Sometimes we all feel like failures ... and the institutional church plays no insignificant part in this.
But ask yourself. Who exactly is it that specializes in making the beloved of God feel like failures, unworthy, unjust, unfulfilled, sinners ..?
Who is that?
Not so, says the Comforter!
The Holy Spirit always reminds us of who we are in Jesus.
Even James, the brother of Jesus concludes his epistle in a glorious comforting way.
He says Brothers, if anyone among you goes astray from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the straying of his way shall save a life from death and cover a great number of sins. Jas 5:19-20
James (or Yakov in Hebrew means Yah replaced) had just explained in the previous verse how that Elijah the prophet was subject, just like us, to like-passions, but that he could take authority even over nature by praying against rain and it would not rain, and later pray for rain and it would rain. Nature would immediately obey Elijah's command. Wow! And he had like passions and shortcomings just like us!
He says Brothers, if anyone among you goes astray from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the straying of his way shall save a life from death and cover a great number of sins. Jas 5:19-20
James (or Yakov in Hebrew means Yah replaced) had just explained in the previous verse how that Elijah the prophet was subject, just like us, to like-passions, but that he could take authority even over nature by praying against rain and it would not rain, and later pray for rain and it would rain. Nature would immediately obey Elijah's command. Wow! And he had like passions and shortcomings just like us!
Elijah was even deliberate at times
This Elijah was the man who ignored God on three out of three occasions of the last instructions God gave him and still he was taken up alive. Go look it up for yourself in the book of 2 Kings.
Elijah was fallible, but he never counted on himself being fallible.
Why?
Because He knew The Way!
To cover is the Way
And then James says to those he was writing to if anyone helps some one who strays from The Way (Jesus) and helps this guy back to Jesus, this guy must know that he saved the guy from certain death ...
... and ...
... covered him from a multitude of sins.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life.
So, James ends his epistle by quoting from old covenant scriptures like Psalm 32:1 and 84:6, Jer 3:25 where God promises to cover our sins - with the covering of sins.
What's the Cover?
The word cover in the Hebrew is kâsâh or כּסה which means to fill up hollows; to cover: to close, clothe, conceal, overwhelm.
And the Pictograph?
כּסה depicts the open Hand (Jesus) turns (someone) to Grace (Jesus).
Fully covered!
Wow!
Wow!
Wow!
Truely, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Rom 4:7
Truely, love shall cover a multitude of sins 1Pe 4:8