What is the crookedest road in the world? Two streets vie for this dubious title. One is Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa. This street makes five hairpin turns and two quarter turns in a distance of 275 feet as it zigzags down a steep hillside. Another is Lombard Street in San Francisco, which has eight hairpin turns in a distance of 600 feet.
Both handle car traffic. Both can be driven. But you better have both hands on the steering wheel before driving them. Perhaps only after navigating both roads can a person make an intelligent judgment on which one is more crooked.
But when it comes to casting a vote for the crookedest street in the world, I know a street that is far more crooked than either of these two. I know it well because I travelled it for many years on a daily basis. I got so used to its crookedness that I thought it was normal. Looking back, I should have been scared stiff daily traveling it, but I wasn’t. I didn’t know any better. As I careened down it, my heart got pretty dinged up making hairpin turns and bumping into obstacles. It is only by God’s mercy that I didn’t have a fatal accident on this road.
You see, without a doubt the crookedest street in the world is the path a sinner makes for themselves when they live far from God. Isaiah said, “The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace” (Isaiah 59:88The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. (Isaiah 59:8)).
Crooked Paths!
These are what sinners travel down because their lives fill up pretty fast with lies. Visualize for a moment driving down a curvy downhill road. As soon as you’re out of one hairpin turn you have to spin the wheel violently the opposite way to stay on the road. The speed picks up with each turn. The hair on the back of your neck begins to rise. Deep inside you know it’s only a matter of time before you lose control and crash! This is the life of a sinner. Deep inside their hearts they know they are headed for a horrible crash, but they try to squash the voice of reason that tells them so.
At first they throw off constraint by lying to themselves, saying there is no God. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:11<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1)). This makes the descent easy. This is the first hairpin turn into crookedness. Then, how fast do they turn after that — from no God to no final judgment on sin; from no judgment to no right or wrong; from no right or wrong to doing whatever they please; from doing whatever they please to doing the base desires of their hearts; from doing base desires as long as they don’t hurt anyone to hurting others without compunction as long as they can get what they want. From one lie to the next they turn at breakneck speed. Without a doubt, the crookedest road in the world is the path of a sinner!
Deep inside, sinners know they are headed for trouble. The prophet Isaiah said, “Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.” Those who continue down the crooked path of sin generate lots of troubles for themselves in this life, and they will face the terrors of hell at the end. It is only of the Lord’s mercy that any sinners have not yet been cast into hell, for they certainly deserve it. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-2322It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22‑23)).
So great is God’s faithfulness to sinners that He sent His Son to die on a cross. At the cross, the Lord Jesus shed His precious blood that sinners the world over can come to Him and be forgiven. The Innocent shed His blood for the guilty that the guilty might have their sins washed away. “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)). There is not a person alive who, if they came to Christ by faith, God wouldn’t save by His grace and make one of His children forever. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. He wants all to come to Him in repentance and faith that they might have life.
Are you racing down the crooked paths of sin? God is patiently waiting for you to stop, turn around in your tracks, and come to Him by faith so He can forgive you. Instead of living a life full of destructive lies, He wants you to come to know His truth. His truth is pure. His truth is gentle. His truth has the power to bring healing into our souls and set them free. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
The Lord Jesus is the “way” to heaven. Hurtling down the crooked paths of sin, all we will find is heartache, emptiness, sorrow, and in the end the fiery punishment of hell. But, because Jesus died and rose again, sinners can leave the crooked paths of sin behind and get on the “way” to heaven. Jesus is that way, and He invites all sinners to come to Him. He is stronger than any chains that ever bound them. The crookedest road in the world is the path of the sinner headed away from God. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can set a sinner free and set them on the way to heaven. Oh, come to Christ and learn of His marvellous truth and love today!