruthlessness in in their vengeance as the offenders do in their crimes. We exceed the need for justice and often entertain ungodly barbarism in wanting the worst criminals to be punished. Is that in God's character? Think back for a moment to the capture of Mannaseh. Here is a man guilty of some of history's most terrible deeds against heaven and humanity. Knowing what happened to captured kings in the ancient world, we can reasonably speculate as to the torment Mannaseh was enduring. In agony and desperation, he cries out to God for mercy. If we lived in that time, we'd be encouraging with great cheer the brutality inflicted upon Mannaseh--our blood lust quenched and our vengeance satisfied. What does God do? He hears Mannaseh's pleas and grants him mercy and grace, rescuing him and even returning him to the throne in Jerusalem. God forgave that man the second He heard him cry, which is an example of God's love for human beings that is only matched by His willingness to forgive humanity for the death of Christ.

Know this: God will never turn away a person who calls on Him for mercy no matter what sins they've committed. There is nothing that is unforgivable to God--I don't care what it is or how much. Limitless is God's arm of forgiveness, and the only condition for attaining it is to repent and place your life in the hands of His son, Jesus Christ. A person can be sure, that even if they must pay a debt to society, Jesus will settle your debts with God. God is forgiveness.

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