The next day, Twilight and Spike are sitting at Sugarcube Corner, waiting to meet with a certain somepony during her lunch break.
Twilight greeted her. “Oh good Rarity, you’re here!”
“Nice to catch up, Rarity.” Rarity bends down and pinches Spike’s cheeks.
“Ooh, how could I forget about my Spikey-Wikey!” Spike laughs as Rarity brings out her affection for the young dragon. Just then, a familiar pink pony came up to them.
“Hi guys! Glad to see you here!”
The three of them greeted her in unison. “Hi Pinkie Pie!”
“You guys are in luck! We just whipped up these super-yummy cupcakes. Would you like some?”
Rarity smiled. “Yes please, Pinkie. I believe we’ll take three. One for myself, Twilight, and Spike.”
“You better make that four, Pinkie!” The other two were expecting me, but not Rarity. Another pony looks over at me.
“Hey, Pastor Sharp Iron!”
“Hey, Sundance! I hope you’re able to come out to tonight’s Bible study.”
“I will!”
Rarity looked at Twilight in shock. “Uh, what is he doing here?”
“Oh, well, Spike told me about what you told him, so I set this meeting up to clear the air between you two. I’m telling you, Rarity, he’s not a bad guy.”
Rarity’s eyed narrowed. “Hmmm.”
“Hey, Pastor Sharp Iron! How are you doing today?!” Pinkie Pie gave a friendly smile as I went up to the counter.
“Too blessed to be stressed! By the way, your cupcakes were a hit at the church potluck. You ought to keep bringing them.”
Pinkie grinned. “Okie dokie lokie, Pastor!”
Rarity put her hoof to her forehead. “Don’t tell me Pinkie Pie goes there.”
Twilight winced. “She probably just delivered cupcakes there; perhaps he can tell us about that. Oh, here he comes! Hello, Pastor!”
“Twilight, Spike.” I then look over at the third guest. “And you must be Rarity. I am pleased that you could come out today.”
Rarity blushed as she shook my hoof. “Nice to, uh, meet you, Pastor.” I could already tell that she was quite hesitant about this.
“So, I hear that you’ve run into some of our members while out and about in Manehatten, am I right?”
Rarity puts on an embarrassed face. “So, I guess Twilight told you about that, Right?”
“Yes, she did.”
Rarity sighs. “Look, Pastor, you seem like a lovely stallion and all, but those ponies made absolute fools of themselves doing what they did and made me feel uncomfortable! I mean, how could anypony do that to themselves! Not to mention they were preying on others.”
I chuckled. “They didn’t do it to themselves, they simply did it for God, just as they were called to do. And I wouldn’t call reaching out to others with the Gospel ‘predatory.’ It was simply an act of love for those around them. You should be thankful that they took the time to tell you about how you can be saved.”
“Saved? Whatever do you mean, Pastor Iron?” Rarity raised her eyebrow. I was about to explain when Pinkie Pie came out with a tray of cupcakes.
“Here are your four frosted cupcakes!” Pinkie’s grin could always light up a room.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” As we say this in unison, I look outside and see the warm sun shining upon glistening grass.
“Hey, why don’t we eat outside? It looks like a very nice day out there. Pinkie, you could even join us.”
Pinkie Pie grinned. “Sounds great! Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I’m going on my lunch break!”
“Alright, Pinkie! We’ll see you in an hour!” Two middle aged ponies, one blue and the other yellow, came out and immediately recognized me from supplying our potlucks.
“Good afternoon to you, Pastor Sharp Iron! It’s lovely to see you again!”
I smiled at Mrs. Cake’s greeting. “Lovely to be here today! I’m just taking these folks to tell them more about what I was called to do. By the way, great cupcakes last Sunday! The congregation loved them.”
Mr. Cake smiled sheepishly. “Well, thank you. It was our pleasure.”
The others agreed to my plan and Pinkie put our cupcakes into a paper bag. She even joined us upon my invitation. Now that we found a spot under a nearby tree. Now that we set up there, all we need to do now is…
“Say grace?” The four of them seem confused by the concept.
“Well, before we eat, we ought to give thanks to God, for He has blessed us with this food.”
“Oh, um, sure thing.”
I then look at the four. “Just close your eyes and remain silent.” Just as I was about to start, Pinkie was about to shove a whole cupcake into her mouth. “Ahem, Pinkie.”
“Whoops, sorry Pastor!”
As they then obliged, I began to pray.
“Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for this time we have to come together and learn more about you and your truth. Lord, I pray that you may open the eyes and ears of my friends here in Equestria to your Word and that they may come to know you more. I also want to thank you for this food, Lord I pray that you may bless it to our bodies and that we may bring glory to you. Thank you and I pray this in your name, Amen.”
Once we settled in, I resumed my explanation from earlier.
“So, you were asking me about salvation, right?” Rarity nodded. “Well, I can explain this with the 5 Gs: God, Guilt, Grace, Gratitude, and Glory. God made everypony in His image and because of that, we all owe Him obedience (Genesis 1:1). However, we are also guilty because we have sinned and fallen short (Romans 3:23).”
