Not All Ransoms are Equal
In Rome, July, 1973, John Paul Getty III, the 16-year-old grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped by a group linked to the Italian mafia. The kidnappers initially demanded that the young man's grandfather pay $17 million, but the senior Getty was notoriously frugal (errr, cheap). So despite his tremendous wealth, he refused to pay the ransom. He highly suspected that the kidnapping might have been staged to extort money from him. He justified his decision to withhold payment by saying, “If I pay one penny now, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”
Over the next five months, with negotiations at a stand still, the teenager continued to be held captive. In November, to prove they weren't fooling around, the kidnappers sent a package to a Rome newspaper containing a lock of the boy's hair and his severed ear. The message was clear: Pay up, or death is imminent.
Public image finally won out over greed and/or frugality, and Getty finally agreed to pay -- not the full $17 million, but rather a mere $3 million. Getty himself would contribute $2.2 million, the maximum amount that was tax deductible. The remaining $800,000 he lent to his son, the boy's father, at a rate of 4 percent interest. The boy was released on December 15, 1973.
Not all ransoms are equal. In eternity past, the wealthiest of the wealthy -- the God of all creation -- looked into the future and saw that His children would be held hostage to the greatest enemy of all -- sin and death. Not wishing that "any should perish," He determined right then and there that He would pay His ALL to ransom them from certain death.
In this scenario, it wasn't the Rescuer or Redeemer who balked at the cost, but rather the hostages who continue to balk at the prospect of needing redemption. How foolish! The ransom has been PAID IN FULL, yet the hostages all too often choose to remain captive.
"Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV).
"You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23, ESV).
"And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9, ESV).
"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2, ESV).
Runner's Cause Of Death: Struck By An Airplane
Running certainly has its hazards, but never has aircraft been one of them. But, that is exactly what caused the death of Robert Gary Jones who was running on the beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The 38-year-old husband who was the father of two apparently never heard the single-engine plane, which had lost its propeller, as it made an emergency landing on the beach. The pilot had engine troubles and was trying to get to the Hilton Head airport. The coroner’s office said that this type of plane, an Experimental Lancair IV-P, is so quiet that Jones might not have heard it even without his earphones on (news information via WTOC.com).
Whenever such a random, tragic act occurs, we are baffled. It certainly points out that life could not be more uncertain and we cannot possibly anticipate the future (cf. Jas. 4:13). We might be tempted to wonder what this man did wrong to die such an unlikely death. Jones may have been an evil man, but he could just as easily have been an upstanding citizen and model husband and father.
Jesus warns against such thinking that would see this as an act of divine judgment or punishment. Luke 13:1-5 says, “Now on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them,’ Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’”
His message is universal in scope. Everybody has the same individual responsibility. We must live holy lives, repenting of the sin in our lives. We may suffer some terrible earthly tragedy that is in no way brought on by our own sinfulness. In a fallen world, these kinds of things occasionally happen. Our task is to live ready for eternity in every moment!
A Day Without Grace
Devotional Thought:
Every moment of the day, God's grace awaits us behind the door of repentance. Without repentance, it is impossible to access grace. To be saved by grace, we must repent (or turn) from faith in our own ability to be good enough to earn Heaven and receive God's gracious offer, instead. To receive the grace to forgive, we must repent of our bitterness and legalisms. To receive grace to love unconditionally, we must repent of our habit of treating others the way they treat us.
Every turn to grace begins with a turn away from the way we would normally do something. This means that to go through a day without repentance is to go through a day without grace. That’s why the word “repent,” and the various calls to turn from our former life, appears so often in the pages of Scripture.
What we have to ask is how have we come to think that we can live a grace-filled-life without repentance?
"Repent and believe in the Gospel!" (Mark 1:15).
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires" (Ephesians 4:22).