The Good News about Being Cancelled

The word "cancel" is written all over our culture right now.   People quiver in fear of being found out for that one false move, misinterpreted or inappropriate action, hidden crime, and being shut down forever.  Game over.  You are condemned for what you have done, even as a teenager, not just for what is imperfect, but anything deemed unpopular, creating a death sentence for one's achievements or profession for the rest of one's life.  We live in an unforgivable culture.  It doesn't matter if you are sorry.  You cannot change.  You are cancelled. 

But God's idea of cancelling is the total opposite.  God is not surprised by what we have done.  He knows it all, and He knows us.  And that is why He sent Jesus.  

We are not cancelled.  Our sin is cancelled, and cast into the deepest sea. (Micah 7. 19)  We are not stuck.  We can change. God redeems our past and transforms us in the now.

The Hebrew word for cancel means to forgive, to pardon, to show oneself gracious, kind and benevolent.  Because we are all imperfect, and because of Jesus, our sin does not define us.  God invented forgiveness not to condemn us of our sin, but to release and liberate us.  We are changed, not because we deserve it, but because Jesus cancelled our debt of wrongdoing.  (And if the word "sin" is confusing to you, substitute the word selfishness.) 

I read in the news this week, a person citing-- even boasting -- a cancellation:  "I'm about to end this man's whole career."

But God says, "I come to give you life."  Not because we earned it.  But because He loves us.

Cancellation is the scarlet thread seamlessly woven throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the story of God's redeeming, turning the world right side up.

Luke 7. 42  When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both.

Romans 8. 1  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

John 3. 17  For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Romans 3. 23  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

Isaiah 53. 6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;  and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  

Cancellation is what Good Friday is all about.  It is why Jesus came.  And Easter is the proof. 

His mercy is more.