Many of us were fixed with all sorts of emotions last year as we heard of the former US Olympics Gymnast Dr., Larry Nasser who was found guilty of molesting more than 160 women and girls as young as six for decades. The starting point for the avalanche of justice was one brave woman who came forward first with accusations – Mrs. Rachel Denhollander. At Nasser’s sentencing, Denhollander addressed the court for 40 minutes. What she said to the man who abused her can only be equated to the grace of Jesus Christ.
Nasser brought a Bible with him to his sentencing, a move that some thought was manipulative. Denhollander said directly to the one who gratified himself at the cost of her innocence:
In our early hearings, you brought your Bible into the courtroom, and you have spoken of praying for forgiveness. And so it is on that basis that I appeal to you. If you have read the Bible you carry, you know the definition of sacrificial love portrayed is of God himself loving so sacrificially that he gave up everything to pay the penalty for the sin he did not commit. By his grace, I, too, choose to love this way.
You spoke of praying for forgiveness. But Larry, if you have read the Bible you carry, you know forgiveness does not come from doing good things, as if good deeds can erase what you have done. It comes from repentance which requires facing and acknowledging the truth about what you have done in all of its utter depravity and horror without mitigation, without excuse, without acting as if good deeds can erase what you have seen in this courtroom today.
The Bible you carry says it is better for a stone to be thrown around your neck and you thrown into a lake than for you to make even one child stumble. And you have damaged hundreds.
The Bible you speak carries a final judgment where all of God’s wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you.
I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me—though I extend that to you as well.
C.S. Lewis was right when he said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
"I have never done anything that terrible," some might say. They’d be right. We have all done worse. We were responsible for the death of the only perfect one who ever lived – Jesus the spotless lamb of God who came to take away our sin. And this one taught us to pray for forgiveness, and he who taught us to pray for forgiveness will forgive.
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer, the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Are you forgiven? Are you forgiving?