How God Used a Pun to Save a Sinner

Anyone and everyone who has ever met me knows I like a good pun.

Photo: Shutterstock

But if you spend more than a few fleeting moments with me—beyond my silly and sometimes PUNishing comments—you’ll observe a deep-seated optimism.

My hopeful Christian outlook—which I owe largely to my distinctively Puritan perspective on all things related to eschatology (think end times but bigger)—serves as the main motivation for this blog, Victory Not Defeat.

In a nutshell, I’m convinced—body, mind, and soul—that King Jesus is at present beating the snot out of his enemies. Said another way: the crucified and risen and ascended Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, is triumphing over the powers of hell. And it’s not even close; it’s more like a landslide.

Notice what the Commander of the Allied Forces declared (see Matt. 16:18) two thousand years ago:

The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

These are three words every Christian should seek to memorize, regardless of what passes for a CNN headline:

SHALL. NOT. PREVAIL.

Got it? Here’s the basic formula:

Defense = gates of hell

Offense = Christ’s church

Christ’s church > gates of hell

But don’t be confused by the “>” symbol in my math equation. It’s not just that Christ’s church is a better team when she plays well. No, the offense—contrary to popular opinion—is absolutely crushing the defense, even as you read these words. The resurrection is a reality. What is more, Christ’s coronation—his ascension and exaltation—matters. It means something, namely, victory for the church. That’s not to say the church doesn’t suffer—she surely does—but her suffering is actually used of God to drive the proverbial ball downfield.

Christian, we’re deep in Satan’s so-called territory, he’s losing ground, and he ain’t getting it back.

Now what does all this have to do with puns and God saving sinners?

Answer: Christ is so glorious, his gospel so good, his kingdom so strong, his promises so secure, that even the seemingly silliest and smallest of Christian investments can turn out a wow-like return.

This is no joke. Actually, it sort of was a joke. And that’s the point.

Here is the backstory:

Several months ago, I began to meet regularly with a group of teens and tweens to study and apply God’s Word to worldview issues. (This group eventually turned into Vine Academy.) At one of our gatherings, I taught on technology and showed the students what the Bible says about tablets and smartphones. We discussed “heart” matters and related it to our eyes and ears and what we consume.

As a kind of funny-haha, I asked the group if they thought smartphones were mentioned in the Bible. Of course they answered no.

That’s when I tongue-and-cheek quoted Psalm 81:12, which in the NIV (perhaps only in the NIV), reads:

“So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.”

You see what I did there, right? It’s a play on the word “devices.”

The kids all mostly laughed and we moved on. It was just one of those silly little remarks to engage the young people. I really didn’t think much more about it.

But not everyone moved on. One girl in the group, who was ten at the time, took note of the verse, went home and memorized it—and mulled over it for days.

A couple weeks later on a Sunday morning, immediately following the sermon, this young lady, along with her dad, walked right up to the front and gave her life to Christ. When the lead pastor asked her why she wanted to follow Christ, she didn’t miss a beat:

“Because I can feel the weight of my sin,” she said. “But Jesus died for me.”

Later, in her baptism candidate interview, she would refer back to our worldview study and Psalm 81:12 and talk about her “stubborn heart” and how previously she followed her “own devices.”

Wait—what? For my part, it was a silly pun—a mere play on words. I quoted Psalm 81:12 from a Bible translation I hadn’t used for nearly a quarter of a century. It’s called being goofy, right?

But again, that’s just it.

Psalm 29:4 says, “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”

God is so great—his kingdom purposes so grand—that the weakened powers of hell cannot stop his forward march. Christ will get his glory through his Word, even if he does so through a pun.

Have you read my new book? Jesus in Beijing: A Missionary Memoir of Christ's Victory in China is now available.