Sola Gratia

Today, while sitting in a once-a-week, 3-hour long, 7:45 class I noticed something peculiar on the computer of the student in the row ahead of me. I know this student, and he is painfully nerdy, as all seminarians are! I give you exhibits A-P...


I won't tell you which one he is, but ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"

In between this student’s note-taking, his computer would revert to his screen saver. It was a slide show of his pictures, and the majority of them were marvelous portraits of a beautiful woman taken all around Europe. I knew that she was out of his league, and that one of two things was true:

This student had either devoted an entire winter’s break to stalking this woman across the European continent…

Or, these were, as I suspect, pictures of his wife from their trip to Europe, and proof that God is indeed very gracious to his people.

And then I had to remember that in spite of my dashing good looks and stunning wit, I too have married tremendously above my self. Someone could easily look at my screen saver and see my pictures of the Drop-Dead Gorgeous Redhead, and wonder how long I have stalked her with camera in hand.



And it doesn’t stop there. In Hebrew, we have been working in OT wisdom literature for the last few weeks, and it has struck me how highly Proverbs values a good wife. And by good they mean more than attractive: “as a ring of gold in a pig’s snout, so is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.” And, so, I thought I would take this opportunity to sing Kara’s praises in public. She is beautiful, but you will not find her in any pig’s snout…wait, that didn’t come out right. My point is, that she is not only beautiful, but a woman of godly character, rich wisdom, careful and kind words. She is what Proverbs describes as a rare and excellent wife; her worth IS far above jewels. And, in her I have found a good thing obtained by the Lord’s favor.

As we come to the end of October, we approach more than Halloween and Walker’s birthday. October 31st is also Reformation Day, celebrating the start of the Protestant Reformation, inaugurated by Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 theses to the door at Wittenburg. The Reformers had five distinctives for which they fought and (some) died. Among them was, Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) meaning that salvation is solely an act of God’s grace and not merited by anything from us. This principle of God’s grace extends beyond our salvation to every good things that we have including my excellent wife.