REASONS 4 BELIEVING

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast. – Ephesians 2:8,9

There are truly many ideas in our religious world about how a person is “saved.”  Yet, all agree that there is a need for salvation. All the world religions agree on the way a person is saved, except for Christianity.  All the religions of the world believe that they must “do” some kind of “work” to merit their way into the better life to come, except Christianity.  Christianity holds to the biblical teaching that salvation is by “grace” through “faith” alone, and that salvation is “the gift of God” apart from human efforts called “works.”  Mankind is so ingrained with a works mentality of “do right”-“live right” in order to receive eternal life that when the freedom of “grace” is shared they don’t know how to act.  This reminds me of Bunny the Elephant.

There was an animal trainer who was in charge of the elephant exhibit and one day while the school children were visiting the zoo they stopped by to see Bunny the Elephant.  They watched as Bunny performed her tricks.  The children were amazed because the trainer led Bunny the Elephant with a very slim and tiny rope.  The school children asked the trainer how he could control that huge animal with such a small rope?  Bunny was so enormous that there was no way that that small rope could restrain her 7000 pounds of strength.  The trainer said that when Bunny was born they immediately put a rope around her and at that time, being a newborn elephant, the rope could control and restrain her.  As she grew they did not have to change the size of the rope, because it was ingrained into her thinking and into her mind set that that rope controls her, restrains her, and she could go nowhere without it.  Nevertheless in reality she could break the rope like a piece of thread.  Then one of the children asked the trainer, “What would happen if you took the rope off to set her free?”  Well, years later, Bunny retired to an elephant sanctuary where they took off the rope and set her free.  At first she slowly roamed around not knowing what to do, but then she made a loud elephant noise of joy and enjoyed her newfound freedom away from concrete floors and dry bails of hay.

When we first heard of the good news of salvation by grace, we were like Bunny the Elephant – we didn’t know what to do!  Yet, once we received the truth that we are made free by God’s grace through His Son Jesus Christ, we quickly adapted to our new spiritual environment and made a joyful noise to the LORD – as did Bunny!

 (Published in the Marshall County Tribune) 

David C. Hale, pastor

email:   reasons4believeing@gmail.com