Full Circle Restoration

Acts 16 35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.

Down here in the South there are a lot of wrongs swept under the rug in the name of good old fashion southern grace. People just let things go by and leave wrongs unaddressed. There is a large void of speaking the truth in love, and I think our misunderstanding of Grace and restoration has a lot to do with that. We wrongly have believed that Grace just means we can keep on sinning and always have an out card. Grace from Christ is designed to save us from the penalty and power of sin in our lives. If our sins go unconfronted how can we be restored? Does not the Holy spirit convict us of sin, righteousness and judgement? Doesn't the Holy Spirit work through the mouths of the elect?

Look at what Paul does when the people that publicly beat and humiliated Him and Silas tried to just send them off without a face to face meeting so that restoration could occur. Doesn't Jesus teach us to turn the other cheek? Yes he does, for the sake of forgiveness. That does not mean acting like it never happened, but rather loving the person who wronged you enough to walk through the restoration process with them. If we think showing grace means allowing people who hurt others to walk through life unconfronted, it only ensures that they will continue to sin and hurt themselves, others and the Heart of their creator in the process. I wish we had the conversation that occurred between Paul and the magistrates on record, but I am sure there was a blend of stern Love and Warm grace that ministered to the hearts of the magistrates who condemned them while they where innocent. I would doubt that they thought twice about rashly condemning people who might be innocent and strike against the Heart of God found in Proverbs 17:15 " he who justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous both are an abomination to the Lord." So Paul does these guys a favor by confronting them and allowing both restoration and God like forgiveness and education to the will of God to occur.

Do you love people enough to truly forgive them and walk through the mess with them, or do you just sweep it under the rug and allow them to continue to walk in unconvicted sin? While ignoring the sin issue might seem on the surface an unselfish thing to do, it just might be one of the most selfish things we can do. Jesus and teh Apostles engaged people and their sin with teh Power and Hope of Christ's victory over it. They didn't walk around just acting like everything was fine while the world fell apart around it!