“The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever.” Psalm 103:6, 9
Psalm 103 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible because it expresses the very core of our Christian belief: our God does not hold our sins against us, but through his own suffering he has forgiven, redeemed, and restored us to a loving relationship with Himself. Every week we—the body of Christ—sing, teach, read and pray about this glorious truth, but do we stop to think about if and how we might display this truth to the rest of the world?
About a year ago, a friend of mine placed his faith in the truth that God took on human flesh, lived a perfectly obedient life, and died in his place so that he could be given new life. At that very moment his life changed forever. Not only were his sins forgiven, but his shame was lifted, he found purpose for his life, and he gained hope for his future. While this happened internally, his external choices and actions began to look quite different.
He went from selling drugs on the street, to sharing his faith with his drug-dealing friends. He began to study God’s Word with great hunger, memorizing portions of Scripture,and confessing his sin.
As I began to disciple him, I started noticing a major roadblock that kept recurring in his walk: when he quit selling drugs, he couldn’t provide for himself. He had some basic bills that he needed to pay, including $50 a month due to his parole officer. “If you don’t bring me the money, I am going to violate you and send you back to jail,” she threatened him each time they met. My friend needed income, and he needed it quick! He had already graduated from the Jobs For Life program, where he learned all the principles I could give him to find a job; however, even though he had gained all the right tools, and was faithful to job searching and filling out applications,
he still couldn’t find work.
In college I was involved in a disciple-making ministry where I learned the age-old saying: “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” For most of my Christian ministry, I based my strategies around this one principle. But this time, the principle was not working very well for me and my disciple. I taught him to fish (how to find a job), but he was still starving (no one would hire him). This included our in-house staffing service that tried, but couldn’t place him anywhere.
He desperately wanted to work, displayed tremendous character, and he would have made an excellent employee. So what was the problem?
My friend had a Scarlet Letter tattooed to his forehead. Well, not literally, but he did have a felony conviction, which is a written record of a past sin that he will carry with him the rest of his life. My friend impressed many, many people. On several occasions he was told that he was hired, but in each of these cases he was just being set up for disappointment.
Even though they originally found him to be the right man for the job, when they conducted a background check on him, they decided he was no longer qualified for the position.
My friend, even though he knew how to fish and had all the right tools, was still starving because he did not have access to a pond. What’s the point of buying a pole and bait, when no one will let you fish on their property!? Because my friend was a “Criminal” no one would trust him to perform even the most unskilled tasks. He wasn’t allowed to stack toilet paper or even sweep floors.
You see, unlike God, our society does hold our sins against us forever. Many employers will discriminate against a candidate because of a record that dates back to something that happened more than15 years in the past. I personally think this is unjust, but whether it is or isn’t is beside the point. The point is: this is not Christian! This is not in line with the truth of the gospel. We who have the power to make hiring decisions (middle to upper class society) are communicating something directly opposed to the gospel. By not employing persons who have committed a crime, we are in effect saying them: “The prison sentence you served is not enough!” Even though they have now lived up to what the law requires for restitution (jail time, community service, and financial payments), our society is still punishing them for their crimes. My friend, who has served time in jail as punishment for his sin and as his debt to society, is now serving his second punishment—one that he will never be able to pay off unless something changes.
The biblical truth is that we are all equally sinful beings. Sure, some of us have committed more offensive sins than others, but the true Judge sees through our actions and sees our hearts—and we are anything but innocent.
We deserve hell, but praise God that he forgives us and offers us a new life in Christ. Let’s live out this amazing truth. Let’s stop holding people’s sins against them forever. Let’s restore people with public sin to a humane place in society. Let’s give them dignity. Let’s let them work. Let’s let them provide for themselves and their families. There are lots of reasons fwhy we won’t let them work (for example, it’s risky, we might get burned, and our insurance premiums might go up), but praise God that he didn’t ask himself “what’s in it for me?” when he bore our burdens in human flesh!
There is a lot to contemplate here. I’m not suggesting that we can solve it all over night. But I am suggesting that we all at least feel the weight of the burden many of our brothers and sisters carry, when they daily face the dilemma of whether to go back to their old ways of making money, or put their children on the streets because they can’t pay their rent.
Andrew Vincent
Jobs for Life Instructor
andrew@advancememphis.org
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