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A Pastor’s
Perspective
“What
a Life”
by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)
I
enjoy jail time. That is, visiting people incarcerated for the crimes.
I usually go away from the experience with a renewed sense of
gratitude for my own freedom. But
that’s not why I go. To
me, the hopeless, daily grind of prisoners carrying out their sentence
is so unimagineable. “Ugh. What a life!”
The not-so-glamorous
life of a convict isn’t what draws me.
What then? Hope.
I like to visit prisoners to pass on God’s message of hope.
Hope of new life.
I
spent some one-on-one time with a murderer.
Some may say, “Come, on.
Hope is completely lost with such a wicked sinner!”
Does someone who intentionally and maliciously takes the life of
another deserve to have hope for a better life? No. Do you or I?
Unequivocally and biblically, “No!”
In fact, no one deserves to have the life God so freely has
offered. Well, then, what
do we deserve? Not life,
but death.
When
we read Jesus’ descriptions of hell, “where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched…everlasting
punishment…furnace of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth” we have the tendency to rationalize it away.
“Oh, He really doesn’t
mean that. At least, not everlasting.
After all, how can a loving God devise such a place!”
Or, we may wrongfully surmise, “Hell
is for the really bad people…I don’t deserve that!”
No. Just like the
criminal deserves the punishment he receives, so each and every one of
us deserves death…eternal death.
“The wages of sin is death…”
The good news, however, is that “the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans
6:23).
Jesus
provided freely what we did not deserve nor earn:
eternal life. He
died the death we deserved so that we may have the life we didn’t
deserve (Romans 5:6-10; 2Corinthians 5:21).
On Easter Day, we’re reminded that Jesus didn’t remain on the
Cross, for on the third day He rose from the dead. What
a life! Anyone who places
their complete trust in the Lord Jesus “has
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life” (John 5:24b; See also John 3:36; 1John 5:11-12).
Notice He said “has” not “will have.”
Whether
you’re serving time or losing time, you can know by experience, the
love, freedom, and grace, of “what a life!” Jesus provides to those
who trust in Him.
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