I recently took a trip on a ferryboat across fourteen miles of open water near Seattle. The ship has the capacity to carry in excess of 200 vehicles and over 2000 passengers. While I walked the decks, I was struck by the number of safety precautions on board the ship. The operators of the ferry seem to have spared no pains in planning for every possible emergency. For instance, positioned at either end of the ship are Zodiac rescue boats. These rubber boats are equipped with outboard motors and can be swung out over the water on a boom and launched at a moment’s notice. I also noticed several orange ring buoys were intermittently spaced along the rails. These buoys are just the right weight to be thrown a great distance to a person struggling in the water. Another safety feature on the boat is the life preservers placed in well-marked closets and under the bench seats throughout the boat. The life preservers can be reached from every part of the ship. At last, in case of a major fire or mishap, there are four passenger embarkation stations on the ship. At these stations there are large white barrel contraptions with a strap on them. When the straps are pulled, the barrels explode open, releasing an inflatable platform that can hold over 150 passengers. These inflatable platforms are like giant life rafts. Passengers get to these platforms by sliding down an inflatable slide.
As you can see, the list of precautions to ensure the passengers’ safety is impressive. It made me wonder why people, who in general would never dream of traveling on a ferry without these safety precautions, are seemingly willing to take a much greater trip without any forethought for their safety. What is this much greater trip? Each of us is traveling through time to eternity — an eternity which will never end, an eternity either spent in the presence of God where there will be incredible joy or spent in utter darkness and endless sorrow. We are all fellow-travelers in this journey. Even if you have never traveled farther than a block from the home you were born in, you still are a fellow-traveler en-route to eternity. It is the greatest journey a man can take, and we are all taking it.
The danger of ending up lost forever arises from the truth that we are all sinners. By nature and by actions we are far from God. In thought and word and deed, we have done things that have offended His righteousness. We naturally like to entertain a good opinion of ourselves. We also like to avoid pain. It is often with great reluctance that we come to the realization that we are sinners, because it destroys our good opinion about ourselves and causes inward pain. However, in the journey through life, it is essential for us to face the truth of who we are so that we might look to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The Bible calls coming to the realization that we are lost sinners “repentance.” There must be “repentance” in a soul if they will ever make it into heaven. A soul that doesn’t come to realize their lost condition will always be content to pass the Saviour by.
God in His grace has provided all the safety precautions necessary to bring souls safely to heaven. He showed how much He loved the human race in that Christ became a man and died for sinners. Through sin, man has incurred an infinite debt that will pull him down to a lost eternity. Souls cannot continue to carry this debt and make it into heaven. The debt exceeds what any mere man can pay. So God, in amazing grace, became a man. Only God could pay the infinite debt incurred by sin. Since man had incurred the debt, man should pay it. On the cross, Christ, the Son of Man, gave His life and paid the terrible debt in full. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Souls who come to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith have their debt completely cancelled. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” It is only by coming to the Lord Jesus that a soul can be certain of eternal safety and security. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:1313And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. (John 5:13)).
Fellow-traveler, please know that God loves you very much, so much that Christ was willing to become a man and give His life for you. He did this out of a love for you and a desire to bring you back to Himself. He wants you, no matter how deeply you have fallen into sin, to come to Him for salvation.
We are all travelers on the greatest journey of all. Each of us needs to have a care for the welfare of our souls, for we will soon be in eternity. Won’t you consider your need as a sinner and come to Him who alone can give the safety and certainty of eternal life? Be wise! Don’t travel through life without it!