Seven-year-old Pam was having eye problems, so one afternoon her mother took her to the eye doctor’s office for an examination. The doctor sat Pam in a chair and covered her left eye. He asked her if she could read the bottom line of the eye chart on the wall.
“No,” said Pam very firmly.
“How about the next to the bottom line, Pam; can you read that?” asked the doctor.
Again she answered, “No.” “What about the line above that?”
Now Pam’s mother and the doctor began to worry, for Pam sadly shook her head to indicate she could not even read that line.
“Are you sure, Pam, that you can’t see the letters on that line?”
“Sure I can see them,” said Pam, “but I can’t read them.”
At last the mystery was solved. Pam saw the letters, but she could not read them because they did not spell out a word she recognized. Pam’s mother and the doctor together breathed sighs of relief. Now the doctor could find out what was really wrong with Pam’s vision, and he soon prescribed glasses to help her see better.
Do you have an eye problem? All of us do when it comes to seeing ourselves the way God sees us. We cannot possibly “see” how bad we really are. Yet we actually do not need to “see” that with our eyes, but simply need to understand that we are sinners in God’s sight.
Once we admit that we are guilty of being a sinner, there is the next line to read on God’s “chart": God hates sin and He cannot have it in His presence. We need to “see” this clearly or we will struggle on without getting anywhere. Pam struggled with the letters because she was trying to form words with them. You will struggle on with your sins if you think you have only a few small ones that do not amount to much.
The fact is that a letter is a letter and a sin is a sin. Each one stands alone. And it only takes one sin, great or small, to keep you out of heaven; the total number does not matter.
But just as the doctor had the only remedy for Pam’s eye problem, God is the only One who has the remedy for your sin problem. His Son, the Lord Jesus, was punished on the cross for the sins of all who would accept Him as their Saviour. Believing this provides an instant cure that lasts forever. No further treatment is necessary. The Bible says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7). Do you believe it?
ML-04/08/1984