Law or Grace

In case you didn’t know, Dwayne and I along with our son, Bryce and his wife Kristen, traveled to Lima, Peru to spend Christmas with our daughter Brittne. I am back in the states and back to a computer and internet. I had planned on continuing the devotions while I was in Peru but the place we stayed didn’t have internet and when we were at Brittne’s it was too busy and too noisy to concentrate. However, I am home and back on schedule now. Thank you for your patience.
The first challenge we had in getting to Peru was dealing with the luggage. We could check one bag per person and each had a weight limit of 50 pounds. I had our clothes and items in one suitcase and I packed a plastic tub full of stuff for Brittne. It contained her Christmas presents from us and others, food and stockings for Christmas day, and toiletries and food that Brittne had requested. After several attempts to get it all to fit, I weighed it and with frustration looked at the number on the scale that read 58 pounds. I unpacked it again, took out three Velveeta cheeses and a 3 pound box of Bisquick, which of course was on the bottom. Since I took out 9 pounds, I figured the weight would now be less than 50 pounds. I packed one Velveeta and the Bisquick into my suitcase and put the other Velveeta’s into Bryce and Kristen’s suitcase. Then I had to put Kristen’s Christmas present from Bryce in my suitcase. I weighed my suitcase and it said 46 pounds. I didn’t really believe the number because the suitcase was too big to be evenly distributed on the scale but I figured I had 4 pounds as a back- up. When we got to the airport we hauled in all the suitcases and carry-ons and stood in the check in line. After ten minutes, the dreaded time came to weigh in the suitcases. The tub squeaked through but Kristen’s suitcase was a few pounds over and mine was 8 pounds over! We laid out our suitcases open for the all the people behind us to see. We started pulling out things we could stuff in Bryce and Kristen’s carry-ons. Kristen got her bag to the acceptable weight quickly, and after 3 times I finally got my bag accepted because I wore the manager down and he gave me 1.5 pounds of grace. Since the weight limits have been put into place, you have to pay for the over limit weight. I think this process is one of the most stressful parts of traveling anymore. I wish we could go back to the days there was no weight limit. If you could get your suitcase to the airport, it would go.
This experience reminded me of law and grace. We know what sin is. We were given the 10 commandments and not one of us is able to keep those 10. We sure aren’t able to keep all those plus others. However, there are times we think we are doing okay. We look on the surface and we look like a good Christian and feel pretty good about ourselves. Can you imagine being put on a scale to have the weight of your sin measured? How confident would you be in falling below the limit? Oh, I forgot to tell you what the limit is! The limit is zero. Anything above zero is over the limit. How confident are you now? It is a limit that seems hopeless. However, there is an amazing thing that can happen. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, His name is now written across you. Now when you step up on the scale that measures your sin, it doesn’t matter anymore. No matter what your sin would have weighed, it weighs nothing now because Jesus Christ has already paid the price for all of your sin! All those that weigh in under the name of Jesus, by His grace, weigh zero! For the Christian, there is no more stress of hoping we can make the impossible sin limit!

For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:17