Killer

THIS WEEK we were reminded how evil people can be. You probably heard about the shooting at the Batman movie premier three days ago. 71 people shot, 12 people killed. Those killed were between 6 years old and 60. I don't get it. Totally random but strategically planned. And the shooter didn't even run. He just went out to his car and got arrested. He's obviously insane but very brilliant. It seems like he just killed people to kill people.

It really makes me worried about the world, and it reminds me just how much we need grace. We can't go living in fear that we'll be shot in movie theaters. Jesus is the antidote to all evil, and God is love. Our world is dying to have Him, and He is not far away.

1 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Watching the news last night, I heard about the people who had died and everything they left behind. The young and the old, and the three young men who all died protecting their girlfriends. Then I saw the face of the man who killed them, and the smug grin in his mugshot, and I realized that I hated him. It's weird, I don't think I remember the last time I hated somebody. But I looked at him and thought that that's a man who really doesn't deserve to keep sucking air. He shouldn't keep living. There's no excuse. Nothing that could make what he did okay.

There's no doubt the shooter is guilty and deserves to die. God is definitely furious about it, because He hates murder. It's a personal insult to His workmanship, to the humanity that bears His image, and to the breath of life He puts into every person.

I read this verse last night. Psalm 97:10 "You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked." Everything in God is opposed to what this man has done. But His grace means that our guilt doesn't have to rest on us if we'll let Him take it on Himself.

This has taught me something about God's grace. Lately I'm really learning how deeply dependent we are on Christ, and how limitless the possibilities are for change through Him. I remembered Barabbas, who was everything Jesus was not.

Mark 15:7 "And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion."

The crowd had him released instead of Jesus. They decided the sinless Son of God was more deserving to die than a murderer and a robber. The fact that he went free while Jesus dies is a picture of what grace is to us. He dies for those who deserve to die, and He rises to give us new life. If God is completely holy, then sin is sin, whether it's a lie or a murder, we don't deserve Him. He's life - it's just who He is. And we don't deserve to live, to be with Him - it's who we are.

I remembered Paul, who thought he was righteous because he devoted his life to killing Christians, until Jesus convicted him and changed his heart. Grace was able to reach him so completely that he became the greatest missionary in history, wrote half the New Testament, and died for Christ like a hero.

I think about the Bible, which is full of rejects whom God chose and redeemed with His undeserved grace, and I realize that all humanity belongs on our knees. We're the killers, but He's the One who died like one.

God can save evil people who deserve to die. It's just that our definition of that isn't quite the same as His. I hope that killer gets the death penalty, but I hope we don't all get it. How glorious is God, that His grace can completely redeem people who are as vicious and guilty as that killer? And how desperately do we need His grace, if our souls are found in the same position as his? Nothing can overrule what He's done.

Psalm 40:17 "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God."

God is very good. Knowing that His grace covers me is the greatest blessing in my life. And walking with Him constantly reveals to me the depth of my need and the height of His love.