Wrestling with grace and accountability
A Recovery Pastor’s Reflection on Isaiah 43:24
You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. (Isaiah 43:24 NLT)
Some nights after POLR meetings, I sit in my office or even lay in bed and wrestle. Isaiah’s words echo in my spirit: Do we still burden God with our sins? Can we weary Him with our failures—even as Christians washed in His blood?
In recovery, this isn’t just a religious puzzle based on denominational beliefs where I hope mine are right. It’s life and death. It’s relapse or breakthrough. It’s the difference between cheap grace and true transformation.
Grace Is Complete—But Accountability Is Real and Necessary
POLR Truth: The blood of Jesus covers every sin—past, present, and future.
POLR Reality: But our choices still matter to our relationship with God and our recovery family.
POLR Perspective: Forgiveness is settled at the Cross, but fellowship with God is strengthened or strained by how we walk today.
Repentance vs. Rebellion
The line is not perfection—it’s posture.
A broken and contrite heart keeps grace alive and real. (see Psalm 51:17)
A calloused and casual heart drifts toward danger.
Hebrews warns us: Encourage one another daily… so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:13 NIV)
I’ve watched both. Some relapse and weep their way back to the altar. Others relapse and habitually excuse their ways—only digging themselves deeper into bondage. One finds mercy. The other numbs himself to the voice of conviction.
The Daily Tension
Recovery teaches us to live in the “already but not yet.”
Already forgiven, yet still in the fight.
Already saved by grace through faith, yet still surrendering.
Already loved, yet still being transformed.
That’s why POLR keeps emphasizing: sobriety is not the finish line—it’s the starting point.
Mercy and Truth Together
Grace without accountability becomes cheap—overlooking one only cancels the power of the other.
Accountability without grace becomes frustrating and exhausting.
Neither brings recovery without the other.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (Psalm 85:10 KJV)
That’s the heartbeat of POLR. Mercy that lifts up the fallen combined with Truth that never excuses sin. Both working together in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Recovery Pastor’s Reflection
As I lock up the church after another meeting, I know this tension won’t be solved by a perfect theological answer. It must be lived out, one day at a time.
We rest in grace while pressing toward holiness.
We celebrate sobriety milestones while calling for daily surrender.
We proclaim forgiveness while urging repentance.
That’s not contradiction. That’s Christianity. That’s recovery.
POLR Closing Thought
We are people desperately in need of grace, yet daily called to accountability. We are loved unconditionally, yet urged toward radical change.
It’s not mercy versus truth. It’s mercy and truth—walking together, hand in hand, on the Path of Life.
Walk well
POLRis4Life