By My Own Merit

At hearing this, great sorrow gripped my heart. For many persons of the greatest worth were held, I knew, suspended in this strip. “Tell me, sir, tell me, my dearest teacher,” so I began, determined – on a point of faith which routs all error – to be sure, “has anyone, by merit of his own. . ., left here then been blessed?” And he, who read the sense my words had hid, answered: “I still was new to this strange state when, now advancing, I beheld a power whose head was crowned with signs of victory. He led away the shadow of our primal sire, shades of his offspring, Abel and Noah, Moses, who uttered the law, of Abraham the patriarch, David the king. . .All these he blessed. Until these were, no human soul had ever been redeemed.”[1]

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, as Dante begins his journey through hell, he has a question for his guide, Virgil. On the very first level, with eight more left to go, he asks the question, “Has anyone ever made it out of here on their own merit or effort?” Dante expresses this concern because so many of the people he saw were people of “reputation and honor.” Surely, there must be someone who would be considered of sufficient moral character, who would have made it out of hell and gone to heaven. These are good people, people we respect, admire, and wish to emulate.

Virgil’s response is, “Only one, and his head was crowned with the signs of victory!” We tend to think we are moral people. We like to view ourselves as only needing a little boost to skip over hell and land in heaven. If we choose to hang on to that notion, we will find ourselves ill equipped for the afterlife when the time comes. It turns out that hell is filled with “good” people, “honest” people, people of “good reputation,” and exhibiting strength of character. They are there because, in the end, they rejected God’s way, even as the first human beings did, and rely on their own works.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.[2]

The crown of thorns has become the sign of victory!

Pastor Craig

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[1] The Divine Comedy: Canto 4. Dante.

[2] Ephesians 2:8-9