Ruth 1
Some years ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse published a small booklet on one of the best known passages in the Bible (Eph. 2:8-9), in which he illustrated its teaching. Rather than give a theological definition of grace such as ‘God’s unmerited favor’ or ‘the kindness and love of God toward sinful men and women,’ he told this story:[1]
“During the last century, in the worst slum district of London, there was a social worker whose name was Henry Moorehouse. One evening as he was walking along the street he saw a little girl come out of a basement store carrying a pitcher of milk. She was taking it home. But when she was a few yards from Moorehouse she suddenly slipped and fell. Her hands relaxed their grip on the pitcher and it fell on the sidewalk and broke. The milk ran into the gutter, and the little girl began to cry as if her little heart would break. Moorehouse quickly stepped up to see if she was hurt. He helped her to her feet, saying, ‘Don’t cry, little girl.’ But there was no stopping her tears.
“She kept repeating, ‘My mommy’ll whip me; my mommy’ll whip me.’ Moorehouse said, ‘No, little girl, your mother won’t whip you. I’ll see to that. Look, the pitcher isn’t broken in many pieces.’ As he stooped down beside her, picked up the pieces, and began to work as if he were putting the pitcher back together, the little girl stopped crying. She had hope. She came from a family in which pitchers had been mended before. Maybe this stranger could repair the damage. She watched as Moorehouse fitted several of the pieces together until, working too roughly, he knocked it apart again. Once more she began to cry, and Moorehouse had to repeat, ‘Don’t cry, little girl. I promise you that your mother won’t whip you.’
“Once more they began the task of restoration, this time getting it all together except for the handle. Moorehouse gave it to the little girl, and she tried to attach it. but, naturally, all she did was knock it down again. This time there was not stopping her tears. She would not even look at the broken pieces lying on the sidewalk.
“Finally, Moorehouse picked the little girl up in his arms, carried her down the street to a shop that sold crockery, and bought her a new pitcher. Then, still carrying her, he went back to where the girl had bought the milk and had the new pitcher filled. He asked her where she lived. When he was told, he carried her to the house, set her down on the step, and placed the full pitcher of milk in her hands. Then he opened the door for her. As she stepped in, he asked one more question, ‘Now, do you think your mother will whip you?”
“He was rewarded for his trouble by a bright smile as she said to him, ‘Oh, no, sir, because it’s a lot better pitcher than we had before.’”
Here is an illustration of the grace of God in salvation, notes Boice. The Bible teaches that men and women were created in the image of God. But when our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned by disobeying God’s righteous law, that image was broken beyond repair. This does not mean that there is no value at all to human nature. Boice then writes, “Even a broken pitcher is not without value. Broken pottery is not worthless. But it is worthless so far as carrying milk is concerned. In the same way, human nature in its broken state is useless for pleasing God or earning heaven.”
Boice concludes, “Like Moorehouse in his first attempts to help the little girl, [men and women] keep trying to put the pieces of their broken righteousness back together. They cannot achieve God’s perfect standards of righteousness, but they see parts of their character that are good from their perspective, and they try to work with those. The result is a patchwork of shards, which God condemns.”
But here is where the grace of almighty God comes in. “The Lord Jesus Christ came to this world, which was weeping in its failure and sin, and he became the means by which an utterly hopeless situation was transformed. Jesus did not come to assist us or reform us. He came to re-create us” (Boice). Instead of trying to piece together the broken pieces of our fallen nature, Jesus gives us a new nature: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). To paraphrase the words of the little girl, “It’s a lot better nature than we had before.”
And it is all of grace. Boice notes that,
“In Barnhouse’s story the little girl did not do anything to deserve Moorehouse’s favor. She did not pay for her new pitcher and milk. She did not hire Moorehouse’s services. She did not even prevail upon his sympathies because she was pretty or miserable or homely or pathetic. Moorehouse did as he did solely because it pleased him to do it. He did not even expect a reward from the girl’s parents. Thus did Jesus come not ‘to call the righteous, but sinners’ to repentance (Matt. 9:13). He died for us and saved us solely because of his good pleasure.”
The great 19th-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote, “Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified and saved. It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy and grace of God.”
This week we take another look at Ruth 1; this time we will focus on the words of Ruth specifically in verses 16-17. In this passage we see a beautiful picture of the truth that we are saved by grace through faith, “and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Can you see it?
I hope you can join us this week as we look at the amazing gift of salvation that God himself gives to us.
By His Grace,
Pastor Wayne
[1] This story is cited in James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary on Ephesians (Baker Books, 1998), pp. 64-5.
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