Before reading this blog, please listen to this sermon by Paris Reidhead.
Yes, it is long, and the beginning may not seem that exciting, but stick it out.
This is one of those paradigm shifting words from God that you cannot be unchanged by unless you consciously choose not to.
Wow.
Brenda Lewis played this sermon for our school, and it absolutely rocked our world. Our world had consisted of justice for the trafficked person, punishment and shame towards traffickers, and God's love towards us being our Christian focus. Now does this really sound that terrible?
But who of us really desires the justice that we can serve on our own accord? Justice by the power of man would require punishment of any and all sin, death and permanent separation from God. Our idea of justice was warped. Saving the victims and taking out 'God's wrath' on the victimizers. But tell me what victim has achieved perfection, what victim deserves to be saved. Tell me also, what human who holds captive another human, takes away their rights, and forces them to do the unspeakable is LESS human than their victim. If JUSTICE... were to be served by the power of man alone, who would escape the gavel falling on their guilt?
Now who of us desires our own justice?
The only justice that we should be fighting for is justice towards God Himself! Human trafficking is unjust towards God, because the very people He purchased are not being turned over to Him, and are being stolen from Him.
NONE OF US deserves God. By our own power we can be only monsters of iniquity. God did not send His Son to purchase us ALL, just for you or me to choose who "deserve" Him. Who of us deserve Him? None of us deserve God, but He deserves us all.
I am not speaking of a message of a condemnation, but one of redemption. But, if you and I cannot see our sin, recognize our own guilt, how then can we recognize the beautiful, powerful, heart wrenching, chain breaking mercy of our God? We are free! We are righteous! We are holy.
How can I now say we are holy, when only moments ago I pointed out the fact that we are monsters of iniquity? Because God Himself bought us from iniquity! The only righteous purchase of a human is the purchase by the blood of our Saviour. A man buys a girl for an hour and she is a prostitute. A woman sells a child and he is a slave. A resistance steals a child and murders his family, brainwashes him, hands him a gun, and he is a child soldier. Adam and Eve sold humanity into sin, and we are monsters of iniquity. God bought us, and we are holy. What purchase will you and I choose to come under?
The only true justice is God's justice. Justice that declares us purchased by the blood of Christ, holy, and worthy of God. Worthy. Not of our own righteousness, but His blood. We owed Satan our graves the moment we sold ourselves to sin, but our God TRADED Himself for us. Took our place in the grave, took back the keys to Sheol, and conquered death itself.
Now who of us has the RIGHT to say who deserves mercy and who deserves death?
It may sound like I want no person to have to pay for their wrongdoings, for slave traders and rapists to get off scotch-free. Absolutely not. For every action there is a consequence, and our earthly laws need to reflect that. God's purchase applies to EVERYONE who wants to be called His. Here I speak of salvation, second chances, and the respect we must show to one another as masterpieces whom God deems as valuable as His Son (again, by His doing only, not our achievements or abstinence from sin). To label another human being as irredeemable is total trash. To not reach out to them, to not AT LEAST always make known to them their choice to come under the purchase of God's redeeming love, that is condemnation of which we have no authority to hold over another man.
Yes, I believe a pimp should be harshly sentenced by the law and separated from the very people they are taking advantage of for a very long time. The potential buyer of another human being should be so conscious of the fact that if they are caught, the consequences would not be worth the purchase of temporary pleasure. The chances of being caught should ideally be very, very high. But what of God's love can we show to these? How can we show them that they CAN die to their greed and come under the purchase of Christ's sacrifice? And most of all, how can these bring glory to God?
How AMAZING it would be to have a redeemed trafficker in our family! How powerful their testimony for the glory of God, how useful their experiences would be in order to bring more prodigal sons back into the Father's arms? Where there is much to forgive, there not only mercy abounds, but grace overflows.
I am also by no means downplaying the horrendous suffering endured by those who have been trafficked. Should you forgive the one who made you work with no compensation, or the one who raped you daily and convinced you they did not? Should you forgive the one who sold you to 50 or more men a day and made you believe that was your only source of value, or forced you to mow down your own family and told you it was the right thing to do? I tell you that it is nearly impossible without the grace of God in your own life. But I must also ask, is your life your own? Anyone who has done these to you has done them to God Himself because you are not your own. And He has already paid for their sin.
I ask us as fellow humans who have been redeemed, to get rid of our hatred once and for all. We do not have the right to withhold from any other person God's gift of salvation, nor do we have the right to withhold from God the very people that He deserves!
Do our hearts break when we see that the Lamb who was slain does not receive the reward of His suffering? Or do we say that it is just that He does not?
