“There but for the grace of God, go I.” Perhaps you have spoken these words yourself. They are often attributed to a Protestant Christian martyr named John Bradford. He was burned at the stake in the mid-1550s during the reign of Mary I (Bloody Mary) in England. While incarcerated in the Tower of London for his reformed faith, he supposedly spoke these words as he watched prisoners going to their executions.

When I look back at the road I’ve traveled, I see corpses of neglected, abused, or rejected gifts of a generous and loving Provider scattered everywhere. My sins deservedly judge me guilty to serve out a death sentence, but for the grace of God.

Through the eyes of faith, I believe my Lord and Savior personally picked up my sin-filled litter from the past, present, and future and hefted the vile bag onto his own sinless shoulders as he willingly allowed himself to die on a cross in my (and your) place. Christ did this so I (and you) can be declared “not guilty!” from an eternal existence in hell.

When I am tempted to judge myself unredeemable, I look up into the same Spirit-powered eyes that provide my gift of faith. I hope to see what God sees through the work of his Son—a clean path with only one thing standing on it: a shining, empty cross reflecting the glory of the grace of God.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).