The following is a condensation (with slight modifications) of a devotional presented during the spring meeting of the General Conference Executive Committee in Silver Spring, Maryland, April 18, 2002.--Editors.

he topic before us basically means to get at the reason(s) behind God�s grace. The driving force behind His mercy. In other words, Why did He choose to act in our behalf? Why has He been so kind to us?

About six years ago or so our son Dwayne was in charge of family worship at our house, and an illustration he used fascinated me. It came from an article in the April 1997 issue of National Geographic documenting some of the findings of the giant Hubble telescope, launched into space back in 1990.

One of the graphics in the report Dwayne used depicted what astronomers know as the Eagle Nebula, named for its shape. It consists of a series of pillar-like formations, composed (according to the report) of dense, cool gas and dust.

Now, what would you guess is the height of the tallest of these? Suppose I say it�s 18 million miles? That would be a fairly decent guess, wouldn�t you think? But I�d be wrong�it�s more than that. Suppose I erase �million� and say it�s 18 billion miles. �That�s too much,� I can hear someone say. But we�d both be wrong�it�s more than that. According to the National Geographic article, the tallest of these measures three light-years in height, or a distance of nearly 18 trillion miles.

And my head begins to spin.

Imagine now, Dwayne said�imagine a spacecraft traveling at about 20 miles per second (which, I understand, is the approximate speed of these machines). In one hour that craft will have traveled 72,000 miles. At that rate it would take the craft almost 30,000 years to travel from the bottom to the top of the tallest pillar.

Put another way, imagine that this craft began that journey from bottom to top the day Adam was created (and I leave you to insert your own figure as to how long ago that was�my own assumption is in the illustration). Traveling at the fantastic speed of 72,000 miles every hour�all through the lifetime of Methuselah; through the time of Abraham; through the hundreds of years of Egyptian captivity; through the time of the judges, the kings, the prophets; through the time of Jesus and the early church; through the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Great Disappointment, the First and Second World Wars, right down to this minute that you�re reading this article, that craft will have done less than one third the distance.

And remember, we�re talking about only one tiny segment of the universe!

National Geographic, describing a shot to which it gave the intriguing caption �Worlds Without End,� explained that Hubble pointed its lens at one of the (apparently) emptiest parts of the sky, focusing on a region the size of a grain of sand held at arm�s length. And what it found was layer upon layer upon layer of galaxies, as far as Hubble�s eyes could see!

Moreover, the report said, only a few objects in the picture are individual stars (which appear as spiked points of light). Everything else is a galaxy, each one containing billions of stars. And the closest of these galaxies to us is 4 billion light-years away. (Now, a minute ago, remember, we were dealing with just three light- years�which yielded those fantastic numbers. Now we�re talking 4 billion light-years away!)

You think about it for a second, and the mind shuts down in sheer astonishment and wonder.

Measured on the scale of the rest of the universe, our planet (in a manner of speaking) doesn�t exist. I laugh inside every time I hear reports that scientists are trying to discover whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and I think, How dumb can we be! To even entertain the notion for a split second that in this whole colossal cosmos, intelligent life would be found only on this speck of an outpost! Sheer madness!

�No, you and I know from the inspired writings that there are literally billions and billions and billions of other beings that God has created, scattered throughout the unending vastness of space.

And yet�and yet, God in Jesus Christ has literally emptied heaven for us. And the question is: Why? What is the motivation of such awesome grace? What made Him do it?

The answer is simple and uncomplicated. And it comes from the most well-known of all biblical passages�a passage, however, that is the mother of all soteriological pronouncements, the Magna Carta of our salvation: �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� (John 3:16, KJV).*

What this passage says about the motivation of God�s grace is that the impetus, the stimulus, the force behind that grace is love�pure, unadulterated, unconditional love.¹

Here�s a Human Example
When I think of unconditional love, the motive behind God�s grace, my mind goes back to one of the most gripping stories in the Old Testament �the story of Absalom. The narrative documents the tense, rocky relationship between the young man and his royal father David (a tension provoked by Absalom�s murder of his own half brother Amnon for sexually violating Absalom�s sister Tamar). It�s a long story, taking us through Absalom�s self-imposed exile; his return following an ingenuous scheme devised by Joab; his temporary reconciliation with his father; and his eventual rebellion (2 Sam. 13-18).

