A Perfect 10
Romanian gymnastics sensation Nadia Comaneci took the gymnastics world by storm in the 1970s. Crowds were mesmerized by her grace, her athleticism, and her off the charts skill and technique. They (and the judges) came to anticipate only the best performances from her. But no one — not the crowd, not the judges, not the arena techies, not even Nadia — was prepared for what happened when then 14 year old Nadia Comaneci took to the uneven bars at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
Nadia approached the bars with her usual, fiery determination. She executed her mount, each element, each transition, each flip, even the dismount to perfection. No, really! Perfection! No one, NO ONE had ever done that before!
“[Even the] scoreboard didn’t know what to do: it wasn’t able to display the four digits needed to show a row of 10.00s, because nobody had even conceived that it was possible.”
Nadia stood confused as she saw the 1.00 scores from each of the seven judges flashing on the board. It took a moment to sink in that she’d achieved what no one thought possible — a perfect 10!
The announcer exclaimed, “A 10 has gone on the board, and that’s perfection, that is Olympic history!”
“Once it was proved achievable, though, she couldn’t stop doing it: Comaneci got six more perfect tens as she swept to three gold medals (all around, uneven bars and balance beam) and international superstardom.”
When it comes to life, not one of us will ever achieve a perfect score. Scripture is clear, “We all like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6, NIV). “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23, NLT).
But there is One who has achieved it! “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV), exchanging His perfect life, His perfect obedience for our own imperfect, sinful selves.
It’s so unexpected! We stand amazed, like the Olympic commentators, because "nobody had even conceived that it was possible."
We stare at the scoreboard, shocked to see that perfect score attributed to our performance.
Our sinful souls now stand justified in His presence. As such, all that we now do “in Him” will resound in the heart of the Father as perfection. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV).
In Christ, we score a perfect 10!
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (Philippians 3:12, NLT).
Trading Places
John Stott:
The concept substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.
John R. W. Stott is known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist and communicator of Scripture. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). His many books, including Why I Am a Christian and The Cross of Christ, have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages.
While we make a poor substitute for God, He proves to be the perfect substitute for us. Thus, we would all do well to leave the substituting to Him.
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Gathered Chicks
A country preacher saw an overgrown field, rank with tall weeds, which was on fire. The flames rose high into the sky, and the line of fire raced across the field driven by a strong, dry, summer wind. Within a short time the flames had consumed the vegetation of the field, and having no more fuel available at the pasture's edge, had subsided to a few flickering embers, and a rapidly dispersing cloud of smoke.
Thinking he should make sure the fire was out for good, the man entered the blackened field, walking back and forth across it, kicking each smoldering clump and stamping out the embers. Near the center of the pasture, he kicked over a clump which startled him. Underneath the charred, smoking pile of debris was a cluster of baby chicks, which immediately scattered in all directions. After his initial reaction, he realized the burnt clump was the body of a hen which had gathered her brood under her wings for protection from the flames.
How like our Lord Jesus! As he considered the inhabitants of the Holy City, he lamented, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37).
Like the hen, Jesus offered his own life in exchange for our salvation, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust..." (1 Peter 3:18).