I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Ephesians 4:1
Imagine three men in prison, each sentenced to ten years. A fourth man makes an arrangement with the authorities to serve their sentences for them by going to prison for thirty years. The three convicts will be allowed to go free. He goes in and make this offer to them.
The first man refuses. He says that he will not let someone else take his place and suffer the punishment for crimes that he himself committed. It’s just not right.
The second man doesn’t hear any of that speech because he is already packing up his belongings and heading for the door.
The third man hugs the stranger and thanks him with tears in his eyes. He promises to make the most of this second chance and to live better than he did before.
Whose response was best? How would you respond if you were one of the three?
Perhaps the first man has it right. He is correct that no one else should have to take his place. He earned the punishment. He deserves it.
Unfortunately some folks react this way to God’s offer of salvation. They reject it because they can’t wrap their minds around the idea of someone volunteering to take their punishment. Their sense of justice won’t allow it.
The second man in the story is clearly not thankful. He’s fine with someone else taking his place. He doesn’t care if it’s fair; he just knows it’s good for him. He will likely go right back to his old life and never give this self-sacrificing stranger another thought.
Likewise there are people out there who love the idea of being saved, having their guilt removed, but they don’t quite appreciate what it cost to make that possible. Nor do they have any real intention of making any changes.
If the scenario described above were literal, perhaps it would be right to refuse the offer. But if we’re talking about God offering to forgive our sins, and if He’s already “laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6), it only makes sense to accept the offer as the third man did— gratefully and humbly, always remembering the one who paid that price to secure our release, and always trying to live up to his example as best we can.
The apostle Paul claimed to be chief of sinners, and indeed Jesus himself said that Paul (then Saul) was persecuting him (1 Timothy 1:15; Acts 9:4). But Paul accepted the free offer of forgiveness and later wrote this: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain,” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
And here’s a twist for you: the one who offers to take our place, to stand in for us when we meet the Judge, he is the very one we sinned against to land us in prison in the first place! And what’s more, he’s also offered to make us his brothers, to give us a place as “joint heirs” (Romans 8:17) in his glorious kingdom. Do we deserve it? Absolutely not. But we can try to make the most of the opportunity. Don’t let God’s offer of grace toward you be in vain.
Of course the final twist to the story is that only the third man is actually released, and he walks out with his rescuer because many years ago that benevolent stranger already served the three decades as an innocent man.
If someone came and offered to serve your sentence for your crime, how would you respond? And what would that person ask in return? Perhaps he would say what Paul said to the Christians in Thessalonica:
You know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
Dear God, Your offer of grace is so contrary to what we deserve. We know we have sinned and yet we know that Jesus has paid the price. To reject this gift or to take it for granted would hurt You even more, so help us to live in such a way that his sacrifice is not in vain. Help us to walk worthy of the calling into Your kingdom and glory. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
by Christie Cole Atkins
Walk Worthy 