Answering the Test Question about Grace

September 28th, 2012 by Bob Bevington

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. But to me, this one’s worth volumes. It tells the story of grace.

The open, bloody hand of Jesus Christ stretches downward. The desperate, guilty hand of the condemned sinner reaches up. Their fingers touch. An exchange takes place: the Thief’s sin for the Savior’s righteousness. Instead of getting God’s curse as he deserves, the Thief gets God’s blessings in Christ instead. That is the very definition of grace.

Astonishing? Yes.  Miraculous? Yes.  Irrepressibly good news?  Absolutely.  And it’s been happening ever since. 

But is it fair? Is it just?

Doesn’t the Thief owe an infinite price for each and every sin? Yes. The same is true of Jeffrey Dahmer, you, and me. 

In God’s eyes, the fairness and justice is all about the bloody hand; whose it is and what it’s doing there. It belongs to the sinless God-Man. He’s perfectly and uniquely qualified to make it fair by paying the Thief’s debt. He finished the job by dying in his place. The Thief’s price was paid in full. Justice has been served. 

Did their fingers actually touch? Probably not. God designed a better way. It’s called faith.

Enabled, awakened faith was at work in the Thief when he said, “Remember me.” It connected him to Jesus deeper than two fingers touching. Faith works this way for us as well.

By faith, the Thief “gained Christ” and was found “in Him.” It wasn’t his own righteousness that saved him, “but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (adapted from Philippians 3:9)

So saving the Thief is fair in God’s eyes, not only by virtue of the sacrifice that was offered to pay for his sins, but also because the believing Thief was immediately and permanently clothed in the very righteousness of Christ. Just as if everything Jesus did, the Thief did “in Him.”

The Thief died physically for his crimes against humanity. That’s a human level of fairness. But that very day he was with Jesus in Paradise. What about Jeffrey Dahmer? Only God knows for sure. But the Thief made it to heaven because Jesus said so.

So here’s the next test question, the ultimate one: Whether people think it’s fair or not, will we say yes to God’s grace in Christ?

The Thief did. Jeffrey Dahmer might have. Me? I say yes, too. How about you?

 

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  • Jay_the_Optimist

    Hi Bob –

    I have enjoyed your posts on the question of grace. The wideness of God’s grace is one of the reasons I enjoyed your book so much.

    I was greatly aided in my understanding by a song that absolutely shook me the first time I heard it and continues to shake me today when I listen to it. The song is not a hymn. It is a song by Sufjan Stevens about mass murderer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. – entitled “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” For much of the song, Sufjan plaintively retells the life and heinous crimes of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Then – he flips the whole world upside down with this last line:
    And in my best behavior
    I am really just like him
    Look beneath the floor boards
    For the secrets I have hid

    You can watch him perform it here. It’s factual but not exactly family friendly.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZIMs7Mbs0

    I think that William Cowper had this question of grace in mind when he wrote this line in “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”:

    The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
    And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

    • http://BobBevington.com/ Bob Bevington

      Thanks Jay. Great insights that further challenge us to understand grace for what it is: UN-DESERVED!

      Hey, isn’t it high time to get another guest post from you? We are trying to keep them in the 400-450 word count range. Why not serve up a personal story of brokenness and grace for us?

  • http://www.facebook.com/paula.k.collins.7 Paula Kechisen Collins

    Even though it can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes, I am in agreement with you Bob. If we start getting picky about what sins and indiscretions God’s grace covers, we have to ask ourselves a question……What if God decided to get picky as well? What if God decided that “pride” was too big a sin for his overflowing grace to cover? What if anger, greed, lies, cheating? I like knowing that ALL my weaknesses are covered. I may have never murdered or killed someone physically, but have my actions, inactions, or words?

    • http://BobBevington.com/ Bob Bevington

      In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns our understanding of sin on its head: anger = murder; lust = adultery. His point is clear–no one is innocent, no not one (Romans 3:13-23)