Ken Hopkins woke up in the predawn darkness of early morning and carefully dressed so he wouldn’t wake up either his wife or his four children. He wrote a note: “Daddy went crabbing on Hood’s Canal. When I get back at lunch we’ll have a picnic and feast on crab.”
He stuck the note to the refrigerator door and went out into the darkness to meet his friend. Together they drove to Hood’s Canal and put their small skiff into the water. Hood’s Canal is a long inlet of the sea that reaches inland in the Puget Sound region. The jagged, snowcapped peaks of the Olympic Mountain range seem to tower over its western edge. Most of the shoreline is uninhabited.
When one of them was hauling in the crab pot, the boat tipped over, throwing both of them into the frigid water. For half an hour they were partially submerged, clinging to the overturned boat. At this point the young father, who was beginning to feel the effects of hypothermia, decided the best chance he had for seeing his wife and children again was to swim for shore. His friend pleaded with him to stay with the boat. He pointed out that the distance to shore was too great and the water too bitterly cold to give him any chance of survival.
However, Ken pushed off from the boat and started to swim to the shore. After he swam a short distance, he disappeared out of sight. A short while later a Coast Guard helicopter rescued the man clinging to the boat. A search was organized for Ken, but he has not been found.
The young man’s family was devastated when they learned the news of his drowning. If he had only listened to the pleading of his friend, he would have been saved! An overturned boat in frigid water just didn’t seem to him like a thing he could place his trust in.
I would like to take a moment and plead with you about trusting in something that may seem weak and frail but is truly the only way of safety for the human soul. Nearly two thousand years ago outside Jerusalem a man was nailed to a cross. He was executed between two thieves like a common criminal. As He hung on the cross, men reviled Him, saying, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save” (Mark 15:3131Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. (Mark 15:31)).
After He died, as a final act of contempt and reproach, a soldier stuck a spear deep into His side. In this One, who, to immediate appearances, went down in weakness and defeat, I would like to persuade you to trust with all your heart, for what was apparent defeat was in truth the most astounding victory the world will ever know. Because the Lord Jesus died on the cross, God can justly put away the sins of every person who will believe in Him. His death might at first seem contemptible, but in trusting in Him is the only way of safety.
His death and resurrection were a tremendous victory over sin, death and hell for us. It was a victory over sin because there is no other way to obtain the forgiveness of sins. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:1414In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14)).
It was a victory over death, because God can now freely offer the gift of eternal life to all who believe: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
And it was a victory over hell, because those who deserve the misery of hell can, by the grace of God, make heaven their eternal home. “In My Father’s house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:22In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)).
No other event in the history of the world holds so much meaning for each member of the human race as the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
All your soul’s safety depends on what you do with the entreaty, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and...be saved.” Believe and you will share in the victory that Christ won on the cross. Decline to believe in the Lord Jesus and you will find that you will never make the shores of heaven but will surely perish. Which will it be for you? With so much at stake, won’t you make the wise choice and find the safety that comes from knowing the one and only Savior of sinners?