When the spies returned to Joshua, they brought back more than military intelligence. They brought back testimony of God’s grace in action. They had witnessed firsthand how God’s grace could reach into the darkest corners of a pagan city and transform a heart. Their mission had become an object lesson in the power of the Gospel.
Rahab’s story should fundamentally change how we view evangelism and ministry. If God can reach a pagan prostitute in enemy territory, then no one in our lives is beyond His grace. Not our rebellious teenager. Not our unbelieving spouse. Not our hostile coworker. Not our addicted friend. No one.
This means we should never give up praying for people or looking for opportunities to share God’s love with them. It means we should expect God to work in the most unlikely places and through the most unlikely people. It means we should be bold in our witness because grace is more powerful than any sin or situation.
The scandal of grace is that it includes people we would exclude and reaches people we have written off. This should lead us to worship, humility, and bold evangelism. We worship because we ourselves are recipients of this scandalous grace. We remain humble because we know we deserved no better treatment than anyone else. And we evangelize boldly because we know grace can reach anyone.