I am a Ragamuffin

I am a Ragamuffin, I know that full well. Yet, I am learning the blessedness of acknowledging my sin and living as a confessed, freed sinner. Would that I had learned this truth...I mean really learned this truth...several years ago when first I read Brennan Manning's book The Ragamuffin Gospel. But, truth has a way of trickling out of rebellious ears, especially young ears full of New-Christian enthusiasm.

So here I am, seven years later, countless sins later, and perhaps now I have but a taste of what it means to live in the glorious freedom of Christ. I revel in this truth: I don't have to hide my sins; the Light has already found them out, having scoured my soul with its painful sweetness, and having driven them far from my house of flesh. Oh, that I could be as clean on the inside as those whitewashed tombs were on the outside. Yes, I know that in God's eyes, I am clean; I will be dressed in white on that appointed day, but that doesn't stop me from yearning all the more for soul-deep purity.

These feelings, too, are welcomed by a Ragamuffin. Spurgeon writes in Morning and Evening (Oct. 1),

"Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances which He has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of His blood."

There is purpose for sin in a Christian's life, for grace does abound all the more. May we never use this as an excuse, but let us also never forget to be thankful for the forgiveness and superabounding mercy of our Savior.

"Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." Luke 7:47