For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. (1 Timothy 2:5-6, ESV)
When the golf has been played, the drinks are in hand, and the hors d’oeuvres are being consumed with vigor, there is only one question left at the end of many member-guest events: Will there be one?
Maybe that’s not the question you were expecting. Maybe you were thinking the question would be, Who won? Yes, we want to know that, and we’re willing to give the winners their due celebration—as long as they are not that one.
It seems that too often these events are won by a team whose handicaps are not quite right. They’re sandbaggers. Cheats. And of them we whisper among ourselves those disdainful words: “There’s always one.” It’s the expression we save for outliers who ignore propriety or convention or, in this case, the rules. It says, “We’re all doing the right thing here, all except for that one.”
Can I give you some worse news? There’s almost always more than one. It was in 1964 that US Surgeon General Luther Terry first detailed the undeniable dangers of smoking. Yet 15 percent of Americans still smoke regularly. Shockingly, the count of smokers in the top ten smoking countries in the world comes in at 38 percent in No. 10 Chile to 52 percent in No. 1 Kiribati. Puff, puff, puff.
Every day I’m a sinner, a lawbreaker, a renegade against God’s holiness.Recently, the California Highway Patrol reported that since the state’s highways have opened up because of the coronavirus, speeding tickets have increased by 83 percent. People just can’t help themselves!
When it comes to the story of Scripture, that’s it in a nutshell. We can’t help ourselves. Even when there was only one team on earth, that team failed. So it can be said of all of us, “There’s always one.” I may not be today’s Big Sinner, but I’ll be tomorrow’s. Or the next day’s. Wait, even that’s not true, for every day I’m a sinner, a lawbreaker, a renegade against God’s holiness.
But the story of Scripture goes on. Precisely because I can’t help myself, God sent another. Not that one, but the one.
When Paul wrote to Timothy that Jesus is the one mediator between God and man, he was following up these words: “God our Savior…wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” See that? God wants us to be saved. If we were good on our own, never that one, we would have no need for salvation, no need for a mediator. But one honest look in the mirror eliminates that possibility.
Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom. He did this out of kindness and mercy, yes, but foremost he did it out of necessity. Without him, we would stand no chance, going on in our sin, with no eternal hope. With him—and only with him—life can be ours.
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Jeff Hopper
May 4, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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