Trust, Little Sponge

theRKFChristian Life

A couple weeks ago, Tom Gee was preaching the Sunday evening service at our church. He was tackling one of “The 26 Questions You Should Be Asking,” dealing with knowing the attributes of God.

To describe the great vastness and incomprehensibility of God compared to our human mind, he used the analogy of a fist-sized sponge trying to soak up the ocean. What we can know of God is so small, compared to the whole of Him, yet it fills us to saturation.

And what happens when we reach an issue that we can’t find clarity on? “Trust, little sponge!” Oh, how I loved that line! It’s been on my mind much, lately.

There is something I have struggled with for all my time as a Christian. I don’t feel the weight, the burden, of my sin guilt the way I should. After all, we killed God. My sin had a share in the death of Jesus Christ! Yet the analyst in me always wants to do the math … throughout the course of history, millions have put their faith in God. All those people are redeemed through the single death of Christ.

If I am one of millions, then my share in the guilt of His death, and the 3 hours of darkness while Christ endured the wrath of God, is 1 in many million. That’s a very small fraction or large decimal, however you want to slice it. How much more insignificant, then, must each sin be? If my heart was wicked and evil for 20 years, and I continue to battle indwelling sin for the past 10 years (and through the rest of my life on earth) then the impact of each of my sins on the death of Christ – my share of those 3 hours – is so miniscule it can’t be tracked.

Tom’s sermon helped clarify this issue for me. For the first time I’m seeing the calculation in a different light.

While mathematically my share in the death of Christ – the contribution of my sins to the debt He paid – is insignificant, that all changes when I consider the value of the one put to death. The equation is no longer a percentage of one death, but a percentage of God. What is the value of even the smallest definable fraction of God? It is still so much more infinitely valuable than all my life. Even dividing the three hours of darkness by the millions saved, we are so remarkably in debt and UNequal in that equation that I feel like a sponge – trying, once again, to drain the ocean.

In the end, it makes no difference whether Christ died only for my single life, or for billions and billions of souls. The tiniest percentage of a billionth of Jesus is still more precious than anything on earth.