Thursday, July 14, 2011

Undeserved Grace

Every morning I drive a 30 minute commute from Dallas to Fort Worth and instead of listening to Kidd Kraddick, I have tried to make the most of my time by renewing my mind through worship and listening to the bible on my phone. I started doing this in May 2010 in Genesis and am just now finishing up in Matthew! Well this morning while listening to Matthew chapter 27 I had to pause it and re-read what I thought I had just heard:

38Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 41So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

Now, the reason I had to pause it is because I heard “robbers”, plural not singular, and I know from reading Luke that one of the criminals crucified with Jesus was suppose to be with Him in paradise that same day, so how could he have mocked him…

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." 42And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

So of course I began to debate with myself searching for truth and what was truly happening here! How can Matthew say both robbers mocked Jesus and then Luke described the insults of only one man?!? How have I not seen this before? Did one get it wrong? Misspell? Are they contradicting each other? A skeptic would love to get his hands on this and tear it apart I thought…

And then the Holy Spirit reminded me of my own journey and how both accounts are true and accurate.

You see, at the age of 11 as I sat in my chair at church, I don’t remember what the pastor preached about or if he was even inviting people up to the front, but I do remember my heart beating in my chest, my body feeling light, knees feeling weak and hearing a clear voice inside my head prompting me to get up out of my chair, walk down the aisle and with tears rolling down my face, confess my need for Jesus and desire to get baptized in front of the congregation. My faith was given to me by God. I don’t know how long God had been calling me unto Himself and on exactly what day you would have considered me “saved.” But I do know if I were to have walked out of church that day and for whatever reason been killed in an accident, I would have been with Him in paradise.

Ok so how does this have anything to do with the difference between the two accounts of the robbers mocking Jesus? Let me explain…

Prior to my salvation I was both separated and an enemy of God. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I denied and mocked Him with my words and lifestyle. Following my salvation and baptism at the age of around 15, I blatantly, although knowing God and truth, ran from Him and rejected Him in my choices and desires and it wouldn’t be until I turned 20 that I got tired of running and surrendered my life whole heartedly to Him.

The beauty of the gospel is I’m getting something free that I don’t deserve! And it’s not based on what I do or do not do but God’s pleasure in Himself and our delight in Him. John Piper states it this way “The gospel is a gospel of grace! And grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.” In no other religion do we see this. God becoming humbled as man and providing us a way to delight with Him forever as we are now, fully knowing even our future sins and denial of Him at that moment. And He still loves us.

So that’s why I know both accounts are true, yet a snap shot of different events at different times. I don’t know if the robber who became a believer mocked Jesus prior to or after Jesus told him that day he would be with Him in paradise. Perhaps as the pain and agony grew more and more intense, he found himself questioning like John the Baptist are you the one or should we expect another or maybe before his confession he joined with the crowd and the other robber mocking Jesus and the kindness of Jesus eventually led him to repentance… But it doesn’t matter when it happened because Jesus has absorbed all past, present and future sins and the truth of knowing this brings me great joy to realize I’m not perfect and God doesn’t delight in me on my “good” days and hide from me on my “bad” days.

Ha the funny thing that as I was writing this God affirmed this by a song that came on my Pandora station, How Deep the Father’s love for us. Check out the following vs:

Behold the Man upon the cross,
my sin upon His shoulders.
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
call out among the scoffers.

Jesus came for the sinners not the righteous. He called Peter to Himself and on that same day He knew that Peter would deny Him 3 times in the near future, yet this was one of His closest and most loved allies. This undeserved Grace frees us from shame and guilt and allows us to enjoy Him to the fullest and walk out in Power even when we fail.