Imagine one evening hearing a commotion in the street. Imagine opening the door of your house and seeing the street covered by silver coins. This is exactly what happened to a community in Miami, Florida, one December evening. People raced out of their homes to gather up as many coins as they could carry off. Some even stripped off their shirts so that they could pile the money and carry more. An armored truck carrying a small fortune in coins had tipped over, spilling coins everywhere for a block. By the time police had cordoned off the area, nearly $500,000 had disappeared.
One bystander who had watched the frenzy told police, “I believe the poor people in this community deserved what they got.”
Another man from the neighborhood told reporters, “The cash was a gift from heaven for hard-working people.”
Perhaps you are thinking that these people didn’t have any shame. But think for a moment. Are the hearts of these people so different from the rest of us? We live in a world that has been created by God, and everything in it belongs to Him. Instead of acknowledging Him and His ownership of all things, including us, we have lived our lives as if He didn’t exist.
All of us at least part of the time have pushed Him out of the picture, even as those people pushed the lawful owners of the money out of their minds. All that we have, even our lives, has been given to us. Yet in a thousand ways we have said, “Our lives are our own; we will do what we want with them.”
Only one Man has lived a life in which He perfectly acknowledged God in all His ways. That Man was the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived His whole life of about thirty-three years for God. He did miracles the likes of which the world had never seen before. He raised the dead, He gave sight to the blind, He commanded a storm to stop and it obeyed Him. In Him, love and power combined as in no other man. He went about preaching God’s Word to the poor. He did not despise anyone. A poor blind man begging by the side of the road was as important to Him as an army officer who commanded a hundred soldiers. He took time to talk to a sinful, despised Samaritan woman as well as to a respected religious leader.
In the eyes of men who sought position, wealth or power, He was of little worth. He did not fit into their plans. They saw no beauty in Him. However, God gave a far different account of Him when He spoke from heaven and declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matthew 17:55While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)).
One of His followers betrayed Him, leading His enemies to Him. They took Him, gave Him a false trial and condemned Him to death. They led Him down a dusty street outside the city of Jerusalem and nailed Him to a cross to die.
After six hours He said, “I thirst.” A soldier filled a sponge with vinegar and put it into His mouth. After receiving the vinegar He said, “It is finished.” Then He bowed His head and died.
Now, what was finished? He finished being the only sacrifice that God will ever accept for sin. On that cross He bore the punishment for the sins of all who would trust in Him.
Good works can never undo the sins we have done. Those who dare to think so underestimate God’s hatred of sin. But one look to the Saviour, in faith, is all that is needed to make the vilest sinner clean and fit for eternity—an eternity where there will be joy unspeakable in the presence of the One who died for them—an eternity where praise will swell up in every heart, because they understand with a marvelous fullness the love of God—an eternity in a city where the street and city are of pure gold and where only those whose names are written in the Saviour’s “book of life” may enter.
Would you have your name written in this book and walk the street of gold? Then you must believe in the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners—the Saviour for you. The moment you believe is the moment your name is written in the book of life. However, if you never come to the Lord Jesus by faith, you will bear the penalty of your sin in “outer darkness: [where] there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” You will never enter the city where the street is gold. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:1515And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)).