“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …” — Romans 3:23
A Different Kind of Hero
As sports enthusiasts, we often remember certain athletes who rise to the occasion for their team and become heroes. Great players know that the team should come first, but there are times when one person must be in the right place at the right time. They may direct a two-minute march like John Elway or Peyton Manning, take charge of the game like Michael Jordan or Stephen Curry, or toe the rubber and fire masterful pitches like Mariano Rivera or Craig Kimbrel.
Coaches, managers, teammates and fans invest much in their heroes and expect great feats when the game is in that person’s hands. It is often written that they “saved” the game from being lost to the opponent, much like a comic book hero saves people from a villain.
The Bible is a story of how God proves Himself heroic time and again. Greater than all earthly “heroes,” He chooses to offer salvation to the “villains” — those who have rejected His offer. That includes all of us, before we come to know God through Jesus Christ. We are all sinners and do not deserve God’s heroic efforts, as Romans 3:23 states.
When Adam and Eve chose the pleasures of sin over His plan in Genesis 3, God came through in the clutch and worked out His loving and gracious way for man to be forgiven of wrongdoing. In the Old Testament, it was through the sacrifices of animals. Then in the New Testament, this act of heroism was made complete. Jesus entered the scene, as John the Baptist described in John 1:29, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
He showed the world what God is like, lived a perfect life, died and rose from the grave to be our eternal hero.
— Allen Kent, Kathleen, Ga.
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