When the Lord Passes By - Grace Is Extended!

One of the greatest stories of forgiveness in the Bible is found in the John 8. It is the story of a woman who was caught in the act of a sin that was so repulsive to the religious society of the day, the punishment for such an act was death by stoning.

There is an intriguing story told about a university professor. In this modern day of chain emails, and urban legend. . .it is nearly impossible to verify the truth of such stories, but it is compelling none the less. A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. “Did God create everything that exists?” One student bravely replied, “Yes he did!”“God created everything?” The professor asked. “Yes sir, he certainly did,” the student replied.The professor answered, “If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.”The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s hypothetical definition.The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?”“Of course”, replied the professor. The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The other students snickered at the young man’s question.The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?” The professor responded, “Of course it does.”The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”The professor sat down. The young student’s name, Albert Einstein.

The Bible records that when it comes to guilt or innocence, all of us are guilty of sin. (Romans 3:23) From the time of Adam and Eve until today and on as long as the human race survives, every person that is born will be born a sinner. “All” doesn’t mean me and not you. And “all” doesn’t mean you and not me. “All” means everyone. The forgiveness that Jesus offers to us is not because of our innocence. It is in spite of our guilt. In fact, according to the Bible, admitting our guilt is a requirement to receiving God’s forgiveness. (I John 1:9)