The judge’s gavel fell. “Three months,” he said, and turned at once to the next case. Three months in prison! An experienced prisoner would have smiled at the “easy time,” but to the young first-timer before the bar, it was a terrible blow.
He was led away from the dock, and soon found himself in prison clothing and in his cell alone. Then his full position dawned upon him; this was the result of his waywardness and sin, and what would the end of it be?
The thought brought him down to his knees, and he cried aloud before God. Then and there he made his decision: from that time on he would quit the service of the devil.
Now that was a good decision to make, but it did not give him the peace of mind he wanted. He discovered, as many have done before him, that resolutions with regard to the future cannot wipe out the sins of the past. There lay his black record. How could he make amends for that?
“You ought to have prayed before you got in here,” sneered the warden, who saw him on his knees. “But perhaps better late than not at all.”
The prisoner ignored his comments. His whole desire was to be right with God.
There were two books in his cell. One of them was a book of instruction on how to live right. The other was a Bible.
To the first the anxious young man turned. He read there that he should fast and pray in order to secure pardon from God.
“I have been praying without fasting,” he thought. “That is why I do not have peace yet. I will fast as well as pray.”
And he did fast. Much of his food was left untasted, and he found himself getting weaker. Soon he was near a total collapse. He seemed to have reached the end of all he could do. He had resolved and sorrowed, prayed and fasted, but he was still a stranger to peace. Then it was that in despair he took up the Bible.
It was not a familiar book to him, and he hardly knew where to start, but God had His eye on him, and the book fell open at 2 Samuel 12. The first sentence that met his anxious eyes was, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin.”
That was enough for him. The heavy burden was eased, the clouds lifted and his astonished heart responded in gratitude to a pardoning God. He soon learned how God could pardon and yet remain the just God, for that long-neglected Book became his cell companion. In it he read of Calvary, of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He read that marvelous story of redeeming love, and all became as plain to him as the daylight which streamed through the barred window into his cell.
Upon this his soul rested—this firm foundation. Yes, he discovered that God had freely justified him by His grace, and that the precious blood of Jesus, the basis of all blessing, had made him clean in the sight of God. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:7)). Through the grace of God, the one-time prisoner of Satan became God’s free man, gladly telling to all around that “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
Christ is the Saviour of sinners,
Christ is the Saviour for me;
Long I was chained in sin’s darkness,
Now by His grace I am free.
Now I can say I am pardoned,
Happy and justified, free,
Saved by my blessed Redeemer,
This is the Saviour for me.
Loved with a love that’s unchanging,
Blessed with all blessings so free,
How shall I tell out His praises?
This is the Saviour for me.