“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8b, NIV 1984).

He was big, a John Wayne kind of a guy, still well-nourished, but tired after the treatment I had put him through. While examining him, I admired the leather jacket he was wearing. “There’s an interesting story about this coat,” he said. “It wasn’t long after I bought it that I was at a pawn shop I frequent. The clerk noted that someone was breaking into my car.” My patient paused. “I was carrying. I ran out to the car with my little pearl-handled pistol and caught the guy holding this jacket I’m wearing. I asked him, ‘Do you want me to shoot you first and then you try to run, or do you just want to run?’ He said, ‘I just want to run.’ So, he handed me the coat and took off. I let him go. It would have taken another hour and a half for me to deal with the police.”

Thank our Christ that God let us run before He shot us. As His blood dripped from the cross, He let us run right into His open arms.

He could have shot us first. He could have put us through the suffering we deserve for choosing ourselves over Him; and, perhaps, after we had suffered enough and learned our lesson, He might have taken us in.

But He shot himself first and let us run to Him.

“The marvel is, in the biblical view, not that men die for their sins, but that we remain alive in spite of them.” – John W. Wenham

Dear God,
Let me always be amazed by Your grace.
Amen