On the first day teaching his class 250 college freshmen, R. C. Sproul carefully explained the assignment of three term papers. Each paper was due on the last day of September, October, and November. Sproul clearly stated there would be no extensions (except for medical reasons). At the end of September, some 225 students dutifully turned in their papers, while 25 remorseful students quaked in fear. \u201cWe\u2019re so sorry,\u201d they said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t make the proper adjustments from high school to college, but we promise to do better next time.\u201d He bowed to their pleas for mercy, gave them an extension, but warned them not to be late next month.<\/p>\n
The end of October rolled around, and about 200 students turned in their papers, while 50 students showed up empty-handed. \u201cOh, please,\u201d they begged, \u201cit was homecoming weekend, and we ran out of time.\u201d Sproul relented once more but warned them, \u201cThis is it. No excuses next time. You will get an F.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end of November came, and only 100 students turned in their papers. The rest told Sproul, \u201cWe\u2019ll get it in soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry,\u201d Sproul replied. \u201cIt\u2019s too late now. You get an F.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students howled in protest, \u201cThat\u2019s not fair!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d Sproul replied, \u201cyou want justice, do you? Here\u2019s what\u2019s just: you\u2019ll get an F for all three papers that were late. That was the rule, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students had quickly taken my mercy for granted,\u201d Sproul later reflected. \u201cThey assumed it. When justice suddenly fell, they were unprepared for it. It came as a shock, and they were outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Matt Woodley, in the sermon \u201cThe Grieving Heart of God,\u201d PreachingToday.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the first day teaching his class 250 college freshmen, R. C. Sproul carefully explained the assignment of three term papers. Each paper was due on the last day of September, October, and November. Sproul clearly stated there would be no extensions (except for medical reasons). At the end of September, some 225 students dutifully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5212,5119,840,5211,5210,1562],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}