Do you ever wonder why on earth someone would title a book that way? Who wants to read a miserable book about miserable people? I certainly don’t. Sometimes life is miserable enough and I just want to dive into a book and forget the miserableness of life. And I have it good.

I have read the book, Les Miserables and I have to say I loved it. I thought I got it, I thought I understood it but really I had no idea.

I was going to tell you all about it, and maybe I will at some point, but that point is not now.

A man refused to be known for what he was so he set out to show kindness and forgiveness to all. Even the prison guard who would throw him back in prison without a moment’s hesitation. He not only forgives this man once, he forgives him twice.

We all have people in our past, people would love to forget that we’ve been. We’re all thieves. We’re all adulterers. We’re all sinners. We all had our share of regrets, but that can all change! We don’t have to live in slavery to the old person anymore.

We have been forgiven. We’ve been set free. We are no longer slaves. We have been set free of a huge debt of sin. I don’t care if you’ve never killed someone, never committed adultery, never stolen, you’ve still been a sinner.

And God has still offered and obtained your salvation. He has freed you from what you were.

We all know the story of Mary Magdalene, she is known through the ages as the one who “loved much because she’d been forgiven much”. She is all of us.

The trouble is we don’t know it. Or we refuse to acknowledge it. We have all been forgiven much. Even if we were the only sinner in the world and we only committed one small sin, it would be enough to condemn us to hell.

We have been forgiven much.

The problem is we think we deserve it. We’re not as bad as the man next-door. The problem with that is the only thing we deserve is hell, eternity apart from God.

Yet in His infinite grace and mercy, in His fathomless love He offers us total forgiveness. He offers the chance to live with Him forever.

Oh yes! We have been forgiven much. One sin would have sent Jesus to the cross. He offers us grace. He offers forgiveness. He offers freedom from sin.

I’m in. I’m done living under slavery to the person I was. I am not that person anymore. I haven’t been that person, but instead I’ve been carrying around the dead body of my old self. I’ve strapped it to my back and I’ve carried it around. I’ve chained myself to it much like a prisoner is chained.