Next to me sat a young girl. Everyone around us was busily talking, and we two alone seemed out of it. Turning to her, I said, “Can you tell how many sins it would take to shut someone out of heaven?”
She replied thoughtfully, “Could God allow one sin in heaven any more than a thousand?”
“No,” I said. “One sin in the Garden of Eden brought ruin to man and to all the earth beside. All the misery in all the world is the result of that one sin in Eden. If God allowed one sin in heaven, it would ruin that too.”
“Then why did you ask me that question?”
“Because I want to ask you another: Have you ever committed one sin?” Her eyelids drooped, and she remained silent. In a moment I saw a large tear running down her cheek, and she softly said, “Yes, more than one.”
“Could you,” I said, “put your finger on one, one that you remember?”
Another time of silence followed. Then, with evident pain, she said, “Yes, not long ago I denied what I knew to be true. I wanted to avoid difficulty.”
“Well then,” I said, “by your own confession, you have committed at least one sin. You said what I believe is true: One sin would shut us out of heaven as well as a thousand. You are then shut out already. What are you going to do?”
A change came over her like a flash. Her eyes, still full of tears, looked straight at me as she said reverently, “The Lord Jesus died for me. He is my only hope.”
“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).