Some of you may have seen the television commercial that features a woman running from a store yelling, “Start the car. Start the car.” She got such a great bargain inside that store she thought she had just robbed the place. Sometimes after I read Ephesians 2 I feel like yelling, “Start the car.” Paul tells us we have received eternal life and it is absolutely free. Really there cannot be such a deal. It is too good to be true. Ah, but it is true. This is what Paul says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: . .” The whole thing gets even better when we take note of the verses prior to this. “He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
It is why He does this that is so astounding. He wants to spend eternity showering us with riches. By riches we are not talking about jewels and precious metals. Things like that are only valuable if they are rare. They will not be rare there. Instead we are talking about growth. We are talking about intellectual powers and assimilation into the likeness of God Himself.
While it is true we cannot steal it, I still think somewhere ages and ages hence if you hear someone shouting, “Start the car” it will be me. You can just smile and say, “Roger’s at it again.”
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 26, 2008
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org