WITHOUT COST

 ONE STRIKE

There's a line in the famous baseball song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game,'" that goes, "For it's one, two, three strikes and you're out of the ol' ball game." During the 7th inning stretch, the Cub fans at Wrigley Field stand and belt out that tune under the leadership of Harry Caray their late and beloved announcer in the broadcast booth.

Baseball has three strikes and you're out. Three chances to hit the 90+ mile an hour fastball or the curve, or whatever the pitcher throws. But what about God? Does He go by the three strike rule or is He, as we say, the God of second chances? Well, everyone of us proves that He is, that He does give us another opportunity after we've had our spritual failure(s). We prove it everyday since we still exist. God is gracious, isn't He? Abraham, Jacob, Samson, Jonah, Peter, and all the disciples had their second and sometimes third and fourth and fifth opportunities to get in step, in harmony with the will of God. It's all right there when you read the Bible, Old or New Testaments. 

But, you know,when you think about it, that's not the complete picture. Sometimes in recorded history, it's one strike and you're o--u-t out. So, let's balance out the picture of God in this regard and think of some one strike and you're out people. 

The first that comes to mind is a group: the angels that decided to rebel against God and follow Lucifer. They went that route once and that was it. They were cast out from God's presence and that was it. No repentance for them. No salvation.

But let's go to the human race. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? One lie to the Lord and their church--they were struck dead  immediately. No second chance to say, "I take it back, I'm sorry." How about Aaron's sons who didn't observe the proper approach to God by means of the sacrificial system? Nadab and Abihu, both gone in a flash through a consuming fire. There was no, "Can't we do the sacrifice over?" 

Achan and his family disobeyed God in the taking of the spoils of war for their own personal enrichment. God destroyed them right in front of everybody. They weren't allowed to say, "OK. OK.We'll give it back."

Then there's the really frightening one in Hebrews 6. In writing to the Jewish Christians who were defecting back into Judaism because of persecution from their kinsman according to the flesh, God said this of them:  "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have [a]fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, [b]since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

For those who defected from the faith, there would be no second chances: it would be impossible "to restore them again to repentance." In context, He's saying that it will be impossible to restore them to progressing to maturity. 

As the author of Hebrews points out, that was their "willful sin," the sin of defection and siding with the enemies of Christ, thus "crucifying Him again." They would never recover from that; they would be "sinners in the hands of an angry God."

Is God the God of second chances? Of course, but there are times and there are sins  . . . We've been warned.