A Magician's Trick

Rabbits out of hats. Girls cut in half. Houdini-type escapes. Those are your run of the mill magicians' tricks.

Then you have top notch tricks as depicted in The Prestige, a movie starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, where the true trick is one that is planned decades in advance, and it's not what you'd think.

* * *

Who is the greatest sinner of all time? Eve, and by extension Adam, as the first sinners, or their son Cain, the first murderer? Jacob's ten oldest sons were pretty bad -- sold their brother Joseph into slavery. David committed adultery, but his something-great-grandmother Rahab was a prostitute. Jonah ran from God. The Pharisees have to rank up there; they had a direct hand in killing Jesus.

World leaders who murder at will their people and others. Men and women who promote slavery and sex trafficking. Scientists who create drugs or weapons or procedures that destroy our society.

You.

Me.

Who is the greatest sinner? Maybe you think I'm going to say, we all are. But I'm going to surprise you, like the best magic trick.

It doesn't matter.

Romans 5:15 says, "The free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many."

Grace abounds. Your sin fills the cup? Grace overflows it. Your sin is a wall you're building brick by brick? Grace is the "megatall" Burj Kalifa skyscraper in Dubai. Your sin overwhelms you like the floods of Hurricane Irma? Grace is the ocean.

You can never out-sin God's grace. There will always be more. Grace abounds.

And like the magicians in The Prestige, God had this planned before the beginning of the world. He even told us about it way back when Eve and Adam sinned in the garden of Eden. God told the serpent (Satan), "He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15 God was talking about Jesus; Satan would try his best to destroy Him, but Jesus would conquer sin and death. It surprises us, but God had it all planned.

The magician pulls a scarf out of his sleeve. The multi-colored scarf that goes on and on. When will it end?

SLXLM

It doesn't. It's not magic; it's grace.