May.23.02: Light For The Day - "Grace"

-- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

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The Last Emporer

In the movie The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a life of luxury with 1000 servants at his command.

"What happens when you do wrong?" his brother asks?

"When I do wrong, someone else is punished," the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten.

In Christianity, Jesus reversed that ancient pattern: when the servants erred, the King was punished. Grace is free only because the giver Himself has borne the cost of love.

-- Phillip Yancey.

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-- 1 John 4:10 (NIV)
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

-- John 1:14 (NIV)
"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
16 From the fullness of His grace we have all received
one blessing after another.
17 For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."