A tough-looking guy once approached me in the church lobby right after a service was done. “Pastor, you wouldn’t believe the things I have done. The sins you talked about in there don’t even come close to my past.” I’m not sure if I responded wisely, but I looked him squarely in the eye and said, “I dare you. I dare you to tell me something to make me not love you.” The church lobby wasn’t the place to sit down for his confession, so I told him my door was always open when he was ready to talk. I hope he takes me up on that offer.

Because grace makes no exceptions. In the kingdom of God, when people approach King Jesus with repentant hearts, there are no sins that he refuses to forgive. “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). What sins could we confess that aren’t included in “the sins of the whole world”?

Maybe you, like that man, have some really dark chapters in your personal story, secrets that you have hidden for far too long. I beg you, friend, come into the light. Read 1 John 1 and 2 and allow God to convince you that you can bring your sin, any sin, all your sin, and grace will not make you its exception.

At the cross, we all are forgiven and all is forgiven. Praise Jesus for that!