ON BRAND 

This week Russell Brand was found guilty of serious sexual offences, including rape, and now faces a custodial sentence of considerable length. A well-known public figure whose sense of humour relied far too heavily on crudeness, profanity and the belittling of women, he is also somebody who in recent times has professed to be a Christian – one who, trusting in Jesus Christ, claims to have received free and full forgiveness for all his many sins.

Now we need to be careful before we make too many judgements about Russell Brand – because whilst it is undoubtedly true that his behaviour in the past has been nothing short of appalling, and that he is now deservedly being punished for the dreadful crimes he has been convicted of, the genuineness of his conversion to Christianity is not something I feel able to comment on. Whilst I am not so naive as to believe every profession of faith, and am concerned by how Christians too often lack discernment as they enthusiastically herald apparent conversions of celebrities, neither do I want to dismiss out of hand the possibility that Brand may now be someone who is a believer in Jesus. The simple truth is that I have never met the man and, as a result, I am in no position to know whether his heart has in any way been changed. That is something that only God can truly know.

But there are things that can be said about miserable sinners who have truly come to repentance.

And the first thing to say is that such individuals grieve over their wrongdoing. They fully acknowledge their sinfulness and as well as regretting what they have done they wholeheartedly regret how their actions have hurt others. What’s more, they seek to put right, as best they can, the wrongs that they have done – even if that is something that is never fully possible. And whilst they should seek to be reconciled to those they have sinned against, they recognise that they have no right to expect a restored relationship. For such a thing is not easily achieved, particularly when the wrongdoing involves sexual abuse. Any reconciliation can only be graciously granted by the one who has been harmed, and not demanded by the one who is guilty of inflicting that harm upon them.

Because, as I heard it described recently, sin is like a stone thrown into a pond. Whilst the stone can be recovered the waves that it creates continue to ripple out for a long time after. 

And so, as we spend time discussing Russell Brand, we must never forget the women who bravely spoke out about his dreadful mistreatment of them – women he used for his own sexual gratification whose lives were left so terribly scarred as a result.

Secondly, those who know themselves to be sinners, those who have turned to Christ and received the forgiveness that He alone can provide, nonetheless accept the just punishment that the state sees fit to inflict upon them. Just because a Christian is fully forgiven by God doesn’t mean that they don’t suffer, in this life, the consequences of their actions. Take King David for example – another who, abusing his power, almost certainly used it to force a woman to have sex with him. He slept with Bathsheba, got her pregnant, and then saw to it that her husband Uriah was killed in battle. When confronted by his sin, he confessed his wrongdoing and, with a broken spirit and a contrite heart, he sought and received forgiveness from God. But he still knew what it was to suffer for his wrongdoing – because, whilst we shouldn’t make the mistake that every bad thing that happens to a person is a direct result of their own individual sin, the child that David had conceived with Bathsheba subsequently died, causing him immense grief.

Becoming a Christian then, whilst it does promise an eternity with God in the life to come, doesn’t give us a get-out-of-jail-free card in this one. For it is only when the whole of creation is redeemed that we will be completely free from the consequences of our sin. For whilst it is true that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and that God’s righteous anger at our sin has been fully satisfied by Christ’s death for us on the cross, it is also the case that, for the time being at least, we continue to live in a fallen world. 

So my thoughts today are with the victims of Russell Brand whose lives have been so severely affected by his grievous crimes. I hope they find some kind of peace from knowing that justice has finally been served. 

And irrespective of his past, I hope that Russell Brand really is now a fellow believer in Christ – one who, remaining truly repentant as he serves whatever prison sentence he receives, might be genuinely transformed by the love of God as he comes to more fully understand that its greatness is such that it extends to those who have fallen as badly short of the glory of God as he has. 

Because God’s grace is sufficient – even for Russell Brand.

As indeed it is for any who gave a platform to someone they knew to be a sexual predator, not to mention those who, finding his so-called jokes funny, enthusiastically laughed along with him, and thereby, at least in part, endorsed attitudes and behaviours that should never have been considered acceptable.

And just as astonishingly, God’s grace is sufficient for me. And, of course, for you as well.

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