It was late Saturday afternoon; I was returning home from a youth conference which had been held in North Vancouver, B.C. While travelling along Londsdale Street my eyes were attracted to a young man who was attempting to ascend a steep hill. Upon his back was a large cumbersome pack which appeared to be weighing him down considerably. Becoming concerned for the lad, I stopped the car and invited him to ride the rest of the journey with me. With very little persuasion he accepted the offer.
"You know," he said, "I never thought I would get help with that heavy load. I am so glad that it's gone; I would never have been able to make the hill without your help."
Thousands throughout society are represented by the young man that I encountered that afternoon. They are wandering along life's lonely pathway weighed down by an oppressive and destructive burden - SIN - which has overcome them. Sin is manifested in numerous ways - anger, alcoholism, theft, adultery, drug addiction, witchcraft, murder - and is always a result of one being separated from God.
One does not learn SIN; it is the natural inescapable plight of all those that are born and its effects are grievous to all that are overcome by it. Society recognizes that something is terribly and frightfully wrong with man's attitudes and behaviour; a catharsis or cleansing for his unhealthy lifestyles is sought for by it. Millions of dollars are spent yearly on special programs with a sincere hope that man's present condition can be altered to the good. But society's self-centred and self-directed attempts to solve man's problems are all in vain. Instead of providing the much-needed relief for man's difficulties, these programs often only increase man's bondage to sin.
Society needs to go beyond itself for the solution to SIN. It needs to look to a greater, more efficient external aid, JESUS CHRIST, Who alone can provide lasting freedom from sin. Christ, God's Son, participated in creating mankind. It was He who formed man out of the dust of the ground as a perfect creature with whom He desired to have continuous, unending and uninterrupted friendship. But man unwisely became trapped by Satan's cunning lies and disobeyed God's command not to eat of the fruit of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which was in Eden, where God had placed him as caretaker.
Immediately man was overcome by SIN. And then, as God had forewarned him, he became a slave to Satan, separated from God and void of the fellowship he earlier enjoyed with His Creator. Now man was in a sorrowful state. As a transgressor of God's law, he had a natural bent towards doing only evil continuously and his traverse throughout life became very difficult.
In spite of man's wilful, open and determined defiance of God's clearly stated command, God still loved His creation and He determined that He would not abandon man in his present condition. This unending love compelled God to provide man with a redeemer friend. At exactly the right time, Christ, "Who was made of woman, and totally separate from sinners, set aside His glory, left heaven, and took on bodily form," so that He could live among man and eventually become man's only Saviour by willingly dying on the cross at Calvary. While man was still "dead in his trespasses and sins", separated from God, and alienated from His love, Christ, "Who is rich in mercy", appeared and died for man. The wide, uncrossable gulf of separation between God and man was bridged by the work Christ did once and for all at Calvary. Through His complete and sufficient work on the cross all men everywhere can be redeemed and reinstated into full and certain fellowship with God. No one is to be excluded from this redemptive plan. Christ has come to "seek and to save all who are lost in their sin" regardless of one's colour, race, religion or social background.
Now anyone who "will believe in His heart and confess with his mouth that God has raised Christ from the dead shall be saved", for "Christ indeed is able to save all those that come to Him by faith." Without hesitation call upon Him while He is near.
If and when you do, He will hear you, He will answer you, and He will immediately fully pardon you from every sin you have ever committed,regardless of its nature or its severity. Immediately you will be adopted into His household, you will be given the authority to be called His son, and you will be entitled to all the benefits and blessings He daily will bestow upon you. This is His sure and certain promise to all that come to Him.
Today is your day of Salvation; tomorrow, because of unforeseen circumstances, may be too late. Come to Christ while you still have opportunity and receive from His kind hand the salvation you need. |
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