Sun rise on the evil and the good

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? -Ezekiel 18:23

Once a person passes from life to death, his/her eternity is set. No "but;" no turning back. God made it clear that He does not rejoice in "the death of the wicked." In fact, "if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die." This reminds me of an objection to Christianity we hear a lot. How is it fair that a murderer could convert at the last moment of his/her life and go to heaven, while a "good" person who never kills anyone, a caring neighbor, a faithful husband/wife, and a loving father/mother goes to hell for not believing in Jesus? Well, this is how grace works. Salvation is offered to anyone; but everyone also has the choice to accept and reject such offer. God's grace is available to all, including those whom we think do not deserve it. At the end of the day, nobody deserves heaven. It's like we all got a "F," a fail grade, on heaven's entrance exam. It doesn't matter whether I am a mark off, or 49. I still failed. And if the Teacher decided to pardon all fail grades, then all are pardoned. Frankly, we are not even in the position to protest since we, too, failed.

To believe that Osama, like us, is also created in the image of God and is loved by God without partiality is a hard one to swallow. Following the logic above, if Osama had a chance to repent his sins and believe that Jesus had come to die for him, he would be saved as well. This is even harder to swallow, isn't it?

Perhaps we rejoice in our enemy's death because we do not see our own depravity. Like the thief on the cross beside Jesus. "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve." (Luke 23:41) But the one who "has done nothing wrong" died on the cross to pay for our sins in order that we may "be with [Him] in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

Am I relieved that lots of innocent lives are saved from potential harm as a result of Osama's death? Yes, I am. Shall we celebrate? I am doubtful. Remember how we felt when we saw Palestinians celebrated 9/11, dancing on the street and showing signs of victory?

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. -Matthew 5:44-45

Comments

WV Trilogy - Part 2

(If you haven't read Part 1, it's here .) (Sat) Oct 13 - Sunrise at Spruce Knob 6 a.m. start in the dark. My legs surprised me by being happier than yesterday. My heart is in better place as well. The first 6.7 mile goes up to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia. Part of this section was on fire road and I welcomed the faster miles. Steady progress was made in the first 20 miles or so until the long, long descent into Aid Station 3. As I have decided yesterday, I'd start the race, go from aid station to aid station, and re-evaluate my condition at each. I left Aid station 2 feeling good but then the long descent once again put doubts in my mind. Running reduced to little steps on jello-legs. Compression socks helped to contain the injury and pain, but the strength to support the pounding was still lacking. Soon, my knees started to hurt as well. At aid station 3, they told me I had 2:45 to make it to the next aid station before the cut-off. At the pace I...

more >>

New Year's resolution

Nine days into 2012 and a day before entering into a new age group is an opportune time to nail down some New Year's resolutions. 2011 was a good year, one that filled with transitions and norming -- be it moving from California to Charlotte, from being a student back to an architect, or starting fresh in a new territory to establishing roots and relationships. My new running and swimming communities had made the transition easy and welcoming, and partly because of that, much of my attention in the past year was on either sports, like running my first 50k and participating in my first swim meet. Having just graduated from seminary was probably the other half of the reason why I had been keeping a distance from structured studies / reading in 2011. With that said, my 2012 focus will be on balanced growth. While I still have a long list of goals in swimming and running, I need to make sure I allocate enough time and attention to spiritual and intellectual grow...

more >>

Blue Ridge Marathon

Bill Rodgers After reading so many people's blog on their experience of America's toughest road marathon, the Blue Ridge Marathon, I'm starting to lose my own chain of thought/memory. Bottom line is I had a lot of fun and surprised myself with a sub-4 finish. My estimate was around five hours, or maybe even 5:30 if condition was tough like last year's monsoon. Here's my account of it: Three and a half hour drive from Charlotte straight to packet pickup at Roanoke's Taubman Museum of Art, a modern and iconic building in contrast with the rest of the historical railroad downtown. It was Friday evening and the streets were lively. People were on the patio and on the street with live music playing. I strolled around a little but not too much since I wanted to save my legs. My hotel was only about a mile away. I contemplated on just walking there from the hotel, but ended up driving half a mile or so to park at the Civic Center. Half a mile could be a haul af...

more >>

+FillUs

Search This Blog