On a recent plane flight out of Chicago, I was reading a Christian book and taking notes when the lady next to me asked me if I was preparing for a sermon. “I see you’re reading Leviticus,” she said. I explained that I wasn’t preparing a sermon but just making notes on parts that were important to me and that I wanted to remember.
“You seem to know a little about the Bible,” I said, noting that she recognized Leviticus as one of the books of the Bible. It was not long before she gave me a short history of her life and religious upbringing, which left out many of the wonderful details of God’s love and the real value of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.
As we began to discuss how God in His love gave His only begotten Son to save lost sinners and that He died, taking the wrath of God for the sins of lost sinners like me, I could see the tears begin to puddle in her eyes.
“What a wonderful story! I could start bawling right now, but I don’t want to embarrass you,” she said, as she waved her hand in front of her face to calm herself down. She was clearly touched by what we had been talking about. I told her that Jesus died not only for her present sins but for every sin she had ever committed, but that it could only be true of her if she accepted Him as her very own Saviour. She said that she believed in Jesus but had never heard these wonderful truths before and that now she had such peace in hearing them.
We talked for about an hour and shared many more thoughts from the Scriptures that she had never heard before and that gave her both joy and peace. It was beautiful to see the grace of God at work, as both the Word of God and the Spirit of God brought the full meaning of the work of Christ into a searching heart. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
Have, at least figuratively, tears of repentance filled your eyes? God promises that in the short term “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:99For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. (Psalm 107:9)). In the long run He says, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:44And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)).