God’s Great Gift of Grace
by Rick Labate
In his book, My Tortured Conscience, Martin Weber writes, “He was a deeply committed Christian evangelist. Even in retirement he won many converts throughout the conference. Everyone spoke well of the gentle man.
One cold and gray morning he put his shotgun on his shoulder and told his wife he was going outside to shoot a rat. Then gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. Moments later she heard the shot. Only it wasn’t the rat he killed, it was himself.
His funeral was one of the saddest you could find anywhere. The unspoken question on everyone’s mind was, “What caused such a godly man to kill himself? What caused him to pull the trigger?”
Here was a man who had no problem opening the New Testament and proving the importance of keeping the law. But in his diary he wrote these words, “Here I’ve been telling everyone else to keep the law and I can’t even keep it myself. What hope do I have of heaven? Why go on?” An overwhelming sense of condemnation made him kill himself.
Yet when we review the true reason why this man took his life it was not really because of guilt. You see, there is a remedy for guilt. It’s called grace.”
It is God’s great gift of grace that gives us the peace that passes all understanding. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why is grace sometimes such a hard concept for us to understand? It’s difficult because the rest of the world simply does not work on the basis of grace. Grace is receiving good when I deserve bad. Grace declares that I have absolutely nothing to do success yet it is my name that makes the headlines.
One of the strangest baseball games that ever took place happened in a
minor league town in Iowa around 1950.
Jim Evans was the scheduled starting pitcher for the Fairfield Hawkeyes for the deciding game of the series for the state championship. As the game began Jim Evans promptly walked the first 3 batters. Then he gave up a double, two singles and a 3-run homer. Before the fans were even settled in their seats the home team was behind 6-0.
The manager came out to speak to his pitcher. He said, “Hey Jim, the object of this game is to get the opposing batters out. Don’t worry there is a lot of baseball yet to be played. Just try to get the ball over the plate and trust your other 8 fielders to help you out.”
Jim reared back and reached for everything in him. At first it seemed that he was really going to succeed. He got the rest of the batters out in the first without any more damage being done. In the second inning he was looking so good. Three batters, three consecutive outs. But in the third inning, all his effort was not good enough as the opposing team scored 9 more times. The Fairfield Hawkeyes were now down 15-1. The fans were grumbling and it was starting to get ugly real fast. The manager came out, patted the pitcher on the back and had no choice but to send him to the showers.
The owner of the Fairfield Hawkeyes then came out of the stands and proceeded to converse with the manager. After about a five minute discussion, the owner walked over to the public address announcer and the manager walked into the locker room. This is what was announced.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we announce a pitching change. Now pitching for the Fairfield Hawkeyes is the manager for the Hawkeyes, Joseph Godson.”
The opposing team went into an uproar. “They can’t do that. He’s an ex-major league baseball star.” The protested strongly. But there was nothing in the rule book that forbade the manager from playing during the game, so their protests ended up being useless.
When the manager came out however, he was wearing Jim Evans’ extra uniform. He took the mound and though the uniform said “Evans” on the back, it was the manager doing the pitching.
The manager was just incredible the rest of the way. The remaining 21 batters were retired in order 19 of which he struck out. He also proceeded to knock in 15 runs during the remainder of the game as the Hawkeyes came back to defeat the Dubuque Red Devils 12-11.
The next day in the newspapers the headlines read, “Incredible Win for the Hawkeyes.”
Jim Evans tried to tell everyone who did not see the game that it was not really him who saved the game but it was his manager. That when he was in the game he was just awful most of the time. He had a couple of good stretches when it seemed he was doing well but when he was the one who let the team get behind 15-1. He told everyone that it was his manager than deserved the credit, not him.
That same day he went to his manager to thank him for saving him from such humiliation. He also had a slew of questions for his manager.
“Mr. Godson, why did you go in and pitch instead of just using another pitcher?”
“Why did you wear my uniform instead of yours?”
The manager just smiled at him and said, “Maybe one day I’ll explain it all to you but for now just let it be enough that when I win, you win too.”
If this sounds like a baseball game from the Twilight Zone and that I made up that whole story just to illustrate a point…you’re right!
It is a parable which illustrates grace. When Christ won, it means that we won too. If I can paraphrase Rom. 3:21-24 into baseball terminology it would sound something like this:
“But now a way to win a championship, apart from our own pitching performance, has been made known, to which the newspaper headlines testify. This championship comes through the merits of the manager imparted to all who wish to be on his team. It matters not what position you play on the team, for all have struck out, made errors and failed to produce the runs needed to win. But all the players are credited as winning even though it is the manager alone who won the game.”
We humans have really botched things up. Our best efforts have never produced a win. Every win has been won by Jesus Christ.
I wish somehow, some way that evangelist who committed suicide could have been made to understand that:
· All our sins are like a grain of sand beside the mountain of God’s forgiveness.
· All our guilt is but a spark falling into the ocean of God’s mercy.
· God is more willing to forgive than a mother is to save her child from a burning house.
Jesus has done what I cannot do. One man said it so eloquently when he said, “On a life I didn’t live, on a death I didn’t die, I stake my whole eternity.”
If Calvary doesn’t melt and break your heart, there’s nothing else God can do. Salvation is something received, not something achieved. If love is bought, it’s not love…it’s prostitution.
There is a great article that illustrates the concept of grace written by Charles Stanley.
“One of my more memorable seminary professors had a practical way of illustrating to his students the concept of grace. At the end of his evangelism course he would distribute the exam with the caution to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. This caution was written on the exam as well. As we read the test, it became unquestionably clear to each of us that we had not studied nearly enough.
The further we read, the worse it became. About halfway through, audible groans could be heard through out the lecture hall. On the last page, however, was a note that read, "You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom and in so doing receive an A for this assignment."
Wow? We sat there stunned. "Was he serious? Just sign it and get an A?" Slowly, the point dawned on us, and one by one we turned in our tests and silently filed out of the room.
When I talked with the professor about it afterward, he shared some of the reactions he had received through the years. Some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through, and they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page.
Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally.
One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He did not want any gifts; he wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A.
This story illustrates many people’s reaction to God’s solution to sin. Some people look at God’s standard--moral and ethical perfection--and throw their hands up in surrender. Why even try? they tell themselves. I could never live up to all that stuff
Others are like the student who read the test through and was aware of the professor’s offer but took the test anyway. Unwilling to simply receive God’s gift of forgiveness, they set about to rack up enough points with God to earn it.
But God’s grace truly is like the professor’s offer. It may seem unbelievable, but if we accept it, then, like the stunned students who accepted the professor’s offer, we, too, will discover that, Yes, God’s grace truly is free. All we have to do is accept it.
Please quit listening to good views and accept the good news. God’s grace is sufficient. In and of itself it’s everything you need for now and eternity.
