“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward,” a verse from the book of Job in the Bible reads (Job 5:77Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)). To understand this verse, envision yourself sitting around a roaring campfire at night, the tongues of orange and red flames leaping upwards, and small sparks shooting out of the flames from the energy of the fire. Sometimes the sparks jump so far that they land on camp chairs and burn little holes in them. Trouble in our lives can seem as numerous as those sparks.
We can walk away from a campfire if it gets too hot, but we can’t escape trouble in our lives. Trouble seems to follow us wherever we go. Who can deny it?
The greatest trouble facing people in today’s world hasn’t changed from the greatest trouble facing people in ancient times, such as the days of Job. It is the problem of sin and death.
You know that cold you once had with the aches, sneezing, coughing and fatigue? It is a little reminder that one day health will fail and people will die. The wise as well as the foolish, the young as well as the old, the rich as well as the poor will one day be laid in a grave. Where will they be forever after?
The Biggest Trouble of All
God saw that each person had wandered from His right ways into the paths of sin. He knew that the trouble facing them because of sin was eternal death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). These wages include not only the death of the body but also spiritual death. “Behold ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:44Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)). The soul can never go out of existence. After death, people will continue to be forever in either heaven or hell. Death in the above verses refers to people who die in their sins and then are eternally separated from God’s goodness and love in a place called hell. The pains of hell are real and will go on forever. It is the place where the fire is not quenched forever.
Is there any trouble facing sinners greater than that? I don’t think so.
God’s Grace-Filled Answer
However, God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins and end up in hell. “The Lord is not ... willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He wants you, as well as all others, to come to repentance.
He came into this troubled scene and lived a perfect, sinless life. At the age of 33, after three and a half years of public ministry, He was betrayed into the hands of sinners and crucified.
He was given a false trial; He was savagely scourged; He was mocked, spit on and beaten. His hands and feet were held over the wood of the cross and nails were driven through them. A crown of thorns dug into His head. Pain jolted through His body as the cross was dropped into a hole to hold it upright. While He hung on the cross, those who passed by Him ridiculed Him and the thieves who were crucified with Him taunted Him.
The Savior meekly endured it all. God, who protects all those who put their trust in Him, seemed to have left Him in the hands of His enemies. For long hours He hung on the cross. Then the sky went dark, and the sun refused to shine. He cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:3434And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)). Shortly after this cry, He dismissed His spirit and died.
A prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote of the suffering of Christ: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger” (Lamentations 1:1212Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. (Lamentations 1:12)).
The depth of the suffering of the Lord Jesus on the cross could not be expressed adequately with plain words. Therefore, King David wrote these poetic words: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42:77Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (Psalm 42:7)). It was like all the troubled waves in an ocean of sorrow passed over His soul.
Why did He suffer? He suffered for you and me. He suffered so that anyone in the whole wide world could look to Him and be saved. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)).
Through His death on the cross, the door was thrown open so guilty sinners who had forfeited every right to heaven could enter in and be saved. “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)). God forgives those who come to Christ and declares them righteous and justified, not through any work they might have done, but through the work the Lord Jesus did on the cross.
How Will You Respond to God’s Grace?
In this life, those who come to believe and love the Savior still have to live in this troubled world. Someday they may have to go through death. But it won’t be the death of the wicked that ends in hell. It will be the death of the righteous. Those who die in faith will be welcomed home to the joys of heaven. To them, death will be a portal they pass through to a far better world.
This world is full of trouble as the sparks fly upward. You might try to deny this trouble, but you can’t escape it. Death is the end of the road for each of us. To save us from eternal death, Christ died on the cross. He is the sinner’s only hope. He is the door by which all who pass through will be saved. Will you believe that you might receive the gift of eternal life? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).