What A Difference

Good News – March 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

What A Difference

Two People
After I became a Christian I was asked to take charge of a class of Sunday School children. One Sunday after the class Vera, a girl of about seven years of age, came to me and said, “William.”

I said, “Yes, Vera.”

She looked into my eyes and said, “I believe.”

What did she believe? She believed that Jesus had died to save her. Sometime later she was taken ill with rheumatic fever, and a messenger came to the school where I taught asking me to go to her home quickly because she was dying. I was taken to her bedside and saw that she was in much pain. She said, “I am soon going to be with Jesus.” A week later she passed away and is now in heaven with her Savior.

Another time I was friendly with a boy at school and got him to come along to our Bible class. It quickly became clear that it was just a bit of fun for him; he even lit up a cigarette during the class. We drifted apart, and he dabbled in spiritualism. On opening the local paper one day I read, “Man Found Dead In River.” He had weighted himself and then flung himself into the water, leaving his wife and eight children. Is he in heaven? Sadly, looking at the evidence of his life before his death, it seems that this man is in the place of the lost.

Three Others
Nearly 2,000 years ago, outside Jerusalem, three men hung in agony on individual crosses. Two were thieves, but in the middle was the eternal Son of God. Why was He there? He was there because of the sins we commit against a holy God. The Son left His home in heaven to save us. This was not done by His physical sufferings, awful as they were, but through what He suffered during three hours of darkness on the cross. God, in His holy wrath, punished Him because of our sins, although His Son was sinless. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18 KJV). What amazing love!

But what about the thieves who had started mocking Him from their crosses? One repented and said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Lk. 23:42).

Jesus answered, “Verily [truly] I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (v.43).

As far as we know, the other thief never repented and therefore is in the place of the lost.

In view of such love, where do you stand? Have you been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb – Jesus, the sacrifice for us? Are your sins forgiven? Are you looking forward with certainty to a place in heaven with Christ? Or, are you waiting to face God as your judge, which will be followed by an eternity in darkness?

Hear the Word of God: “Be it known unto you therefore ... that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39) Don’t delay; trust Him now! We can tell you how.

By William Friend