Driving to work on Tuesday I passed a beat up old moving van. Box truck. It was white with paint peeling and missing in places. It was dirty, dented, obviously old, and it looked the sort of exterior that must hide an equally run down and unattractive interior. I imagined all sorts of mechanical trouble from a truck that run down. Suspension problems, transmission, etc.
The company name painted on the side of the truck was “Grace.” That was it. It wasn’t “Grace Moving Co.,” or “Grace, Inc.,” but simply “Grace.” And the company logo looked fine. No peeling or dirt there. It was like the company had just bought this old truck and placed their logo on it, brand new.
The value of that truck was not in the truck itself, per se, but in that truck’s being owned by Grace. Grace listed that truck as an asset on their balance sheet. Whatever I thought of its usefulness, it did useful work for them. Whatever I thought of its reliability, they would repair it when it broke down. Whatever I thought of its appearance, they still put their logo on the side to identify it as theirs.
I saw that truck as a rolling metaphor for the Christian doctrine of grace. That doctrine explains why people who merit very little for themselves are nonetheless seen as inordinately valuable by God. From GraceSermons.com:
And from the Christain Apologetics and Research Ministry: