HOW DO YOU FIND THE INSPIRATION FOR ATONEMENT AND THE PATH TO REDEMPTION AND SALVATION?

Some people may feel it is too late to find salvation or too late to repent, amend their lives and be saved. They may feel they have done too many bad things or made too many mistakes or their guilt may prevent them from feeling that salvation is still available to them.

But it is never too late! I will prove it to you. I heard recently on a television show, I think it was “60 minutes”, that there are more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand in all the beaches of the world! Imagine it if you can! In addition, I have heard that scientists have seen the light from a star 6 billion light years away! That means they were seeing what that star looked like 6 billion years ago! It is almost beyond our ability to comprehend it!

Now if God could create a universe so vast and complex merely by His word, what are the chances that it was mere coincidence that his only begotten Son would be crucified on a hill together with two common thieves without that having great meaning? I don’t believe in coincidence.

The two thieves represent how each of us can choose to react when we meet Jesus, even at the moment of death. The one thief sees Jesus and cynically asks Jesus to save Himself and the two thieves. But the other thief, the good thief, rebukes him, acknowledges his guilt and turns to Jesus for salvation when he asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into his kingdom. In response, Jesus tells him that this day he will be with Jesus in paradise.

This incident proves that is never too late, and that even near the moment of death, if you will repent and ask for forgiveness the great mercy of God is still at work. The problem is that most people die the way they have lived, including hanging on to their old hurts, grudges and mistakes or fail to ask for forgiveness, perhaps out of the mistaken notion that it is too late for them to find salvation given the way they have lived their lives.

The mercy of God is available even to the greatest sinner. Even if their sins are as red as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow. God has graciously willed it so. So do not defeat yourself or crucify yourself on old grudges or the memory of old mistakes. Rather, return and ask for forgiveness and have an intention to repent. Trust in the great mercy of God! Then you shall cry and the Lord will answer. Remember, Jesus even forgave his persecutors so he will surely forgive you. Have confidence in the great mercy of God which is boundless and unfathomable.

It is never too late!