“Sinned?”
“Yes, any act of disobedience against God is sin. All the bad things you see in this world are the consequence of our sin.”
“Hmmph. Well, I don’t think I’m quite like that, darling.”
“Yeah, doesn’t the goodness of everypony outshine that?!” Pinkie Pie was quick to agree, as was Spike.
“Yeah, I’m not such a bad guy!”
Twilight gently prodded the others. “Come on guys, just let him explain further.”
I then look at them with a raised eyebrow. “So, none have you have ever lied? Or stolen anything? Or cheated? Or said mean things about other ponies? Or have an unhealthy wanting for things others have?” None of them had much to say, because once they thought about it for a minute, they realized that they were all guilty of these and other things. “Not to mention, our so-called good works will not save you from your sins.”
“What do you mean, Pastor? Everypony seems to look really pleased by our good works.” Pinkie Pie had an innocent glimmer to her eyes, but I refused to give in to that.
“That may be true, Pinkie, but in the eyes of God our works are seen as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We could never meet anything like God’s standard of righteousness, no matter how hard we try on our own. It’s simply futile.” I decided to use an analogy that may help them understand this and the next part.
“Girls, and Spike. Imagine that somepony got arrested and was found guilty of numerous crimes, and it’s a long list of crimes.”
The four others nodded. “Go on.”
“The pony is stuck with a difficult situation. He either must pay a fine so high that he cannot possibly afford it or spend the rest of his life in prison. However, someone else then bursts into the courtroom and somehow pays this fine on the guilty pony’s behalf. Suddenly, the pony is no longer guilty, but rather is free. What I mean is that the pony’s list of charges is like our sins, and the prisoner-to-be is each of us, and the one who paid the fine for him would be like Jesus because only He is sinless and can atone for our sins through His grace.”
“Tell us more about Jesus, He sounds like a cool dude for doing that!” I gave Spike a smile for his excitement.
“Certainly. Jesus knew that we could never save ourselves, so he came down to Earth and took the penalty for our sins. He was crucified…”
“Crucified?” Pinkie, Rarity, and Spike were unsure of what that term meant. Twilight turned towards them to explain.
“So, crucifixion refers to an ancient execution method where somepony is nailed to a t-shaped wooden cross where they are then left to die. Unfortunately, the practice was once quite common.”
The other three winced at the thought of it. I continued my explanation.
“So yes, Jesus was crucified as punishment for our sins, past, present, and future. However, not even death could stop Him; because He was sinless, it also meant that he could not die but was rather resurrected soon after and now sits at the right hand of God. This is the grace that He extended to us.”
“Whoa, I never thought of it that way. You mean that this Jesus would do all that just for us?!” I couldn’t help but smile at Pinkie. It’s not often that I see somepony get this excited about our Lord.
“Yes, and that’s the grace component, where only God alone can save us as we are justified by His grace (Romans 3:24-26). Because of this, we ought to owe our gratitude to the Lord.”
“How ever can we do this, Pastor? Did you not say earlier that our works hold no merit in the eyes of God?” Rarity had a point there, as I did mention that.
“Even though our own works cannot save us, we still ought to surrender ourselves to Him and live according to His will for us. Any works that come out of that simply happen to be a sign of us bearing good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit (Luke 6:44). From there, we then live to glorify God in all our thoughts and deeds. We will be gradually sanctified and edified to become more like Him.”
Rarity paused for a moment, then spoke out. “So, you mean those ponies I saw on the Streets of Manehatten…”
“This was exactly what they wanted to share with you and everypony. They wanted to welcome others to hear this good news, just as Christ had welcomed them. Even in a more difficult spot to speak the truth about God, they knew that the Lord was using them to bring about His glory in new places.”
“Hmmm. Pastor Sharp Iron, I think I need to head back to the Carousel Boutique to think this all over. I thank you for telling me this and clearing up some misconceptions.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help explain this, Rarity. Please let me know if you have any more questions.”
Rarity smiled and waved as she trotted away. “Of course, Pastor. Ta-ta!”
“Oh, look at the time! I don’t want to be tardy again!” Pinkie shot up from her spot and shook my hand rapidly. “Thank you, Pastor! I enjoyed this afternoon with you!”
“Glad I could share the good news. Please let me know if you have any further questions.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Next thing I knew, an energetic pink blur zoomed off into the distance before I could say more. I was now just left with Twilight and Spike.
“Well, did you two feel like you learned something new?”
Twilight smiled. “Of course, Pastor. It seems to make sense now, that we do have a purpose and should be living for it!”
“Yeah, I think you seem to be onto something. I mean, Twilight was thinking about this whole meta… meta…”
“Metaphysics, Spike.”
“Thank you. Yeah, it seems that she’s now a lot closer to finding her answer.”
I grinned as Spike concurred with Twilight. “Well, I thank God for bringing us all together! If either of you have questions, please let me know.”
“We will, Pastor. Thanks for coming out.” As Twilight finished, I shook her hoof. I also shook Spike’s hand, after which we then parted ways. Twilight and Spike back to the library, and myself back to the church.