The word but gets
a bad rap. But is often the beginning of an excuse: “I would have been at work
on time BUT I had a flat tire.”
But often precedes something that you
are doing wrong: “You’re doing great in class, BUT you talk too much.”
But
has even been known to break a heart or two: “You’re such a good friend, BUT I
could never date you.” This one
hits particularly close to home.
A simple three letter word that so many of us don’t like to
hear. If you begin a sentence with it,
you’re wrong. If you use it to explain
why you started a sentence with it, you’re still wrong. And if you use it to explain to your parents
why you talked back to your teacher after getting marked down on a paper for
using it incorrectly, you get grounded.
There’s simply not a fun way to use that word. And yet, with it, we are given a hope that is
so far above any other hope, all other hopes look like little ants.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love
with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
Don’t tell your English teacher! Paul started a sentence
with but!
Wait…actually, go tell your English teacher. Paul started a sentence with but, and that sentence is the hope your
English teacher needs. It’s the hope you
need, the hope I need, and the hope to which we can cling so tightly to.
BUT GOD.
Look what came right before those two words: I was dead in
my sins. I walked in those sins, living
in them every day. I followed the prince
of this world, Satan, the one who so enjoyed seeing me ALIVE IN SIN, but
DEAD. I was alive in my worldly
passions, alive in the sins that brought glory to me. I was a child of wrath, deserving the
total wrath of the Creator of everything that is good. I was carrying out the
desires of everything God stands against.
BUT GOD was rich in His mercy towards me, when I was most
deserving of His wrath.
BUT GOD had a great love towards me, greater than any love I
could fathom.
BUT GOD saw me dead in my trespasses, dead in my sin, dead
in my flesh, and made me ALIVE in Christ Jesus.
BUT GOD gave me the free gift of His grace, not because of
anything I did, but because of everything that HE IS.
BUT GOD brought me near to Him through the blood of Christ.
BUT GOD, seeing me in all my wretched sin, restored me to His
presence.
And that’s hard for me to comprehend. This whole thing would make more sense if the words were “So God…” I was dead;
deserving of wrath, walking in sin, fulfilling the will of Satan against God,
SO GOD let me continue without intervening.
Or if it sounded like this: I was dead, deserving of wrath,
walking in sin, but realized the error of my ways, started repairing all of the
wrong I had done, SO GOD decided to recognize my efforts.
BUT GOD said “BUT GOD.”
My hope is found in one simple conjunction that appears in a
way it’s not supposed to appear in the English language.
BUT MY HOPE doesn’t conform to the English language, or to
the American way of thought, or the human mind.
God has given me what I do not deserve, at the time when I did not
deserve it the most.
And He offers it freely, to anyone who is ready to hear that
conjunction differently than they have ever heard or understood it before: You
don’t deserve His grace or mercy, BUT GOD.