The Bible describes the young prince as an exceedingly handsome chap. It says in 1 Samuel 14:25 that �in all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom.� �From the top of his head,� it says in the next verse, �to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him.� (Wouldn�t Hollywood like to get hold of a guy like that!) The Bible says that when he cut his hair, it weighed 200 shekels (something like 5 pounds).

But in time that handsome head hatched the deepest treason; and there came the day when a messenger rushed into the throne room of the king with the awful news that the king�s own son had launched a coup d��tat.

The account describes how the king, upon receiving the news, hastily abandons the palace and the capital, accompanied by the rest of the royal household, as well as his personal bodyguards and fighting men. And David, it says poignantly, �continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up� (2 Sam. 15:30). He was heartbroken. Absolutely crushed and devastated. And the keenest humiliation came from knowing that the one now hunting him down was not his envious predecessor, but his own child.

But as David�s men prepared to engage the forces of Absalom, something exceedingly tender transpires, something that sounds like grace. Standing beside the gate as the troops marched out, David in the hearing of the whole army gave a strange command to the leaders of his forces: �Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake� (2 Sam. 18:5).

What incredible love!

The decisive moment of that bloody day in the forest of Ephraim is graphically described for us in 2 Samuel 18:9: �Now Absalom happened to meet David�s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom�s head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.�

Poetic justice, one might say. Here�s this rebel caught up in a tree by his head�that same Oscar-winning head that had plotted the bloody rebellion that day, resulting in 20,000 casualties (verse 7). Here it was now in the tree, still full of murderous mischief, but powerless to execute them.

No sooner had word of the fortuitous accident come to Joab�s ears than he hastened to the critical spot. �He took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom�s chest while Absolom was still alive in the oak tree. And ten of Joab�s armor-bearers surrounded� the young prince and finished him off (verses 14, 15).

The most poignant part of the story comes next, after the king learns that Absalom is dead: �The king was shaken,� the narrative says. �He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: �O my son Absalom! My son, my son, Absalom! If only I had died instead of you�O Absalom, my son, my son!�� (verse 33).

Now for the Divine Example
Two thousand years ago the One whom some of His contemporaries called �Jesus, son of David� traversed the same grounds as did his ancient human father. And from the Mount of Olives, days before His death, as He looked down upon a city filled with Absaloms, His heart broke: �O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,� I put words in His mouth, �if you only knew! If you only knew!� (see Matt. 23:37; Luke 19:41-44).

Days later, as he hung dying on the cross, the universe knew that it it was not Roman nails that killed Him. It was We who murdered Him. And yet He loves us still!

In Jesus we see the embodiment of unconditional love. Which is not as easy a concept to understand as many mistakenly think. In Fyodor Dostoevsky�s The Brothers Karamazov, the agnostic Ivan (one of the Karamazov brothers) is posing difficult situations to confound his religious-leaning sibling. He tells the story of atrocities committed by soldiers of a certain country there in Central Europe�soldiers who �burned villages, [who] murdered, [and who] outraged women and children.� �They took pleasure in torturing children, . . . tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mother�s eyes.�

Then Ivan proceeded to what he considered the ultimate atrocity: �Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading [soldiers] around her. They�ve planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed; the baby laughs. At that moment, a [soldier] points a pistol four inches from the baby�s face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and [at that very moment the soldier] pulls the trigger in the baby�s face and blows out its brains.�²

Who among us has arrived at that state of holiness where we find it easy to love such beasts in human skin?

