The vilest offender

Most people believe that God accepts us on the basis of what we do. So even if our lives are not perfect, if they contain some good, he will accept us and welcome us into heaven. But there are some people he will never accept; their deeds are just too wicked. There is no way he will ever forgive them. That is how recent news about Rose West “finding God” has been greeted. Called a “deluded monster” in an article in The Mirror online, her professed conversion is mocked and her faith doubted. Fellow inmates were reported as being cynical about her new-found interest in religion, feeling that her regular attendance at chapel services was just a way of making life in prison more favourable. And family members of those she murdered were quoted as saying “if Rose thinks that asking God to forgive her will in some way make up for what she’s done then that’s not a god that I would understand.”

Of course, Rose West can never make up to the families of the victims for what she and her husband Fred did. The two of them killed, dismembered and buried young women and children in Gloucester between 1967 and 1987, and Rose’s own daughter Heather was among the victims. While awaiting trial for 12 murders Fred West hanged himself in jail on New Year’s Day 1995. Rose was convicted in 1995 and received a whole life tariff. So she will die in prison, because she can never fully pay her debt to society for what she did. But if she is saying that God will forgive her, is that because she has found a way of making things up to him? The answer there is no.

Rose West can never pay her debt to God any more than she can repay the families of her victims, but the Christian gospel doesn’t ask us to. God sees our sins and is angry about them; they offend him far more than they offend other people, and we rightly deserve God’s judgment because of them. But we cannot cancel them out, as Rose West’s victims’ families observe. No amount of good deeds will remove the stain of guilt for the wrong we have done. But the message that Jesus announced is that he came to pay for the price of those sins by his death on the cross. Jesus had no sin and, as the innocent victim, takes our sins and the death they bring upon himself. He tells us to repent of our sins and have faith in him, that he will forgive our sins and receive us into heaven.

This is the heart of the gospel of Jesus, that he will forgive anyone who comes to him, who repents of sin and trusts in him as Saviour. Even the very worst. As the hymn in the title says, “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” Of course, it is possible that Rose West is just faking her faith in Jesus to get an easy ride in prison. She may not be sincere in her belief; I simply cannot tell from where I sit. But it is safe to say that God knows; she can’t fool him. But the gospel says that if she has truly believed then God has forgiven her, and she will be in heaven. That is the reason for hope in the gospel: there is hope for anyone! The apostle Paul confesses that he was a persecutor and a violent man. He was responsible for the death of many Christians and calls himself “the worst of sinners”. But he tells us that he, too, found forgiveness because “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” And his example encourages us to believe that anyone else can be saved, too.

But secondly, we should note that this route to God’s forgiveness – belief in Jesus – is one that all of us must take, not just the Rose Wests of the world. I think one reason people object to the idea that an outwardly evil person can find forgiveness is because they think that they are better. But Jesus knocks that on the head when he says that the problem lies in all of us. Our hearts are corrupt and produce one form of evil after another. So no good deed we do can rub out the bad ones. We all need the sacrifice of Jesus to wash away the evil. None of us deserves to be forgiven. No one can say that they are good enough. The gospel of Jesus is a great leveller when it tells us that we are all sinners. But the good news – the great news! – is that Jesus came for sinners like you and me, and that is open to everyone, too.