Not In Minutes But Millenniums
Robert G. Ingersoll was a very outspoken atheist.
One night after an inflammatory speech in which he emphasized the folly of believing in God, he dramatically took out his watch and said-
– “I’ll give God a chance to prove that He exists and is almighty. I challenge Him to strike me dead within 5 minutes!”
At the end of the allocated time, the atheist exclaimed, “See! There is no God. I am still very much alive!”
After the lecture a young fellow said to a friend, “Well, Ingersoll certainly proved something tonight!”
“Yes, he did,” his friend replied. “He proved that even the most defiant sinner can’t exhaust the mercy of God in just five minutes!”
From beginning to end, the history of the Bible-
– measured not in minutes but millenniums–reveals the inexhaustible mercy of God.
“You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world.” Ephesians 2:1-2.
.
Maybe you are acutely aware of just how sinful you are.
You want to believe that Jesus loves you but wonder how he could accept someone with a past like yours?
Maybe you know exactly what Paul was talking about when he said, “We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:3.
God knows the specifics of your life.
He knows the specifics of every single life that has ever crossed the face of this earth.
And nothing anyone has done makes this verse any less true:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:4-7.
I know I don’t deserve any mercy from God.
But mercy isn’t about what we deserve.
Mercy is about God and His love for us.
(PR)