Bob Coyle was awfully proud of his logging truck. The top of his cab was over ten feet high, the engine powerful enough to pull a heavy load of timber up steep logging roads. He kept his truck in tip-top condition, polishing it and waxing it until it shone. The truck had plenty of chrome: chrome mufflers, chrome gas tanks, wheels and mirrors. His truck was a beauty!
Bob was driving home to Forks, Washington. It had been raining for days, but people are used to lots of rain in the Pacific Northwest. It’s one of the reasons the trees grow so tall. He was driving along the edge of Lake Crescent on a narrow, winding road squeezed in between the lake and the steep mountains covered with dark green forests. Every so often a small waterfall tumbling down the side of a mountain splashed the shoulder of the road. The road had lots of twists and turns, and driving was slow. It took a lot of concentration for Bob to keep the big rig upright on the S-curves.
Bob was close to Barnes Point when the mudslide hit. Suddenly the face of the mountain came sliding down with countless tons of rock, trees and dirt. It blindsided him, taking him completely by surprise! The mudslide crashed against the side of the truck, pushing the vehicle sideways into the lake. The mudslide pushed the truck through the guard rails at the edge of the road as if they were made out of tin foil and not thick steel, and then down the short embankment and into the lake!
Bob Coyle could do nothing against the overpowering force of the mudslide. Lake Crescent is fed by glaciers, and the ice cold water from the lake flooded into the cab of the truck. When the water got chest deep in the cab, Bob decided it was time to make his escape out of the truck. He cranked down the window and climbed out into the water. He didn’t know how to swim, so he waited till a drifting log approached, then pushed off with his feet, reaching out his arms and grabbed onto it. All the while, the mudslide kept pushing the truck farther and farther into the lake. Clinging to the driftwood, Bob kicked and paddled his way around the mudslide, which was about a hundred feet wide, and back to shore.
Soon his beautiful rig disappeared completely beneath the water! It would stay in the lake until the next day, when, after a lot of work with heavy machinery, a path was cleared so the truck could be towed up out of the water. The truck was severely damaged by being submerged in the water, but thankfully Bob wasn’t injured in the ordeal.
Do you know that we are all travelers down the winding road of life and are headed towards eternity? All of us are looking for happiness. At the end of this life, God has promised endless happiness and joy in a place called heaven to all those who love and obey Him.
The problem is that each one of us has been knocked off the road to heaven as if hit by a mudslide. Sin has pushed us off the road that leads to heaven, and the debris from the mudslide has left the road impassable. Romans 3:11-1211There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:11‑12) reads, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Bob had to grab a floating log to help him return to shore. And each one of us needs to grab onto something too, to escape the consequences of our sin. That something is the salvation that is offered freely through the Lord Jesus Christ. This alone can keep us afloat when the entire world around us is sliding deeper and deeper into sin.
Jesus Christ can save those who trust Him because of who He is. From all eternity He was God, equal in power and wisdom with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Then just at the right moment in history, He became a man also, so that from that time forward He will forever be both God and man in the same person. As a man He went to the cross and gave His life for sinners, and as a man He arose from the grave. His death has infinite power to cancel out the guilt of sin and make you and me prepared for heaven.
Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, people can find salvation through faith in His name.
The way to get to heaven is to realize that we are ruined sinners, unable to save ourselves, and then to reach out by faith to the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. Those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus will have their sins forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. “The wages of sin is death; but 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)).
Not a single one of us could ever deserve the salvation God offers by our own endeavors. But He is pleased to give the free gift of salvation to all who believe on the name of His Son. Someday all those who believe in the Lord Jesus will experience the never-ending joys of heaven. Will you reach out and take hold of God’s salvation through faith and be saved?
God saves repentant sinners. But He does far more than salvage broken lives to try to make them better. Find out how in The Salvage of the Costa Concordia.