Grace Amazing

A few nights ago, I was watching Saving Private Ryan on TV. It's a great film which reminds me of the unbelievable price so many soldiers paid for our freedom. I caught it just before the climactic final scene where Private Ryan has been rescued and the brave Captain who had given his life to protect the young man pulled him close and with his dying breath issued an impossible challenge..."Earn it"! The scene flashes forward to an elderly Ryan on the shores of Normandy at the graveside of that Captain. As he weeps at the tomb, we see the pain and guilt that has haunted him every day since he had been saved. Those words, "Earn it", replayed in his mind perpetually and he was haunted by the fear that he owed a debt he could never repay.

Sadly, many Christians choose to live in this type of guilt and hopelessness. The fact is, Christ paid a debt on our behalf that we could never possibly repay. In our pride and self-sufficiency, we're quick to trade in the freedom of grace for the treadmill of good works as we attempt to earn our salvation. We convince ourselves that God won't be pleased with us until He sees how good we are, but Jesus didn't die for us because we were good, He did it because He is good, and He didn't use his dying words to say "earn it". Instead, He said, "it is finished"! Stop trying to earn grace and start embracing the freedom of it. Our victory is not in our goodness, but in the goodness of our Savior.