Divine forgiveness (1)

02.05.2021

Sunday 2 May 2021

“We have different gifts depending on the grace granted to us.” Romans 12.6

Is there a limit to God's power of forgiveness ? On September 2, 2020, died in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a former torturer of the Khmer Rouge regime, responsible for the torture and execution of more than 15,000 prisoners in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. His name was Kang Kek lew, better known by the code name of "Comrade Douch". After the fall of the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s, Kang disappeared into the Thai jungle, learned the country's language as well as English, and became a professor of mathematics, a subject he had studied during his university years. Returning to his country under a false name, he met an American-Cambodian evangelical pastor and began to attend prayer meetings assiduously. He was baptized by this pastor, without ever revealing his true identity. This pastor, interviewed later, said that he was more than once surprised by Kang Kek lew's thoughts, such as : “I don't know if my brothers and sisters will ever be able to forgive me for the crimes I have committed. against the Cambodian people”. He worked for a while for World Vision International, the Christian relief agency in poor countries. He surrendered to his country's authorities in 1999 and was tried in 2009. He did not try to apologize for his actions but took responsibility for them. Led to the scene of the prison where he had ordered the slaughter of so many people, he collapsed on the floor in tears, begging forgiveness from his compatriots. Many of them were skeptical of his conversion, imagining that he was taking refuge in religion to escape the consequences of his actions. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. God alone knows how to read the hearts of men. He knows if his conversion was sincere. The question is : Can God forgive Kang Kek lew ? Our natural instinct measures the crimes and sins of men on an ascending gauge. One has committed venial sins, another has committed appalling murders. The first “deserves” divine forgiveness, the other does not. Is this how God judges ? Are we not all equally guilty of sins and crimes in the sight of God ? Is it not out of sheer grace that we receive the salvation that none of us deserve ? Something to think about !

Source (His Word for Today)