A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers 

Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  One would have thought that if a man’s son were savagely murdered that his heart would have been filled with malice and vindictiveness toward the one who had taken his precious child’s life.  But not so.  One night after Ed McCully, one of the missionaries who was slain by Auca Indians in Ecuador, died, his father, T. E. McCully prayed this prayer:  “Lord, let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ.”  T. E. McCully’s prayer was answered.  He had the privilege of going to Ecuador and winning the very man to Christ, who had inflicted the fatal blow on his dear son.  How, one would ask, could a person love someone who had murdered their son?  I will answer that question, with another.  How, could God love us, when we in fact did the same thing?  You see, it was not the Romans or the Jews that killed Jesus—it was you and me.  Our sins were upon Him.  Our transgressions had separated us from God and only through the atonement of sinless blood could sin forever be put away and mankind once again be reunited with a holy God.  It was not because the Auca Indians were good and had not committed any crimes, that T. E. McCully wanted them to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.  But it was because T. E. McCully had a love for them in his heart that was greater than the murder of his son.  God’s desire for us to be reconciled to Him was not based on any qualities in us that were worthy of redemption, but solely and exclusively because of His love for us.  In light of that unmerited love, how then should we respond to those who are far less egregious than even the Auca Indians were to Ed McCully and his associates?  The answer is before us in our text today.  If God loved us enough that He would allow His Son to die for us, when we were not worthy.  If T. E. McCully would love the one who murdered his son enough that he would desire him to become a believer, then how much more should we respond to those we encounter each day?  It is that depth of love that transforms old transgressions others have perpetrated against us, into the freedom of forgiveness that we can bestow to others, with each new day.