Foolishness or an act of Grace?
by David Silvester
After many years as an engineering craftsman I moved into lecturing engineering students in a Technical College and one of my duties was to be the chief examiner of an ‘O Level’ technology paper.
One year a member of the team of assistant examiners came with a group of papers from a school where the candidates had all answered a question in exactly the same way, but the answer was completely wrong! If each candidate was to be given a zero mark for that answer a number of them would fall below the required total mark for a ‘pass’. What were we to do in such a situation?
I telephoned the school in question and spoke to the person who’d taught them. He’d had no practical experience of engineering and had assumed that the details he’d taught were correct. Of course the candidates had naturally believed that what they’d been taught was correct. I referred this teacher to a textbook where the correct information could be found so that his teaching would be accurate in the future.
The Examination Board agreed that the candidates had answered the question as they’d been taught and should be given full marks for the answers they’d given to that particular question. Some people would say that this was foolish, but others would say it was an act of grace.
What God has done for us sinners is similar to what was done for those candidates. He sent His Son Jesus to earth for the purpose of dying in our place, and paying the penalty for our sins. It’s an act which might be considered foolishness, but those of us who’ve received forgiveness and cleansing from sin know it to be an act of grace – God giving us what we don’t deserve.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord God, for dealing in grace with me. I know that I don’t deserve what You’ve done in giving Jesus to take the punishment for my sin. I’m overawed by Your act of grace. Please help me to demonstrate my gratitude in the way I live my life, and help me to become more like Jesus day by day, Amen.
David Silvester is married and has a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. He trained as a production engineer. He then moved on to become a lecturer of engineering craft skills before being called of God in his early fifties to become a pastor of a Baptist church. He says that,"having previously experienced an amazing healing on a day others expected me to die, it came as no surprise that God directed me and my wife, Margaret, to become involved with Ellel Ministries."
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.
