Were it based only on my external examination results
high school would have been a total waste and going to university would have
remained but a distant wish. But thanks
to a Mature Age Examination policy that the university (Northern Caribbean University) where I read for my
first degree had, and having satisfied the minimum age requirement of 25 years,
along with passing the entrance examinations, I was at length admitted into
university. Wow!
Of course, the fact that a major part of the
motivation to enroll into university came from a youthful desire to be eligible
for the girl I had a major crush on is another story. The fact was, even though I flunked high
school I still made it to university. It
was like Grace to me.
Typically, persons who move on to university would
have been successful in high school, and would usually be within a certain age
range. Otherwise, you would simply hope
to find a place in life… somewhere, especially when you weren’t equipped with a
skill. I was older than my average
classmate, and unlike most of them I didn’t boast impressive external
examination passes. But I was every bit a
university student as any of them.
When God created our first parents and placed them in
the Garden of Eden, they too had flunked their test, a legacy that was passed
on to the human species – we were all born with a sinful nature (Psalm
51). The Apostle Paul in Romans 3:23
also reminds us that we’ve all sinned and come short of God’s glory. In Romans 6:23 he further underscores that
because of our sins we deserved to die, but, thanks to Grace, God has offered
us the gift of eternal life. John 3:16
says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
I am happy for my university education, but I’m even
more jubilant about God’s amazing Grace!
Part two
There are three phases that the experience of Grace
takes us through: justification,
sanctification, and glorification. Here
I find that my university experience relates beautifully with these as well.
The day that I got the result of my entrance
examinations and was told that I was accepted into university I was overjoyed. It didn’t matter now had badly I had done in
high school. I was declared good enough
to be enrolled in university, and if I didn’t say it no one would know that I
flunked high school. That was
justification. Justification declares us
righteous, “good enough.” It is the
process by which the righteousness of Christ is imputed (credited) to us. But to be declared righteous doesn’t make us
righteous. It only means that the
sentence of death is stayed, giving us the opportunity to be recreated by God;
changed; made righteous; sanctified.
Following my acceptance into university the work had
only just begun, because for the next four years I was subjected to the most
grueling process of transformation into a professional worker; becoming what
I’d look like in the world of work. That
was sanctification. Of course
sanctification is not regulated to a time frame, except that it has been
described to be the work of a lifetime, and must take place within this
lifetime on earth. It is the process by
which the righteousness of Christ is imparted (given/transferred/implanted in)
to us. Once this work is complete we
look and sound like Christ; our characters (natures and mannerisms) are
changed. Romans 12:2 talks about our
being transformed by the renewing of the mind – this is the work of
sanctification taking place; becoming what we will look and sound like in the
earth made new – the destiny that ultimately awaits us. And once this work is complete and we are ready
to transition into the new phase, it will call for celebration – the
glorification phase.
After four years things had come down to the final set
of courses, the final set of examinations, and the completion of my
programme. It was time for graduation -
an occasion attended by pomp and pageantry, and exuberant celebration. Present at my graduation were my family and
friends, and fellow graduands. As I
marched in to the familiar strain of “Pomp and Circumstance,” the theme music
used for graduations around the world, I knew I had made it!
John in the book of Revelations tells us that there is
coming a time on earth when the last sermon will be preached, the last soul
baptized, the last prayer prayed, and God shall say, “he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still”;
probation will be closed; the chosen destiny of each soul will be granted; and
we shall never return to this earth under conditions similar to what we now
know it to be. And there will be singing
in Heaven, and all the saved of all ages will join with the holy angels
singing, “Holy , Holy Holy, LORD God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to
come.” And we shall sing another song,
the song of Moses and the Lamb. It will
be a time of glorious celebration, with an abandon resplendent of the sure
knowledge that we are forever safe.
Praise the Lord!
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