Getting What We Don’t Deserve

It was the first night of camp, and a group of tough kids from the city had hardly unpacked when the leaders received word about a theft. A work crew kid was missing a wallet, $35, and a watch. The next morning, Kirk, the intern from the city, found the empty wallet in his cabin. He immediately called his guys together and hit them with the hard facts.

“Man, you guys did exactly what society expected you to do. You just proved them right. And it’s a shame. Now you’ve got 20 minutes to produce that money and the watch, or we’re all going home.” Kirk walked out and shut the door. He could hear the guys shouting at one another and scrambling around inside the cabin. In a moment, the door opened again, and the toughest kid in the crowd presented Kirk with the $35 and the watch. The money was already spent, but the kids had emptied their pockets and pooled their cash.

When the staff person came to pick up the stolen goods, someone asked, “Who did it?” Kirk replied, “We all did it. We’re all guilty. We’re in this together.” The kids were shocked by Kirk’s display of solidarity. Then he shut the cabin door and started to preach.

“Let’s talk about grace,” he said to the silent cabin. “Grace is getting something you don’t deserve. God is going to correct you, but he’s going to forgive you. Jesus is going to break you, but he’s going to remake you. We all deserve to go home, but we’re going to get to stay.” It was only the first morning of camp, but God already had the undivided attention of 17 tough guys from the city.

A few nights later, Kirk invited the work crew kid who had been robbed to come to his cabin and to share his own experience of God’s grace with the guys. After the young man left that night, Kirk said, “Now I’m going to say a prayer, and if any of you want to pray with me and give your lives to God, then just do it.” By the end of the prayer, 17 baritone voices had cried out to Jesus Christ.

A mother, trying to soften the blow of the family cat’s death, told her daughter, “Tabby is in heaven now.” The little girl looked at her mother quizzically, then asked, “Why would God want a dead cat?”

It was one man’s—Adam’s—sin that brought a death sentence upon all of his descendants. It was the one Man, Christ, who brought life to all of His descendants, that is, to everyone who believes God’s Word and is born of God. Notice through this section how many times Adam and Christ are contrasted by use of the words “by one man.” Christ is called the “last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:45–47, because in rising from the dead He became the head of a new race of people, those born twice, born from above by believing in Him.

As sinners, separated from God, we see his law from below. Sometimes it seems like a ladder to be climbed to get to God. Perhaps we have repeatedly tried to climb it, only to fall to the ground every time we have advanced one or two rungs. Or perhaps the sheer height of the ladder is so overwhelming that we have never even started up. In either case, what relief we should feel to see Jesus with open arms, offering to lift us above the ladder of the law, to take us directly to God. Once Jesus lifts us into God’s presence, we are free to obey—out of love, not necessity, and through God’s power, not our own. Then we know that if we stumble, we will not fall back to the ground. Instead, we will be caught and held in Jesus’ loving arms.