“Hey, everyone watch me kiss my rattlesnake on the lips,” John announced to the group of friends at a party. He puckered his lips in a mock kiss. His friends gathered around to watch the show.
“Don’t do it!” his friend Robert protested. “That’s crazy! The snake will bite!” he warned.
“Don’t worry. I’ve done it many times before, and my snake has never bitten me,” John said with a cocky smile.
As his friends all watched, John reached into the glass aquarium where he kept his pet snake. He picked it up with one hand behind its head and the other under its body. The rattles were silent. The snake was a little over two feet long and had only two rattles at the end of its tail—a young snake.
John held the snake up for his friends to view for a moment and then moved it towards his face to kiss it. The small crowd gasped as the snake suddenly struck with an open mouth and sank its fangs into John’s upper lip. At that instant, the snake’s poisonous venom was sent through its long, hollow fangs and into John’s lip before the snake was pulled away.
In astonishment, John dropped the snake to the floor and cried out, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die!”
Robert, the same friend who tried to discourage John from kissing the snake, quickly killed the snake that was coiling on the floor as if to strike again. Then he turned to help his terror-stricken friend whose upper lip was already swelling. In a firm voice he told John not to panic and that they would get help. Someone quickly called 911 and were told that paramedics were on the way.
At the hospital they treated John with antivenin for the snakebite. After a severe illness he recovered from the poisoning. The doctor credited the recovery due to the rattlesnake’s small size and being young.
It’s dangerous to keep a poisonous creature for a pet. It’s even more dangerous and foolish to kiss such a creature. Most of us don’t have to be told, “Don’t kiss a poisonous snake.” However, there is something very dangerous that you and I easily get accustomed to, and that is sin. Sin carries a poisonous bite with it that is far more deadly than that of John’s rattlesnake. “When lust hath conceived, it [brings] forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, [brings] forth death” (James 1:1515Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. (James 1:15)). Sin isn’t harmless. It is the deadliest evil known to man: “The sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:5656The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)). “The soul that [sins], it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:2020The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)).
No one has escaped the bite of sin. “There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)). Therefore, every one of us needs God’s life-saving remedy for sin, which is available only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus suffered and died on the cross and became the only sin offering God will ever accept. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:1415). Sin’s deadly poison has been defeated by its remedy in God’s beloved Son.
Won’t you recognize that sin is deadly, and believe that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for your sins? He will give you the gift of eternal life. God says there is no other way to be saved from sin’s deadly sting.
ML-06/15/2003