Dicing with the Devil

It makes for wonderful television to sit back and watch perfectly normal people be made fools of, as long as those perfectly normal people aren’t us. Recently, a television program made absolute fools of perfectly normal, unsuspecting people.

The thesis of the program was this: perfectly rational and normal people become trusting gullible fools in the presence of a uniform. To prove this, they had a sign printed that said, "ATM OUT OF ORDER." They purchased some type of official looking uniform and an actor put it on.

They placed the "ATM OUT OF ORDER" sign right over the ATM outside a bank. As the uniformed actor stood close to the sign, the television crew hid their cameras and microphones, ready to make fools of the unwary.

When a customer in a hurry came up and wanted to make a deposit at the ATM, the "guard" would point out the sign and tell him that the system was out of order, but that he would take his cash deposit. All the depositor needed to do was to fill out a deposit slip and the guard would issue a receipt. Time after time, depositor after depositor filled out the deposit slip, then gave the cash to the stranger they believed to be a guard. Of course, when the transaction was completed, the unsuspecting customer would be told he’d been "had."

If that weren’t enough fun for the viewer, just as the guard was closing down for the day, a last bank customer came up to the ATM to make a deposit. He filled out the deposit slip and took the receipt from the guard. The fun part was that this last man handed over multiple thousands of dollars to the guard. He had been "had" big time.

The program was all in good fun and it had a purpose: to make us all aware of the con men out there and how easily taken in we all are. And they’re right.

Paul says there’s an ancient con game going on. It’s the one described in Ephesians 4 as playing dice with the devil. It’s as if Satan has set up a table and with his sleight of hand, he blinds the minds of men to the gospel of Jesus Christ (II Cor. 4:4). He does this most often by the sleight of hand of religion.

He sets up a sign that says deposits of good works should be made. These deposits can be made in any organized religious body or they can be made alone as one tries to keep the Golden Rule, tries to keep the 10 Commandments and, in general, just tries to be good. The con artist deceives customer after customer. Customers make millions of deposits; all the while playing dice with the devil and it comes up snake eyes. It’s a shell game and he wins with his religions that blind the mind with their dazzling ceremonies that dazzle the eye, their liturgies that come to the ear, their pomp and circumstance that add glamour to the processionals.

But there is another ATM; this one is bolted to the Cross. This ATM allows no deposits; it dispenses grace freely to anyone who comes. Romans 4:4-5 talks about the fact that depositors, with each deposit, only get farther into debt. That’s the opposite of what we’d normally think, but it’s true.

The grace ATM is unique. When you come to it, it gives to you. It credits Christ’s righteous to your account, all free, without your ever making any deposit. That’s what the Bible means when it talks about eternal life and forgiveness for sin being a gift. No one makes a deposit for a gift – that destroys its "gift-ness."

Eternal life and forgiveness of sin come when a person believes Christ for them. No deposit, but eternal returns, always.

The devil plays with loaded dice, loaded with lots of religion and lots of doing good. Satan in the middle of a circle, a circle of blind players shooting dice loaded with lots of glittering religion and the pyrite of good works. But up on the hill, just past the Ridge of Belief, there’s that ATM of grace bolted to the Cross.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor