Neal Pollard
It seems there are endless stories out there that are very similar in nature. 88-year-old Army veteran Ed Bombas lost his pension and healthcare when General Motors went bankrupt and his wife was sick. He was having to work 40 hours a week to meet his expenses. An Australian TikTok influencer helped raise $1.5 million so he could retire. What about Richard, the elderly DoorDash driver who had to go back to work to pay for expensive mediation for his wife. A woman who saw him slowly negotiating her steps via her Ring doorbell set up a GoFundMe for him, and it has nearly reached $1 million. Or Betty, the 81-year-old waitress at an Eat’n Park in Pittsburgh, whose plight touched a customer who raised $300,000 to help the woman who lived on less than $1,000 in social security to retire. Perhaps you focus on the sad sagas of these senior citizens, forced to work despite limitations. But, the sheer outpouring from people touched by the adverse circumstances of sympathetic strugglers should restore at least some of our faith in humanity. Ed, Richard, and Betty all seem endearing, but so are those who have given.
What words do you use to describe generosity that was exhibited to people far less sympathetic and deserving? Paul writes, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Words like “helpless,” “righteous,” and “good” might describe some, but words like “ungodly” and “sinners” describe “us.” It takes in those three elderly folks, as well as the rest of the world including you and me. Paul has already summoned other descriptive terms, like “ungodliness” and “unrighteousness” (1:18; 3:5), “without excuse” (1:20), “foolish heart was darkened” (1:21), “fools” (1:22), “lusts” and “impurity” (1:24), “degrading passions” (1:26), “shameless deeds” and “error” (1:27), “depraved minds” and “not proper” (1:28), a litany of wicked behaviors (1:29-32), “without excuse” and “condemned” (2:1), “stubbornness” and “unrepentant hearts” (2:5), “selfish ambitions” and “disobedient” (2:8), “evil” (2:9), and “condemned” (3:9). This is not even exhaustive. Paul sums up by saying there is none righteous (3:10), that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (3:23), and that all sinned (5:12).
But look at the generosity of God to such undeserving people as we all are. Christ gave His life for us (5:6). God loved us enough to enable it to happen (5:8). He reconciles and saves us (5:9). He gives us the gift of grace (5:15-17) and justification (5:18). He makes us righteous (5:19). He gives us eternal life (5:21), infinitely more than $1.5 million and more enduring than a few years at the end of our lives. The One who owns it all gave the very best for totally undeserving people who weren’t victims of undeserved circumstances. We got ourselves into a mess by choice, and God gets us out of it by His choice!
The recipients of monetary help in those stories and videos shed tears and expressed unbelief. How should we respond, in view of God’s unparalleled generosity?
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