How many of you have a baseball card collection? There is a card called “Future Stars” and is valued around $100. There are three players on this card. The first is Jeff Schneider. Schneider played 1 year of professional baseball, pitched in 11 games, and gave up 13 earned runs in those 11 games.
The second player is Bobby Bonner, who played 4 years of baseball but only appeared in 61 games, with 8 runs batted in, and 0 home runs.
The third "Future Star" played 21 years for the Baltimore Orioles and appeared in 3,001 games. He came to bat 11,551 times, collected 3,184 hits and 431 home runs, and batted in 1,695 runs. His name is Cal Ripken, Jr.
I can imagine Bobby Bonner boasting about his baseball card, "Did you know that my baseball card is worth over $100?" You would laugh because you know the worth of the card has nothing to do with him.
That’s how it is when we come to Christ and point to our good works, our statistics, and ask, "Is this good enough?" If you want to hold up your stats to God, you don’t have a chance. But when you put your faith in Christ, his statistics become yours, and your baseball card becomes worth a lot because of someone else’s stats.
Bobby Bonner and Jeff Schneider’s baseball card is worth $100, not because of their statistics, but because of what someone else has done.