Friday 23 March 2012

"My Time Has Come"


"Maybe my time has come to die," said the old man from his hospital bed.
"Yes, but are you ready to die?" I asked him. "Are you saved and ready to meet God?"
"That is a deep question," he replied slowly and thoughtfully. "I have always tried to do what was right, and I have never done anything really bad in my life."
"Then you don't have a chance in the world of going to heaven," I said.
He stared at me, and I could see he did not believe his ears, so I repeated it. "If you have never done anything wrong in your life, then you don't have a chance in the world of going to heaven. Jesus Himself said, 'I came not to call the righteous'; so if you are righteous, there is no hope for you; you cannot be saved. Jesus said He did not come to save good people" (see Luke 5:31,32).
The old man seemed to be absolutely dumbfounded. He looked as if he had been shot. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he said brokenly:
"Can it be that I have been wrong all my life? I have never in my life heard that before. I thought God saved good people."
"No, Jesus said plainly that he did not come to save righteous people, but sinners. So if you are not a sinner, you cannot be saved." After quoting a number of Scriptures to him, he saw that he was a sinner (Romans 3:23). He also was shown that Christ came to save sinners, and therefore to save him, if he repented of His sin before God and trusted Christ as His Saviour (Acts 20:21). Only the blood of Christ can cleanse from sin (1 John 1:7) and make one fit for God's presence.
How astonishing it is to see people who go through life hoping they are all right because they have never killed anyone or robbed a bank. Then they launch into eternity, to meet God in their sins, and find themselves shut out of heaven forever. Yes, this dear old man had joined some church and been baptized, he told me. He raised his family right, and did all he could to help other people. But he did not understand anything about God's wonderful salvation, which is entirely by grace and not of works (Ephesians 2:8,9). And now literally with one foot in the grave (for one of them had been amputated), and with the other one sliding on the brink, he evidently heard for the first time in his life that he could not save himself.
What about you? Are you a sinner? If not, there is no hope for you, for "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"—only sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). If you are depending on your good life, you will not be saved. When your time comes to leave this life, you will enter into judgment.
—C.D. Carter

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