A Wristwatch Saved Harold Crick

My favorite movie of all time is "Stranger than Fiction" starring Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman. It's magnificent. Every character is so vivid, interesting, and well acted. The story is just absolutely perfect. You have to watch it to believe. Yes, I sound like a raving fan-boy, but this movie genuinely is a masterpiece.

The last line of the movie is "A wristwatch saved Harold Crick." There Harold is. He's a bloody pulp prostrated in the road. We KNOW he's dead. But wait! He's still breathing! Yes, his wristwatch embedded itself into his arteries, saving him from bleeding to death. It's tempting for people to think of Christ as that wristwatch. We're dying and Christ is the last resort that saves us. This thinking is prevalent in the American church. This idea is dangerous and wrong. If there is some good, no matter how small, still left in man, then he isn't completely dependent on God. This simply is not the case. Romans 3 says that "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.." Man is hopelessly drowning in sin. God is no wristwatch. God gives life. Not simply saving life.

Ephesians 2:1-9

¹And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

⁵Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

⁶And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

⁷That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast.

God requires only faith and yet He gives us even the faith! None of salvation is our work. To think so would be blasphemously arrogant on our part. Now, the faith is an actual act. Faith is a product of flexing of volition. Paul tells us that this is a gift from God though. The key to understanding salvation is always understanding God's role and our role. God is the sovereign initiator and enactor, but we are the one being changed.

This is why I hold to predestination. Predestination puts the power back in God's hands and away from man. Man is no longer acting towards God in faith with God merely responding. Now, it's God initiating and man responding.

^{Ephesians 1:4-5}

4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

⁵Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Be blessed and thankful for God's mercy. We're dead without God, but He loved us even while we were dead. While we were rebels.

God Bless,

Stanley