This world of ours has suddenly become far too crowded and far too small! We live in an age familiar with orbiters-shuttles-space stations-how shrunken our little globe seems! Everything is to lead to planetary exploration: a space probe to Mercury, a “mission to Mars,” and a robotic probe with the destination Titan (the largest moon of Saturn).
What does it mean? Why is it that our world has become too small? Why have we become so interested in exploring outer space? Is it just the thrill of reaching and exploring the unknown? Or is there a motive deeper, much deeper than most have realized?
Here is one answer from an engineer in the space program, a man sober and sound in his thinking. Said he, “Well, yes, it is all of that to be sure, but I can’t help but feel that it is something more. After all, there are unknown and unexplored places on this planet. But I am convinced that many are sick and disillusioned by all that is going on down here-war, and all that. They are not running away, but they do want to get away somehow.
“They feel that on some other planet there can be a clean break, a fresh start and a beginning of things all over again.”
What a startling reply this is when fully analyzed! Yet it is how God said it would be. How true it was when God said, “SIN entered into the world.” Sin has ravaged every fiber of this old world, and because of this sin and the sinners in the world, the prophet of old stated the following: “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.”
It may be that in a generation to come some of the regions of space will be explored, but nothing will ever be revealed nor discovered that will free sin-sick man from himself and his sin that God has not already revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Man may come to a new planet, but it will be the same old man, in the same old sin, with the same eternal condemnation.
No, there is no new solution to be found in space. But there is whole and utter and complete solution in the Savior from sin whom God gave. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). The key is not to be found in another planet, but in a Person. “Jesus saith...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). Not by rocket, but by repentance, “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Never forget that solemn reminder from the God of the universe: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” You may not live to travel in a rocket ship, and you may not even travel very far by plane or even train, but if, as a repentant sinner, you trust Christ, the Savior of sinners, as your very own, you will someday ascend through the clouds with Him and enjoy the blessings of heaven for all eternity.
I hope that the seriousness of being without Christ as your Lord and Savior will bring you to Him, so that someday we may meet in “the space beyond.”