The unusual thing about “Pop” Brown is that he spent most of his life behind the bars of jail and prisons — over seventy years, in fact. Brown called such places “home.” Escape or release from one merely opened the way for being put into another. Again and again the story was repeated, until a lifetime was gone. The opportunities and joys of freedom were lost forever. He was always confined.
You are thinking: Nothing could be worse! Nothing? Think a bit. Food, clothing, shelter — all were provided. Even a decent suit to wear! Every time he doffed his stripes for a release, he had the opportunity to go out and try a better way of life, but petty theft and drunkenness were his own choice.
Then think of someone like Dianne Odell, who lived for almost sixty years in an iron lung. An attack of polio when she was only three years old left her paralyzed, unable even to breathe on her own. (This was before polio vaccine was developed.) The “iron lung” was a metal cylinder, seven feet long, sealed at the neck. By positive and negative pressures air was forced in and out of her lungs, and so she lived for sixty years.
Her room was bright with pictures, balloons, and everything a loving family could provide. She could see visitors in an angled mirror; she wrote on a voice-activated computer and operated a television with a blowtube, but she could never escape her iron prison for a minute.
After so long a time, a power failure during a storm shut off the iron lung — and she died.
Total confinement in a prison cell, even worse confinement in a helpless body, long and terrible as they were, there was still a limit. Sixty years—seventy years — both may have seemed endless to the sufferers but they were not forever.
“Forever” will be after this life; it is called ETERNITY. And it is preceded by a choice! On the one hand: SALVATION! LIFE! On the other hand — we can hardly call it death, for the soul cannot die. It will only live on — and on — endlessly on — with the conscious knowledge that there is no end, no hope, no “light at the end of the tunnel.”
But now there is still GOOD NEWS! Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from the judgment and confinement of hell. He suffered for our sins. With His own blood, He paid the full price for our salvation. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. . . . He was buried. . . . He rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3434Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (1 Corinthians 15:34)).
What does He offer now to any and all who accept that wonderful salvation? He offers freedom now! “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:3636If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)).
Freedom forever! “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . . free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1212Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Romans 8:12)).