It was fun living so close to such a beautiful park - just two short blocks away. Grandma always enjoyed taking the two-year-old twins and their older brothers to see the peacocks. Sometimes they would fan their tails! And the hungry ducks were always ready to snatch up the bread the boys threw to them. What fun it was to swing so high on the swings and to zip down the slippery slides. Grandma and the boys all loved to go to the park, but sometimes the weather wasn’t good enough to go.
One day when Grandma came to the boys’ house it had been raining so hard that she had to shake the rain off her coat before she could hang it up. Justin clapped his hands when she came in and said with a big smile, “It isn’t raining at the park, Grandma!” And he ran to get his jacket.
It isn’t only children who do not want to believe the truth. There are grown-ups who are just as sure that their own thoughts are right as Justin was that it wasn’t raining at the park. Some people choose to believe that God is too loving to punish people for their sins. But our God who cannot lie says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). Yes, God is a God of love, but He is also a God of truth and righteousness.
Now, why do you think Justin told his grandma it wasn’t raining at the park? Do you think it was because he wanted that to be true? And why do some people say God won’t punish sin? Is it because that’s what they want to believe?
What do you think is really the truth? Was it raining at the park? Yes, it was. And if Grandma and the boys had gone anyway, they would have been wet, cold and very uncomfortable. And will God really punish people for their sins? Yes, He will. We are all responsible before Him.
Grandma and the boys did not go to the park. Instead they enjoyed reading stories together and doing puzzles in the warm, dry house. And God has made a plan so that you and I can escape the punishment for our sins. God sent His own beloved Son to bear that punishment on Calvary’s cross as the substitute for any boy or girl or grown-up who will accept Him as their very own Saviour. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)). Another verse says, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)).
Will you receive God’s plan of salvation by accepting Jesus as your Saviour? If not, you will bear your own punishment for your sins in that awful place called hell. God does not lie.
ML-07/26/1998