Jeff was a college freshman in a university 800 miles from his small hometown. He was not used to being away from his family, and he was eagerly awaiting the first opportunity to return home for a visit.
Jeff loved his Christian parents and the happy, loving home he had left only a short time before. Besides his family, he looked forward to seeing his relatives and other friends in the Christian assembly where he had grown up. He missed all of them. It was not a surprise to anyone when he took one of the first breaks in school to head back home for a visit.
Like most college students away from home, he did not have a lot of money. He had a credit card to buy gas for his car, so he didn’t see the need for taking much extra cash for the trip.
After driving some distance, he decided to take a break and get something to eat. He had brought enough money to pay for the food and still have a little left in his pocket.
As he drove along the interstate highway, thinking of home, he was startled from his thoughts by an interstate sign that said:
LAST FREE EXIT
He had a road atlas in the car, but he had not looked at it closely enough to notice that the interstate highway he was on became a toll road at a certain point, even though it was plainly marked on the map. Jeff quickly realized he did not have enough money to pay the tolls. By studying the road atlas closely, he found other roads he could take to bypass the several hundred miles of toll road.
Boys and girls, some things about Jeff’s trip home compare to the journey of each of our lives and where we each would like that journey to end — in heaven. God has marked the way to heaven very clearly in His Word, the Bible. Have you read His “road atlas” carefully to know the way? Perhaps someone has pointed out the way, and you have not been interested and neglected to listen carefully. God has given you a warning sign:
The atlas gave Jeff another way to travel so he could bypass the toll road, but there is only one highway to heaven. God does not give us choices on how to get there. Jesus said:
The highway to heaven does have a toll to be paid for our sins. Jeff had nothing he could use to pay for traveling on the toll road. And it is the same way for you and me — we have absolutely nothing we can use to pay for our sins. However, the Bible does tell us some very good news — that payment has already been made! “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)). The payment has been made by the Lord Jesus Himself. His precious blood, shed on the cross, has made the payment that God requires for sin and opens the way to heaven. He is offering that paid payment for access to heaven to you right now.
Jeff did reach home safely by using maps in the atlas to show him the way. You can arrive safely in heaven, if you will follow the directions that God gives us in the Bible:
May our loving God use this story with its warning signs and direction signs to awaken you to the fact that you need a Saviour. We are thankful that you have not arrived at that last exit and you still have time right now to follow the directions of this last sign:
This sign tells us salvation is free. The price for salvation was paid by the Lord Jesus when He died on the cross. Will you accept it?
ML-11/12/2000