The door is open to you
Can I Come to Jesus If I Have Done Terrible Things?
Yes. Whatever you have done, however far you feel you have gone, you can come to Jesus, and He will not turn you away. This is not wishful comfort; it is the clear and repeated promise of the Bible. The people Jesus welcomed were not the respectable and the spotless; they were the ones everyone else had written off. If you are afraid your past is too dark, hear this gently and firmly: there is no sin so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cover it, and no person so far gone that His mercy cannot reach. The fact that you are even asking means He is already drawing you.
“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”Luke 23:42-43
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”1 Timothy 1:15
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”Isaiah 1:18
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”John 6:37
The good news, plainly
Consider the man crucified next to Jesus, a criminal condemned for his crimes, with no time left to fix anything or prove himself. In his final hours he simply turned to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus answered, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. No probation, no list of penances, just mercy, immediately. That story is in the Bible precisely so that no one would think themselves beyond hope. If a dying thief could be received in a moment, then the door is open to you, whatever weighs on your conscience tonight.
What this means for you
The lie that keeps people from Jesus is that they must first become good enough to deserve Him. But grace works the opposite way: you come to Him because you cannot fix yourself, and He does the cleansing. Shame tells you to hide until you are presentable; God says come now, and let us reason together, and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Coming to Jesus does not mean pretending your past did not happen. It means bringing the whole ugly weight of it into the light, where He can finally lift it off you. He is not shocked, and He is not reluctant. He came for exactly this.
Come to him now
Here is a sentence the Bible calls faithful and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Not the impressive. Sinners. He did not come to reward the deserving but to rescue the lost, and He proved it by dying for people while they were still His enemies. So your terrible things are not a barrier to Jesus; they are the very reason He came. Him that cometh to me, He promised, I will in no wise cast out. In no wise. Bring Him what you are most ashamed of. That is precisely what His cross was for.
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Questions people ask
Is there any sin God will not forgive?
For anyone willing to turn to Jesus, there is no sin His death cannot cover. The Bible says His blood cleanses us from all sin, and He removes it as far as the east is from the west. The only sin that keeps a person from mercy is the final refusal to come and receive it.
I have hurt people badly. Does coming to Jesus erase that?
Coming to Jesus brings you full forgiveness before God, which is real and complete. It also gives you a new heart that will want to make things right with people where you can. Forgiveness and restitution are not the same, but grace frees you to pursue both without fear of condemnation.
What if I have rejected God for years?
The length of your resistance is no match for the depth of His patience. Many who ignored or fought God for decades came to Him in the end and were fully received. It is not too late while you can still turn to Him. Come today, and He welcomes you.