**Earn This** Last night I watched the movie Saving Private Ryan. I try to watch it once a year. Its just one of those movies; extremely powerful and deeply moving. One of the lines that has always struck a chord with me is John Millers last line (Tom Hanks character). At the conclusion of a brutal journey in which many men have died to save Private Ryan, Miller tells Ryan to earn this. In other words, go and give meaning to the lives that were lost for you by living a good life. It is a powerful line and one that reminds each of us to not take our freedom for granted. But it can carry a heavy burden, cant it? I mean, how can you truly earn such a sacrifice? At the end of the movie an elderly Ryan says to his wife, Tell me Im a good person. Last night as I watched for the hundredth time, I couldnt help wondering if this question had plagued Ryan for his entire life. The film seems to suggest that it did which made me almost wish that Hanks character had said something else. That Jesus, the Lord, never said, earn this as he hung bruised and battered from the cross, is of the greatest significance. Can you imagine if He had? We would be striving daily to earn a priceless gift through our own works of religion. Can you imagine how burdensome this would be for people? By the end of our lives we would be wondering if we really were good enough for God. The free gift of eternal life is free for us because Christ paid the price. He never expected us to earn it, and it is a good thing because we could never do so in a million years. Instead of saying, earn this Jesus said, it is finished. Salvation is free, indeed. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 15:06:53 +0000
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