grace – Matthew's Musings

There’s a story about an old man who died and met St. Peter at the gates of heaven.

Peter explained, “You’re going to need 100 points to get in. Tell me what good things you’ve done in your life, and I’ll tell you how many points it was worth.”

The man said, “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and was a great husband.”

Peter replied, “Great. That’s three points.”

“Three points!?” the man replied. “Well, I went to church every time the doors were opened and gave generously.”

Peter said, “Good work. That’s three more points.”

The man started to get nervous, so he tried to think of what else he had done. “I went on mission trips every year and preached the gospel to thousands!”

Peter said, “OK. I think that’s worth a point.”

The man was panicked—just one point? The math wasn’t working out. There was no way he could reach 100 points. He thought and thought of all the good that he had done and finally cried out in terror, “At this rate, the only way I’ll get in is by the grace of God.”

Peter smiled and said, “Come on in. Now you get it.”

We don’t do good deeds to bribe God with our goodness. We don’t do good deeds to undo our previous bad deeds. We don’t do good deeds to impress people around us. We do good deeds as our way of saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for the grace that saved me! I want to share it with the world!”

Questions from Genesis

To give you an insight into my background: There’s a creationist group that promotes a literal understanding of Genesis called “Answers in Genesis.” They’re the ones that have drawn so much attention for the “Creation Museum.” I generally tend to agree with them and appreciate a more literal reading of Genesis, but I’ve always found their name to be a bit funny. I believe scripture to be inspired and inerrant, from God for man. It would follow then, that Scripture is written to be understood. Of all books other than Revelation, however, I find there to be more questions than answers in Genesis.

Here’s a few “What ifs” and “hypotheticals” I’ve gathered.

Was all creation vegetarian? It appears meat was not given until after the flood. I’ve heard of post-fall changes, but never really post-flood changes.
Was there reproduction in the garden? Eve’s pain in childbearing was greatly multiplied (indicating it didn’t start at zero…) (Gen 3:16) The command to ‘be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it’ (Gen 1:26-30) was pre-fall. Was there sex in the garden?
Had you ever noticed that the animals were considered as possible companions for Adam? They were rejected, of course. Think they could talk? After all, no one seemed surprised by the talking serpent with legs…
I never noticed that animals had the breath of life (Gen 1:26-30). Though not made in the image of God, they had that part of his essence.

I probably get distracted by trivia a bit too easily…but it’s interesting to ask the “What ifs.” What if the south had won the civil war? (Sorry to burst someone’s bubble…) What if my cat could talk…? What if I could fly?

The real tragedy of the first few chapters of Genesis is knowing that there was zero room for the question: “What if man never fell…” It’s a mere ten generations from fall to flood, and thanks to long lifespans, it seems that everyone would have been intimately familiar with the story of sin in the garden, yet each generation grew worse. “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5).

God hardly seemed to have a rosy outlook about his creation. That realism only makes his grace more impressive to me…and there’s no question about that!