{"id":4680,"date":"2025-06-06T09:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T13:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2025-06-06T09:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T13:08:13","slug":"a-gift-freely-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/06\/a-gift-freely-given\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gift Freely Given"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles <\/em>Times<\/em> called it “as much an experience we live through as a film we watch on screen.”

He was referring to Saving Private <\/em>Ryan<\/em>, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 epic re-creation of the D-Day invasion of the Normandy coast and the costly days that followed.

Spielberg was determined to create a World War II film that depicted the actual horrors of combat.\u00a0\u00a0

After a brief opening scene, the film plunges the viewer into 20-plus minutes of the chaos, slaughter, and heroism of the U.S. Army Rangers’ landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, 81 years ago today.\u00a0\u00a0

The cinematic landing was actually staged on a stretch of Irish seacoast, where $12 million was invested in crafting a visual representation of what the Rangers encountered in Normandy.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

A number of World War II veterans stated that Saving Private Ryan<\/em> is the most realistic depiction of combat they have ever seen.\u00a0

Tom Hanks, who starred in the film, as well as the actors who played the soldiers under his command, were compelled to endure 10 days of “boot camp” under the direction of a Marine Corps veteran.\u00a0Spielberg made it clear that the rigorous experience wasn’t to train the actors in proper military techniques, but rather “because I wanted them to respect what it was like to be a soldier.”

The director employed about two dozen real-life amputees to depict soldiers who lost limbs on the beach.\u00a0The D-Day sequence alone required forty barrels of fake blood.\u00a0

During the filming, Spielberg remembers an aging veteran who approached him with a set of maps.\u00a0He had been tasked with aiming the big naval guns that would “soften up” the German defenses before the Rangers hit the beach.\u00a0Many of those shots fell short.\u00a0Instead of knocking out the Germans, they had created “murder holes” just under the surface of the water, where scores of American soldiers and mechanized vehicles disappeared.

The veteran told Spielberg that not a day had gone by during the previous half century in which he had not felt anguish over his role in the invasion.\u00a0He then rolled his maps back up and walked away.\u00a0

Such conversations reminded the cast and crew that they were retelling a story that had actually happened.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Tom Allen, who pastors a church in Seattle, is a former Army Ranger.\u00a0

He was deeply moved by the film, especially because it depicts the willingness of soldiers to lay down their lives so that one young man might be able to go back home.\u00a0\u00a0

Allen wasn’t happy, however, with the film’s climactic scene, where Tom Hanks’ character, as he dies, whispers to Private Ryan, “Earn this.”\u00a0 The movie then fast-forwards to Ryan, now at the end of his days, wondering if he had lived the kind of life worthy of the sacrifices of his colleagues.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0.\u00a0
Allen writes, \u201cNo Ranger would ever say, \u2018Earn this.\u2019\u201d\u00a0

Why?\u00a0Because that\u2019s not the Rangers\u2019 motto. The Ranger motto for the past two hundred years has been Sua sponte: <\/em>\u201cOf [my] own accord,\u201d or essentially, \u201cI am choosing this.\u201d\u00a0

I volunteered for this.\u00a0You don\u2019t pay anything.\u00a0I freely give up my life for you.<\/em>

Whenever we look toward the cross, we will never hear Jesus say, \u201cEarn this.\u00a0Go out and do the best you can for me, because I did my best for you. Of course, you\u2019ll probably spend the rest of your life feeling overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and obligation, because there\u2019s no way you can ever pay off what I have done for you.\u201d\u00a0

Jesus, in fact, said just the opposite: \u201cNo one takes my life from me.\u00a0I lay it down of my own accord\u201d (John 10:18). \u00a0\u00a0

Sua sponte.<\/em>

Believers are routinely warned not to be taken in by false religions. We tend to picture fleeing from pagan rituals, hideous idols, or \u201cthose deluded people\u201d at the other end of the theological spectrum who preach warped ideas concerning certain Greek verbs in the New Testament.

But those aren\u2019t the \u201cfake gospels\u201d that are most likely to trip us up.

We\u2019re in far greater danger of believing a Pay-As-You-Go version of the Jesus-following life \u2013 perhaps something like, \u201cThe Son of God suffered incredibly for you. So, if you have half a heart, you should feel crushed under a lifelong burden of unworthiness and religious obligation that will make repaying student loans seem like a snap.\u201d

In that context, will you ever be able to achieve assurance of salvation? Not a chance.

But deep spiritual assurance \u2013 a joyful awareness of God\u2019s unconditional love and favor \u2013 is not an achievement. It is a gift \u2013 the gift of the One who said on the cross, \u201cIt is finished \u2013 paid in full<\/em>\u201d (John 19:30).

On this day in which we remember the ultimate sacrifices that were freely given on our behalf, we can once again take to heart God\u2019s genuine Good News:

It is impossible to earn what God gives for free.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it “as much an experience we live through as a film we watch on screen.” He was referring to Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 epic re-creation of the D-Day invasion of the Normandy coast and the costly days that followed. Spielberg was… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[938,101,788],"class_list":["post-4680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-d-day","tag-grace","tag-the-cross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4683,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions\/4683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}