The Empress of Britain was riding at anchor, just before sailing away from Liverpool. A gentleman settled himself in his little cabin, and glanced over his important papers for a final check-up to make sure that all was in readiness, “Because,” he reflected, “I’m not coming back.”
First he laid his passport on the table. It had taken him many days to get that paper correct in every detail, because it was very important that it should he accepted for him in New York. Stop a moment as he glances over his passport to the United States, and see that you also are wise enough to have your “passport” ready for a long journey that you must make some day. Where do you want to go? To Heaven, no doubt, and remember you may leave this world at any time without a moment’s notice. Is your passport ready?
The gentleman looked at the first page—a picture of himself. “It makes me look old,” he thought, “but it is signed and sworn as a picture of myself. That’s true enough.”
Reader, there is a picture of yourself on the passport God has provided to heaven. God’s Word pictures you as a sinner, a poor lost ungodly sinner. But it is not valid for you, unless you have accepted it as a true picture of yourself. Is the first page of your passport ready?
The next page included details of himself, his age and occupation, and his reason for going to America. What then is your reason for wishing to go to heaven? Do you realize that this world is under the sentence of judgment and that the lake of fire is at the end of every sinner’s life who has not received God’s passport? Have you admitted this to God?
Then came the visa, the signature of an official from the country to which he was going. He remembered his difficulty in obtaining this visa, and his relief when it was at last signed for him.
Reader, is your passport signed by the God of heaven to which you hope to go? I mean, have you come to the Lord Jesus for salvation according to God’s holy Word? Are you sure, perfectly sure, that your hope of heaven is signed and sealed by God, and are you resting upon His Word for yourself? Do not rest upon any word of men, for God has only one way— through Christ.
The gentleman folded up his passport with a feeling of satisfaction, and looked again through the little porthole across the gray Atlantic. Reader, can you face life, through storm or calm, with the perfect assurance that heaven is open to you by God Himself because you come in His appointed way?
What is His way? The answer is Jesus, the Crucified, the risen and glorified Saviour who once died for sinners like you and me. Jesus Himself is God’s Way to the Father.
ML 02/04/1951