Sought and Found

SOUGHT AND FOUND

In February 2013, an 18-year-old British backpacker went missing in the Australian outback for three days. He was young, healthy and very fit, since he was a keen long-distance runner. He had been working on a cattle station in Queensland and decided to go for a jog. In the heat of some 40oC he became disorientated and instead of running back to the cattle station and safety, he was going in the opposite direction. Thankfully, there were folks searching for him and he was found during a helicopter search of the region. It must have been a dreadful ordeal for this man and his family; almost unimaginable.

Yet, his physical predicament is a reflection of our spiritual condition. Many people are disorientated when their spiritual state is analysed. This is because they think they are on a path through the journey of life that will end in the bliss and glory of heaven, but they are going the wrong way. If the young man in Australia had not been found the result would have been death. Dear reader, if you are never found, your journey will end in eternal death, which is the judgment of God for eternity. This is definitely unimaginable.

Let us consider if we are on the right way and going in the right direction. To do so, we need an infallible map that will point us to the right road. This we have in the Bible, the only book inspired by God. Many say that because of their good works they will find the way to heaven. What does the Bible say about that? In Ephesians 2.8,9 it states  'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.' The language could not be clearer: we cannot get to heaven by our own efforts. In fact, God’s estimation of our humanly-produced righteousness is stated, 'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' Isaiah 64. 6.

In Australia, the young man’s salvation came from above – the helicopter. How appropriate when we think of the true way of salvation, because it also came from above. 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved,' John 3. 16,17. We read the following concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 'For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,' Luke 19. 10.

He came from heaven and through His sinless life and the well-recorded miracles that He performed, displayed incontrovertibly that He was the Son of God. This sinless Man allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross of Calvary in order that salvation could be our eternal portion. 

The following statements reflect the truth of the Bible - 

'Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,' 1st Corinthians 15. 3; 

'In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,' Ephesians 1. 7. 

'For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,' 1st Peter 3. 18. 

If you put your faith in Him; believe on Him, God will put to your spiritual account the value of His Son’s death and you will be saved.

He took the guilty sinner’s place,

And suffered in his stead;

For man, (O miracle of grace!)

For man the Saviour bled.

'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,' Acts 16. 31.