Grace as the Great Equalizer

Have you ever flown Southwest and seen someone famous on the plane? Once, flying from Lubbock to Dallas, I saw this guy with neck tattoos, hat pulled way down. The friend I was with nudged me, and said quietly, “Vanilla Ice”, nodding at the tall lanky man trying to hide in his window seat. Times have changed, but back then, everyone on a Southwest flight was an equal. Maybe you boarded a little earlier or later, but that was based on when you got to the airport, not on how much you spent or on having a special status with the airline.

What does that have to do with Romans? We all, every human who has ever lived or will ever live, start in the same condition with relation to God. We have all sinned. We all deserve eternity separated from our Creator. Yes, that’s a common refrain, but what does that mean for me personally?

I am no better, or worse, than anyone who has ever lived. When I come down hard on myself for failing, yet again, to live up to God’s perfect standards, I’m in some pretty good company. At the same time, I am not—no matter how much I would like to believe that I am—any better than the unrepentant sinner. I have done nothing to save myself and can do nothing to save myself.

So there’s this middle path that we need to find and stay on. I should not listen to the self-doubt that tells me I don’t deserve God’s grace. Of course I don’t deserve His grace; no one does. And that’s what makes the gift so much sweeter! At the same time, I cannot look down on anyone who hasn’t accepted the gift yet. After all, as the Puritan John Bradford remarked when watching a prisoner headed for the gallows, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.” In other words, without God’s grace, each of us is marked for death.

By threading this needle, I can better follow through on the second part of the Great Commandment—to love my neighbor. It is neither my role to judge myself, nor to judge my neighbor. Instead, I need to recognize the wonderful gift that I’ve received and see the freedom that grace gives me. And perhaps, most difficult of all, I need to approach those of the world with the same love God showed me.