But what my Bible tells me, and the point of that great �whosoever� in John 3:16, is that there is Somebody in the universe who actually loves the vilest, the wickedest, the most contemptible human being on the face of the planet, and who would give His life all over again for them alone. Brothers and sisters, you may understand such motivation, you may understand such love, but I confess it blows me away.

But that�s the motivation of God�s grace: sheer, unadulterated, unconditional love. Love that reaches out to you and me�no matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter what we are. However degraded we might be or feel, the Hound of Heaven is on our trail, and will never give up the chase until there�s utterly no hope left. God looks past the externals and sees some spark that He can nurture into life, some little flame He can rekindle.

�Down in the human heart,
Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.�

I can fall in love with a Savior like that, can�t you?

One Thing More
This leads me to touch briefly on the more subtle side of the concept of the motivation of grace. So far we�ve been talking about motivation in the sense of cause�in other words, what�s behind God�s grace? what propels it? what makes God act? And we�ve answered that it�s unconditional love, the purest and most precious motive imaginable in the universe. That�s what�s behind His grace.

But there�s a sense in which we may speak about the motivation of God�s grace as meaning the intention of God�s grace. That is to say: What does God�s grace move toward? What does it intend to accomplish? What does it want to see? What�s in front of it?

And for me, one of the answers to that question comes in Isaiah 53:11: �He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied� (KJV). This passage tells me that the grace of God looks forward to that grand moment when millions and untold millions from this minuscule outpost of the universe will gather �round the Savior in the kingdom, saved by His blood.

The genius of Christian discipleship, then, is the consciousness that we�ve been placed here, by God�s grace, to help make that happen. And we can only help it happen, we can only become unclogged channels of His unconditional love, when we fall in love with Jesus. It occurs to me that that�s what it�s all about.

It is in this mission�and especially in the One who stands at the head of it, that we should find both our value and our identity. That too is part of the motivation of grace. Especially is this relevant for those of us who occupy positions of leadership in the church. How easy it is for us to think that our identity lies in the number of (prestigious) committees we attend, in the title(s) we hold, in the position(s) we occupy!

The other day a colleague came to my office, and the conversation drifted to the subject of retirement. And what we both had noticed is that generally, in the Adventist Church, after the Adventist worker retires, they begin to be forgotten, almost as if they never existed. Why? The reason, if we�re brutally frank about it, is that (as a rule) they no longer wield power. They no longer sit on committees deciding the professional fate of their colleagues. Their clout is gone. The letterheads are gone. The crowds around them have disappeared.

And we�re all heading for deep disappointment, unless we have something to hang on to that transcends the job we do now, the power we have now, the clout we wield now. Our only lasting anchor is Jesus. When every earthly consideration or support is gone, it�s Jesus�only Jesus! And the hope He offers us, by His sheer grace, beyond this life.

As Martin Luther King, Jr., peered into a threatening future that final night of his life, cryptic words flowed from his heart in front of a congregation gathered under considerable tension in a Baptist church in Memphis, Tennessee:

�I don�t know what will happen now,� he said. �We�ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn�t matter with me now, because I�ve been to the mountaintop. . . . Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I�m not concerned about that now, I just want to do God�s will. And He�s allowed me to go up to the mountain. and I�ve looked over, and I�ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. . . .� So I�m happy tonight. I�m not worried about anything. I�m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.�³

It�s that kind of thickness with Jesus, that kind of hope in Jesus, that kind of trust in Jesus, that will keep us through the darkness and the storms ahead. And that�s a vital part of the motivation of His grace.

*All scriptural passages, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New International Version.

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¹ Please note that we�re talking here about unconditional love, not unconditional acceptance. In my thinking, it�s downright dangerous to confuse the two.
² Fyador Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamozov, Part II, Book V, chap. 4.
³ Martin Luther King, Jr., address to sanitation workers, Memphis, Tennessee, Apr. 3, 1968.

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Roy Adams is an associate editor of the Adventist Review.