paint

"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." - Isaiah 1:18

This past Sunday, members of my church's Men's Ministry gathered in the Atrium of our church to paint the walls as this quarter's service project. The two-story walls have not been painted in almost 10 years and were showing signs of dirt, grime and few unsightly gouges. Our task was to repair areas where necessary and re-paint with the same white color.

If you've ever painted a wall with the same color, you know the problem that lay ahead; you can't tell where you've painted and where you haven't, except in those dirty areas where the new coat of fresh white paint stood out.

The dynamics of sin and grace have the same problem. We cannot fully understand or comprehend the magnitude of God's grace without realizing the magnitude of our sins and our helplessness to save ourselves. Salvation and redemption look the best when painted on the canvas of our fallen humanity.

The cost to bring us out of these shackles of sin is high...extremely high. After all, "the wages of sin is death!"  But Jesus stepped into our place, to take our sins upon His own back and die the death prescribed for us, so that we may be made righteous before God.

Grace may be freely given, but its cost was anything but free.

-glenn w. miller