“WHERE WILL GOD DRAW THE LINE, ANYWAY

Years I spent in vanity and pride,

Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died

On Calvary.

You, stop! The words echoed loudly in my young ears. It was the commanding voice of the grocery store manager that sent chills up my spine. My guilty conscience silently screamed, “You’ve been caught shoplifting.” It was the summer between second and third grade when God used this memorable event to strike deeply into my heart the reality that I was a sinner before a holy God. And it would be a long, heart-searching two mile walk home as I pondered the consequences of my sin.

I was the third youngest of eight children in our northern Minnesota home. My caring parents, devout Roman Catholics, had raised me with a fear of God and a sense of right and wrong. Stealing was viewed not merely as a sin, but a mortal sin [breaking the 10 commandments] – a serious offense before God and man. I was fearful of my parent’s discipline, and terrified of God’s punishment. But the store manager had required that I tell my parents (who he claimed he knew personally) the raw truth and to pay for the items that I had stolen before that fateful day. There was no option but to admit my crime to my mom (my dad wasn’t at home when I arrived). Needless to say, she was disappointed and immediately wisked me back to the store to pay my dues. Then she hurried me to our local Catholic Church in time for me to confess my sins to the priest. When asked by both the store manager and the priest about the number of times I had stolen, I lied to both! God was not surprised by my lie, for it says in His Word,

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (Psalm 58:3)

The Law (the 10 Commandments) were fulfilling their God-given design by revealing my sin and condemning me – the sinner.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (Romans 7:7)

With my meritorious mindset of heaven (trying to get my good to outweigh my bad), I soon became an altar boy. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I would weekly attend the Mass and every Holy Day in order to fulfill my religious obligations. I learned the Catholic catechism, but I knew little of the Bible. Religious tradition and perceived hypocrisy wedded to create spiritual blindness and disillusionment in my perspective. I was religious, but not regenerate. I had church, but not Christ. I had a hope-so salvation, but not a know-so salvation. I had religion, but I lacked a relationship with Jesus Christ. His indictment of the Pharisees descriptively marked my religious experience:

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:8-9)

Sports, popularity, and partying dominated my teen years as I sought to fill the aimless and aching void of my sinful heart with the pleasures and pursuits of this world. I was running down the dead-end streets of life seeking definite answers to life’s important questions: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “Where am I going?” It was like trying to catch the wind.

But one night everything began to change. I did not realize at that time that “God is not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9) since He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). This explains the entrance into my life of a classmate named Dan. Dan had moved from a neighboring town a year before, and because of his participation in sports, we became best friends. I knew that Dan wasn’t Catholic, but I didn’t realize that he was a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. Due to a family crisis in his home, Dan found boldness in the Lord to communicate to me that night the saving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He explained to me that I was a sinner and that God wanted to save me from a Hell (that I deserved) to a Heaven (which I did not deserve). I had never heard the biblical term “saved” and erroneously thought that no one could KNOW he was going to heaven before he died. No one had ever shown me 1 John 5:13:

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

In addition, how could I ever know if I was “good enough” to stand before God’s presence? My religious beliefs and proud heart prodded me to think that salvation was obtained by the sacraments of the church and my good works. Because of my biblical ignorance I failed to realize that…

We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. (Titus 3:5)

While I don’t remember all the details of our conversation that night, I do remember Dan challenging me on one particular point. He said, “Dennis, where will God draw the line? Will He say, ‘You with 150 sins or less, you may go to Heaven? But you with 151 sins or more, you must go to Hell? ‘Where will God draw the line?’” These words ricocheted off the walls of my guilt-smitten conscience. I thought, “Where will God draw the line, anyway?” My understanding and my approach to salvation now seemed grievously unfair and unjust.

Dan then began to explain that Jesus Christ had died for my sins – past, present, and future. This was not totally new to me since I had attended many Good Friday Masses and had observed the Stations of the Cross. But what I did not perceive that day (nor would I for another two years) was Christ’s finished work on the cross – He did everything necessary for me to go to Heaven when He died and rose again…

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)

My sin debt to God was totally settled and paid for through the finished work of Jesus Christ on my behalf. This meant that no Masses, no sacraments, no fires of purgatory, and no amount of good works were needed to atone for my sins.

Furthermore, this underscored that Jesus Christ was the one mediator between God and man – not a pope, a priest, or the church.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

Lastly, this clarified that salvation was not a reward for good people, but a gift of God’s grace for unworthy sinners like me. What good news!

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Could it really be this simple? Was Christ’s work on the cross enough? Was the Bible right or was my religious teaching and upbringing right? It took some time for me to understand the Gospel and resolve these issues in my mind. But I am glad to testify that God, by His amazing grace, saved me two years later when I put my trust in Jesus Christ alone and accepted His free gift of salvation.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

For the first time in my life, I now KNEW I was going to heaven because of Jesus Christ my personal Saviour. My searching was over. God’s Word gave me the answers to my questions. The aimless and aching void was gone. My destiny was settled. I now had purpose and motivation for life for I had become a new creation in Christ.

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15, 17)

I no longer had to wonder, “Where will God draw the line, anyway?” For Jesus Christ cried out on the Cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). I had now found my answer – God drew the line at the Cross. Praise the Lord!

By God’s Word at last my sin, I learned;

Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,

Till my guilty soul imploring turned

To Calvary.

O the love that drew salvation’s plan!

O the grace that bro’t it down to man!

O the mighty gulf that God did span

At Calvary!

Mercy there was great and grace was free;

Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty,

At Calvary. ¢