Jason Hoskey was eager to go hunting. He spent a big hunk of change and bought an expensive hunting license, and he purchased all the proper gear, including rifle, ammunition, boots and clothing. He went out into the Mendocina National Forest in Northern California to bag some game. An entire day he spent tramping through the forest, scrambling over logs, marching up and down hillsides, and getting slapped in the face by branches, and he still hadn’t shot an animal. His boots pinched his feet, his limbs ached with fatigue, and he was cold.
By evening he was beginning to wonder what ever prompted him in the first place to go out and try to shoot some poor animal anyway. He stopped at a little clearing and started a small campfire to warm his hands and lift his spirits. A burn ban was in effect because of very dry conditions, but that didn’t stop Jason from building his fire. He just figured a small fire would be harmless. He leaned against the trunk of a tree near his little fire and dozed “just for a few minutes.”
While he was napping, a small spark shot up from his fire and ignited the dry brush a few feet away. Feeling the heat of the fire, Jason woke up and had to flee for his life. The little spark had started a forest fire that would eventually burn over 6000 acres of prime forestland and require a small army of firefighters to extinguish it.
Six months later Jason got the bill. A federal judge ordered him to pay damages of $18,000,000. Jason was stunned. He had nowhere near that amount of money. If he was able to save every cent he earned, working for a salary of $50,000 per year, it would take him 360 years to pay off the fine. Having such a fine levied meant his financial ruin, all because of an errant spark.
Many of us have experienced financial difficulties, but fortunately few are in a state of complete financial ruin. However, each member of the human race is in a state of utter spiritual ruin because of sin. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). Since we have all sinned, heaven’s gate is closed against us. By our own strength, our own wisdom, our own good works, there is nothing we can do to remedy our spiritual ruin. “The wages of sin is death,” the Bible solemnly states, and again, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
The death referred to in these verses isn’t something that you pay the moment the soul leaves the body and then the bill is stamped, “Paid in Full.” No, it is far more than that. It is the state of a never-ceasing-to-exist soul that is banished from God’s presence to the outer darkness of hell. Death is the penalty affixed to sin, and it will take not hundreds of years, but all eternity to pay it.
The God who has levied this fine is infinitely wise and just. He knows truly what sin deserves. Thank God, He is also full of love and mercy. In grace He has made a way that all mankind can be saved from the spiritual ruin of sin. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Son of God, who spoke a word and the universe came into existence, became a Man and went all the way to the cross. The very creatures He created drove spikes through His hands and feet, and they nailed Him to the cross. They meant it for evil, but God overruled it for good, because in the death of His Son God has opened up the way of salvation for lost sinners. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
After He died, men put His body in a tomb and sealed it, but death couldn’t keep Him. He arose triumphant over the grave and now sits in the highest place in heaven. It is only believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that souls can find a remedy for their spiritual ruin and find heaven’s gate open to them. They pass from complete ruin to complete riches in Christ the moment they truly repent and believe.
Jason Hoskey earned a stupendous penalty that day he went hunting, but each one of us has earned a far greater penalty because of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only remedy for the spiritual ruin of mankind. He is the One—the only One—able to cancel that great debt of sin for all those who receive Him. Only through Him is there salvation. Won’t you take Him as your Savior before it is forever too late?