By Gavin Boyle
Max Lucado received a tattoo on his 50th anniversary of accepting the Lord to remind himself that Christ paid his debt on the cross and that he does not have to work for his salvation.
“I’m celebrating the golden anniversary of God’s great grace in my life,” Lucado wrote on a Facebook post, showing off his tattoo. “50 years ago this spring, grace found me. My testimony is interwoven with my favorite word in the Bible. On the cross Christ proclaimed, ‘It is finished!’ (Jn. 19:30) In Greek – ‘Tetelestai!’ Among the meanings of this word is, ‘paid in full.’”
“This was the message that changed my life,” Lucado continued. “I was a 20-year old scoundrel, a bum, a train off the tracks. My priority was six-packs; not the kind that come from crunches, but from Coors. Friends, I was a mess…I wondered, honestly wondered, could Christ forgive a jerk like me? On the cross Christ paid my debt. It is paid — paid in full. I said ‘yes.’ That was 50 years ago… He has never failed me. To commemorate this anniversary, I got a tattoo. Tetelestai — it is finished.”
As a person who understands how difficult it can be to believe that Christ can forgive them, Lucado has had an amazing impact on thousands of people by showing them just how far he has come through Christ. At the same time, he preaches to the fact that even as Christ followers we remain broken, and we cannot let our failures come between us and the Lord.
After finding success in the Christian space, Lucado’s old habits began to creep in, and he turned to alcohol to cope with rising pressure. However, allowing the Lord to speak into his life, Lucado eventually confessed what was happening to both his elders and his congregation.
Related: Famous Pastor Max Lucado Shares His Favorite Biblical Promise
“What no one knew was this: I was a mess,” he recalled. “The staff needed me. The pulpit required me. The publisher was counting on me. The entire world was looking to me. So I did what came naturally. I began to drink.”
“I told God I had everything under control,” he continued. “The staff issues were manageable. The deadlines were manageable. The stress was manageable. The drinking was manageable. But then came a moment of truth. God didn’t touch my hip, but he spoke to my heart. ‘Really, Max? If you have everything together, if you have a lock on this issue, then why are you hiding in a parking lot, sipping a beet that you’ve concealed in a brown paper bag?’”
By coming clean, Lucado practiced what he preached and revealed just how much God is able to redeem the broken. His situation also inspired many others to get real about the problems in their own lives and find help for the sin they had been burying. While this would never have been a part of his own plan, he now sees he God used it for so much more good than he could have ever imagined.
“Even though we might not understand what’s going on, we can trust God and His plan because He has proved faithful in the past,” Lucado said.
It is amazing to see just how much good God has used Lucado for. Praise the Lord that he accepted Christ into his heart 50 years ago and placed the Lord above all else in his life.
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