Pictures of the Miracle of Grace
How do you explain to a three-year-old child what electricity is? How do you explain to those deep in the African jungles, who have never traveled more than twenty-five miles from where they live, what traffic lights are for and how an elevator works? How can a physicist ever hope to explain Einstein's relativity theory to a person whose education remained limited to elementary school? God faced a communication gap that went far beyond these examples of human communication barriers. The divine love demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus Christ cannot be captured fully in human words. Yet, God wanted us to have an adequate idea of what is involved in His plan of salvation. God inspired the authors of the Scriptures to use a number of different word pictures, each of which give us further insight into the mystery of His grace. None of these images should be used in isolation from the other perspectives. Taken together, however, they will leave us with a sense of wonder and immense gratitude.
What is one of the most prominent word pictures God used to help us catch some profound glimpses of the mystery of grace? Isa. 53:7, John 1:29.
What other symbolism is used to illustrate a further dimension of the truth of the atonement? Matt. 20:28, Acts 20:28, 1 Cor. 6:20.
We must be careful not to use one particular symbol to the exclusion of other "word pictures." When we combine everything that is said about the atonement, we arrive at as full a picture as we finite human beings can absorb. Nevertheless, the image of a ransom, of a high price paid for us, is a powerful one. "Christ redeemed us from sin, that is, He bought us back from sin. . . . What the metaphor intends is that (a) the means of our salvation is costly and that (b) we have passed from one state to another—from the state of slavery to the state of nearness to God. A redemption means the passing over of ownership at a cost."—Edward W. H. Vick, Let Me Assure You (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press® Publishing Association, 1968), p. 33.
| Dwell on the implications of this idea that the Creator of the universe, the One who made all that is (John 1:1-3), voluntarily went to the cross as the only means of saving us from eternal ruin. Why should the reality of this truth heavily influence how we live? Think how foolish it is to let anything earthly turn us away from the Cross. |
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