How God Enters the Scandalous Places of Our Story and Redeems Them

There are passages in scripture we instinctively avoid.

Stories that feel uncomfortable. Embarrassing. Scandalous.

Stories we assume are included in the Bible merely as warnings.

Genesis 19 is one of those passages.

On the surface, the story of Lot and his daughters feels disturbing and difficult to reconcile with the goodness of God. And yet, as we sat with this passage together on Sunday, something deeper began to emerge. What first appeared to be merely a shameful story revealed itself as one of the most profound pictures of redemption in all of scripture.

Watch the full teaching here:
THE REDEMPTIVE THREAD: Lot, His Daughters, and the Lineage of Christ | Chris Berglund & Leah Ramirez

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The Story We Usually Read Too Quickly

The passage centers around Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. After fleeing the city, Lot and his two daughters find themselves isolated in a cave, having lost nearly everything—wealth, family, security, and home.

In fear and desperation, the daughters make a tragic decision to preserve their lineage through their father. It is a shocking story. And for many of us, that’s where our engagement with the passage ends.

“Don’t do that.”

But as Chris began unfolding the larger biblical narrative surrounding Lot, Sodom, Abraham, Moab, and eventually Ruth and David, the story started opening into something much larger.

Not an endorsement of sin.

Not a minimizing of brokenness.

But a revelation of the kind of Redeemer God is.

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God Is Not Ashamed to Enter the Human Story

One of the most moving moments of the morning came when we realized where this storyline ultimately leads.

The descendants born from this cave become the Moabites and Ammonites—nations often at odds with Israel throughout the Old Testament. And yet from this same lineage comes Ruth the Moabitess.

Ruth.

The outsider.

The foreigner.

The woman whose lineage began in one of the most scandalous stories in scripture.

And Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of David.

Which means this same redemptive thread becomes part of the lineage of Christ Himself.

Suddenly the story is no longer merely about human failure.

It becomes about a God who willingly inserts Himself into the darkest and most broken parts of humanity’s story and redeems them from within.

This was the moment that shifted everything for me personally during the teaching. As Chris was unfolding the storyline, I realized I had been internally accusing the passage itself. I was judging it from a distance rather than seeing what God was revealing through it.

And what He was revealing was the Gospel.

Not a sanitized Gospel.

Not a polished Gospel.

But a Gospel where Christ is unashamed to enter human brokenness and redeem it.

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“Righteous Lot”

One of the most startling verses we discussed came from 2 Peter 2.

Scripture says:

“And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked… for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.”
— 2 Peter 2:7–8

Righteous Lot?

After hearing the whole story, that phrase almost feels offensive to our religious instincts.

And yet there it is.

Not once, but three times in the passage.

Righteous.

Not because Lot walked perfectly.

Not because he handled everything wisely.

Not because his life was free from compromise or dysfunction.

But because God is the Redeemer.

Because God sees beyond the visible wreckage of our stories.

Because redemption is not merely God avoiding our darkness—it is God entering it and transforming it.

This is what the Gospel announces.

Jesus is not ashamed to call humanity His own.

Hebrews 2 says:

“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.”

That verse carried enormous weight for us Sunday morning.

He is not ashamed.

Not ashamed of Lot.

Not ashamed of Ruth.

Not ashamed to enter humanity’s broken lineage.

And not ashamed of us.

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The Places We Hide

As we continued talking, the conversation shifted from Lot’s story to our own.

Many of us have learned that church is the place where we present the polished version of ourselves. We put on our Sunday best while quietly hiding the painful, shameful, or confusing parts of our story.

But what if the Gospel is actually about Christ entering those very places?

I shared openly Sunday about my own past and how God met me in the middle of deep darkness. I talked about being involved in drug dealing before encountering the love of God.

And yet when God found me, He did not stand at a distance from my story.

He invaded it.

He turned all the lights on.

He redeemed it.

That is what He does.

The Gospel is not the story of God reluctantly tolerating us.

It is the story of God joyfully redeeming us.

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The Redemption of Identity

Toward the end of the gathering, we talked about identity and the way we continue speaking about ourselves.

For many people, identity becomes permanently tied to past bondage, past failure, or past sin. And while honesty matters deeply, we also discussed the importance of agreement.

At some point, we must begin agreeing with what God says about us.

Not because we deny where we’ve been.

But because Christ has become our life.

Scripture does not primarily call believers “sinners.”

It calls them saints.

New creations.

Beloved sons and daughters.

And this matters because many of us still interpret ourselves through shame rather than redemption.

But Jesus reveals something entirely different.

He reveals the Father.

And in doing so, He reveals humanity back to itself.

As we said Sunday:

“You’ve forgotten who you are. You were made for union. You were made to be loved and enjoyed by the Father.”

That is the good news.

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The Redeemer of the Storyline

At the end of the service, we spent several minutes quietly beholding the Lord together, allowing Him to speak into the hidden places of our own lives.

And the invitation was simple:

Bring your whole story to Him.

Not just the cleaned-up parts.

Not just the spiritual parts.

All of it.

Because if God could redeem the storyline of Lot and his daughters…

If He could weave redemption through caves, exile, compromise, scandal, and grief…

Then perhaps there is no part of our story beyond His reach either.

He is the Redeemer.

And He is still redeeming.

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If you are longing for deeper connection, prayer, and community centered around union with Christ and the Gospel of rest, you can connect with us here:

• The Gathering Colorado Springs
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The Gathering meets Sundays at 10am in Colorado Springs at 720 Elkton Dr, Colorado Springs, CO.