— John 5:40
One of the worst civilian airline crashes in history took place on the Canary Islands in 1977 when two Boeing 747’s collided.
A survivor related how many of the passengers reacted upon the fiery impact. Many of them were heard to have spoken their last words with profanity and cursing. Rather than making their “Peace with God,” their last earthly moments were spent cursing God.
What would cause someone staring eternity in the face to still shake their fist at God? The sad fact is that many people would rather grasp onto their personal sin and take it with them to the grave rather than confess it to God and have it forgiven.
The Bible says in 1 John 1:8-9, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
God forgives us not based on any merit of our own, but because God’s Son, Jesus Christ, lived a perfect sinless life for us, and then gave that sinless life on the cross as our substitute, so that whoever confesses their sin and believes in Him will not perish but receive eternal life. But of course, you need to first admit that you have sin in your life that needs to be confessed and your pride doesn’t want to admit that. And so even while staring death in the face, many let their pride condemn them rather than receiving God’s free gift of forgiveness and eternal life.
Jesus said in the verse above that His desire is that all souls would come to repentance and have eternal life, and that is His will for you. Friends, don’t allow someone else’s opinion to formulate your thinking about Jesus Christ. Don’t let anyone belittle you or demean your eternal priceless soul; rather, regard your soul with kid gloves. Acknowledge your sins before God and receive His free gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let go of that sin that shackles you and drags you down. Many people think that repentance is something that crushes them, when in reality it is a great weight being lifted off.
Jesus said, “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
May God grant you the humility to acknowledge your sin, and give you the faith to believe so that you may have life through our Savior Jesus Christ both now and forever…amen.
