Jay -- The Proselyte

This guy, Jay, had nothing but smarts mixed with religious arrogance, a man whose conscience was seared with the hot iron of guilt, with no respite, so it seemed, of breaking free.

I cannot begin to recount all the terrible things which he claimed that he had done, but the more that he recounted the things which he had endured, the more that he seemed to be glorying in his shame:

"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

"And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." (1 Corinthians 5: 1-2)

This man was proud of what he should have been ashamed of, yet if he had understood the fullness o Christ Jesus' work on the Cross, there would have been no occasion for shame, either, because God has pledged to remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8: 12)

This man reminded me of the proselytes who end up twofold sons of hell.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." (Matthew 23: 15)

They are sincere in their devotion, and they are devoted to the law, which cannot make a man devout, so that he lives in the hell of sin, death, and condemnation while on earth and will miss out on the one who can grant him eternal life, Jesus Christ.

Jay went to CR and AA meetings, and he found himself more and more confused than ever. He would hear about God and Jesus Christ in one set of meetings,  yet in another meeting Jesus was not allowed to be mentioned at all! Talk about confusing.

He ended up getting drunk over and over, unable to break free from the shame that he was in, I am certain. Just as much as he would brag about telling other people how to live their lives, he was so caught up in his own perversions that one wonders how expected to get out of anything in his life.

I hope that Jay is OK, wherever he is. I hope that he has received the gift of "no condemnation" which comes from knowing Christ and Him Crucified in His fullness - not one thing needed on our part!