A prisoner was trying to escape from his cell. Somehow he had gotten a small saw and cut the bars from the cell window. He also made a long rope by tying together his clothes so he could go down, hand over hand, to the ground two stories below.
But the rope of clothes was not strong enough for his weight. It came apart, and he fell to the ground and broke his leg. Even so, and in spite of terrible pain, he was able to stand up and escape to the forest nearby. He walked for many days, looking for a place to hide. But the pain from his broken leg, along with hunger and thirst, made him so weak that the police caught up with him. He was taken back to prison.
We are all born prisoners of sin and try different ways to escape from our sins. Some of us try to escape through good works, while others of us look for a religion that might give us freedom. But these ways are only weak ropes made of dirty clothes that we wear to try to cover our sin. Sooner or later those ropes break, and we fall into unhappiness and suffering. And, at the end of our lives, death and punishment for our sins is ahead in the lake of fire. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
But this isn’t God’s plan for you and me. He loves us and has already prepared a way of escape that does not depend on something we have to do. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world to save sinners. He died on the cross and took on Himself the punishment for sin. Now He invites you and me to leave the ropes made of rags we are carrying and trust in Him, the only Saviour God can accept. Only those who trust Jesus have been freed from the terrible prison of sin and will be taken, very soon, to His home in heaven.
“We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good works] are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). “He that [believes] on the Son [has] everlasting life: and he that [believes] not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God [abides] upon him” (John 3:36).
ML-06/06/2010