So, right about now those of us who remember the way our world was shaken on 9-11 are celebrating the fact that the mastermind behind the horrendous events is dead. I myself was relieved and felt vindicated. I remember worrying about my Dad at Ft. Bragg while we were in Pittsburgh. I remember seeing the towers fall on live TV. I remember feeling a pain that was more than physical - my security, comfort, and trust were all brought down as I watched a powerful symbol of the Free World come crashing to the ground. I remember being scared about another attack. I remember the plane going down in Somerset just a few minute's drive away. I remember the fear. I remember watching as people mourned their losses. I remember sending my Dad off to war. I remember wondering if he was coming back. I remember praying that God would keep my Daddy safe and I remember hoping that bin Laden be captured, then drawn and quartered, or flayed alive, or anything to prolong his agony before he died. I didn't think of the fact that no matter how he dies, he's gonna be in eternal agony. As the worst of sinners, a man who believed in a false prophet (eternally cursed according tothe Apostle Paul) he deserved as much agony as we could give him.
My reaction to bin Laden's death was joy. He'd gotten what he deserved, and died like a coward, using a woman as a shield. Even now, I can't help feeling a sense of having won and the irony of it all being just and right. He died like a rat.
And then Madeliene, as she is so prone to doing, shook my world again. She said in the car this morning that she was sad that bin Laden had died, but relieved. I asked her why she was sad. "It's kinda complicated and confusing" she said "I am relieved that he can't hurt anyone else, and even glad about that. But now, he can't be forgiven. He missed his chance, and now he's seperated from Jesus forever. I can't imagine being seperated from Jesus. It would be horrible."
and I thought...CONVICTION
This kid knows the meaning of Grace. my almost-eleven-year-old-sister understands the gospel better than I do.
Granted, she doesn't remember the Twin Towers. She was a baby. Her world wasn't shaken that day. But she does know that this man has caused Thousands upon Thousands to die. Some have even gone to hell because of his delusion that he was doing the will of God. She knows that Daddy put his life in danger because this man was alive. But she wouldn't deny him the Grace that God extends to every man, woman and child. I can't say that I would do the same. Deserving of death? Osama was. Deserving of eternal seperation from God and eternal agony? Madeliene knew that wasn't her place to judge.
You see, Madeliene, in her short life, seems to have grasped exactly what Paul meant when he said "For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, emphasis mine) and "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). We are all sinners. We are all equally deserving of eternal seperation from God. "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For He who said "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." If you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker" (James 2:10-11).
I'm reading this awesome book by Jerry Bridges called The Discipline of Grace at the same time that I am reading Prodigal God by Tim Keller. In both books, the authors define sin as anything that does not glorify God. Anything that does not glorify God is an act of rebellion against Him, basically spitting in His face. According to this definition, obedience to the law in order to show what a perfect Christian YOU are instead of how good God is, is in fact sin and rebellion against Him. I am guilty of rebelling against God every day of my life, for I am guilty of doing things for reasons other than those that would glorify God. That's in addition to just breaking the law of God about 325,000 times a day (ok, so that might be an exaggeration - there aren't even that many seconds in a day...but you get my point). I am a sinner - a lawbreaker - and the worst kind. One who does so knowing what it costs and yet does it anyway. I deserve death. I deserve seperation from God. I deserve hell just as much as Osama bin Laden did, if my actions are the measure by which I'm accepted into heaven.
but Madeliene understands something else -
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
Madeliene understands that no matter what our sin was, is or will be, God's paid for it already. He made Christ Jesus the representative of all humanity, and though Christ had lived a sinless life, he absorbed the entire penalty of our sin - everything we deserved: God's hatred, malice, justice, essentially everything I wanted to see Osama bin Laden receive at the hand of American soldiers. Christ knew the penalty, and took it for us. Being one with God, he knew how powerful God's hatred of sin was. And he took it. He hung there and drank it all. And all He asks in return is that we accept His love, His sacrifice, His payment for our just desserts, while we live our days on this planet. ANYTIME while we live our life, grace is available to us.
And my brother, the son of Adam, Osama bin Laden, missed his chance. He could have been saved from everything, but he wouldn't accept the forgiveness of God. And you know what? If I had been there, I wouldn't have given him a chance to do it. I would have sent him straight to hell for everything he's done. I would have been guilty of denying him the chance God mercifully extended to me.
None of this is to say Osama would have taken it. I doubt very strongly that he would...he was living his life for something else that he believed was right and good. He denied the grace of God with his every breath. But that's not my point. My point is that my reaction to what I've been viewing as a triumph is wrong. This is a tragedy. There was a free gift of grace for this man, this fellow sinner, and he just didn't grasp it before he died.
If this has meant anything to you at all, then do what I did after dropping Madeliene off at school this morning. Thank God for the gift of grace that he's extended to all of us. If you haven't already, please accept the fact that you can't get to heaven on your own merit, that it is the grace of God in sacrificing His Son as the payment for our crimes and belief in that grace alone that saves us. Commit to a life that you will live for the glory of God, even when you mess up. Which you will. And tell someone about it. Pray and begin a journey toward heaven that will make your life a triumph of God instead of a tragedy of Men.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:17-19
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13
