The Seminole Quarterback

Dr. Erwin Lutzer is on a plane and the jet engines are chewing up the sky miles. Seated next to him is a man who is in for the flight of his life. As the men engage in the usual boring small talk, the conversation soon takes a spiritual turn and now they're talking about heaven.

The man mentions that a person has to be good to get there, and it's at that point that Dr. Lutzer, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, brings the conversation to a startling and screeching halt. Abruptly cutting into the man's conversational lane, and chopping him off in midsentence, Lutzer says, "Stop! This is amazing! Where did you get this information about how to get to heaven? Where did you hear about this? This is very important."

The man stammers a bit and says, "Well, I really don't know, it's just that everybody . . ."

"Wait," Lutzer intrudes again, "your information about how to get to heaven is tremendous and something people need to hear! They've got to know about this as soon as possible."

The man becomes even more hesitant, "Well, I don't think, . . ."

"No," Lutzer insists, "we've got to get your message about being good out to everyone we can; it's too important to keep to ourselves. Where did you learn all this? When did you first get it and how? People need to know. What insight! And just where did your insight come from? Did God tell you this? A vision? A dream? Did you hear God speak to you?"

"But I really don't . . ." the man's voice trailed off.

Mission partially accomplished. Dr. Lutzer had made him think as he'd never thought before. Where did he get this "insight?" How did it come to him?

They expect Wayne Sexton to start for the Florida State Seminoles this fall, but an odd thing happened on the way to the September 5th opener against Miami. Police found Sexton acting strangely in the middle of a street and, when asked, he identified himself to the officer as "God." The officer subdued him with pepper spray and it was off to the hospital.

The "insightful" man on the plane and the Florida State quarterback have one thing in common – they're both playing God. The man on the plane wasn't as blatant about it, but both he and Sexton were dressing up like God. The man made his heartfelt insight (cf. Jeremiah 17:9); the quarterback made his declaration. Each, in his own way, was doing the same thing – playing God.

Man's intuition, reason, logic, and feelings will always lead him to the "be good" theory for entrance into heaven. But, in the final analysis, that's his theory, not God's definitive statement. The human being has always enjoyed dressing up like God since the serpent suggested he do such in ancient Eden. Back then, Adam took upon himself to decide what was true and went his own way with it (Isaiah 53:6). (As Adam learned, the joy of the costume is temporary.)

The quarterback felt the shock of the pepper spray and, we would hope, eventually regained his senses. Dr. Lutzer gave the man on the plane a strong dose of pepper spray when he explained that heaven comes by faith alone in Christ alone and we would hope that he came to his senses as well.

It's a pepper spray shock to the system to hear, "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited to him as righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5). The spray hits hard when he reads, "He saved us, not because of the righteous things we have done . . ." (Titus 3:5).

We must be relentless in our use of the pepper spray of faith alone in Christ alone without compromise, patiently explaining, explaining, and explaining with the intent of ethical persuasion (II Corinthians 5:11). It is the grace gospel pepper spray which is God's shock and awe.

The issue is: who are you going to believe? The man on the plane or Jesus who said, "For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day" (John 6:40).

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor