The Gift of Life

As frontier settlements sprang up in the wild west, in one county, a man by the name of Phantly Roy Bean, found himself at the upper end of a gavel when he was elected Justice of the Peace in 1884, in Val Verde County, Texas.

His rulings were the law and strictly enforced.  As the story goes, Judge Roy Bean was an American salon-keeper that held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande of southwest Texas.  He called himself, “The only law west of the Pecos.” 

After his death, fictional, western films and books cast him as a hanging judge.  In his tenure of almost twenty years as Justice of the Peace, he simply officiated over misdemeanor cases and sentenced only two men to be hanged, one of which successfully escaped his fate.

In the 1800s to the 1920s, criminal justice in the Old West was swift, especially if the perpetrator was a horse thief.  They would, in most cases, be sentenced to hang by the neck until dead.

When I considered this kind of brutal punishment, in my mind’s eye I visualized a young man with his hands tied behind his back, with a noose around his neck, awaiting his fate.  My heart was saddened because he appeared to be too young to die for a stupid mistake that he made at such a young age.

Yes, it was a poor choice when he gave into the temptation to steal someone else’s property.  He was quickly apprehended, rushed to justice in court, and found guilty of stealing his neighbor’s horse and sentenced to pay the ultimate price for his transgression of the law.

The fictional character that I created stood on top of a trap door in the middle of a raised platform.  The newly, constructed gallows was built for this man and others like him that disobeyed the law.

I could see him trembling with tears coursing down his cheeks as he watched the hooded hangman reach for the lever to release the trapdoor.  The condemned man was praying to God for forgiveness and to somehow save him from the mess he was in.  I cringed to think the kid was going to meet his Maker at the end of the rope in the next few moments. 

Death is a terrible price to pay for spurning the law.  Laws will always dictate the penalty for anyone breaking them.  The young man had a choice to adhere to the law or do his own willful thing; the decision was his to make.

Just before the lever was pulled, out of nowhere an older, sun-backed farmer, ruddy from the elements, came galloping up on a heavily, lathered mare.  The man was screaming at the top of his lungs, “STOP, STOP, WAIT!” 

I watched carefully as he leaped from his horse and ran up the rickety stairs leading to the platform.  I believe I could hear him pleading with the hangman to please have mercy on the boy, saying, “I know he did wrong, but I’m here to take his place!”

The hangman, flabbergasted, asked the out-of-breath rider why he wanted to sacrifice his life for a criminal.  I listened as the panting man, breathing with short quick breaths, exclaimed, “I’ve known this boy since birth, and I love him.  He’s, my friend!”

Onlookers, there for the hanging, had never witnessed such love as this man showed by freely offering his own life to save another’s.  Volunteering to die for the horse thief was monumental love at its highest.  He was willing to lay down his life for a friend.  That is amazing anyway you look at it!

You might say, he was showing grace when he became the scapegoat, or sacrifice, as it were, for the crime committed.  This act of pure, unadulterated love allowed the condemned man to go free and not suffer the consequences of his actions.

The executioner placed the noose over the horseman’s head, tied his hands behind his back and pulled the lever.  It was a horrifying death as he hung there until his spirit was claimed by God.  I believe it is called “unmerited favor” that was demonstrated that day for the young man.

(John 15:13), “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  

God gave His most precious gift, His Son, to be hanged on a cross to die a horrific death for the sins of the world, so that we would not have to pay the penalty for disobeying the 10 Commandments—God’s Law.

(Romans 3:23), “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Jesus paid the price, in full, for our redemption.  He became the sacrificial Lamb for all humanity when He gave His life, freely, for the transgressions that we made against the law. 

I was saved from certain death, because I accepted God’s Son as my Savior.  Jesus gave me the gift of life just like the farmer did for the young man that stole the horse.

Now that I have new life through Him, God desires that I present my body a living sacrifice and tell others about His unconditional love.  I am committed to doing this, because of the grace He showed me. 

I will not have to suffer the judgement and consequences that sin brings, which is the spiritual death.  It is my reasonable service to be a shining testimony of the mercy and grace that God showed me. 

I was given the gift of life that set me free—the unmerited favor of God.  In other words, I didn’t deserve it, but He gave it to me anyway, because of love.

(Romans 5:8), “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus will either be our Savior in this life or our Judge in the hereafter.  The choice is ours to make.

(Romans 6:23), “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(Ephesians 2:8-10), “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” (v 9) “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (v 10) “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

(Romans 12:1), “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Written by,

Papa Boyd