Many people go into a shop just to have a look around.  Sometimes, you see something that interests you, but it is not your intention to buy.  Yet you pause and ask the shop assistant the price of the article, admiring it for a while and then pass on.  You may, or may not, come back again.  Sometimes you do come back but you are too late – the article has gone.  How many chapels and churches have you passed by? Perhaps for some of you the sight of them has brought back memories of Sunday School, when you were a child? By now, it is long forgotten and you just pass by.    Sometimes there are events and circumstances which occur in our lives that cause us to pause, and make us realise that we are not as strong as we thought we were, nor are we the masters of our own destiny.  At such times, we are alarmed and do not know where to turn or what to do. But time passes by and we soon forget.  The Bible advises us: `Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near’ (Isaiah  55 : 6).

I am asking you to pause awhile to consider the reality of God. There is good reason for a passing enquirer to become an urgent seeker. We would do well to consider what happens after our final breath. We have immortal souls, incapable of death, and we shall one day stand before God. It may surprise you to know that God loves you and wants you for Himself in eternal fellowship.  Our immediate reaction would be a realisation that we are not worthy to share fellowship with a Holy God.   You would be quite right – you are not worthy.  You may then enter a despairing situation of wondering how you can find this eternal fellowship and how you can have the right to claim it.  Something needs to happen to you or else you face a dismal and a hopeless future. 

In the heart of God, there is a plan to meet this need.  First of all He enlightens us deep in our understanding, and we realise how far we are from God.  We know from the Bible that God loved the world and yet when we look at the behaviour of mankind, we wonder how this can be so. This is truly a beautiful planet but its inhabitants always seem to be at war with each other, and even hate God. Yet the fact remains that God loves this world and has told us that He has a plan for us.

The plan to help mankind was planned in eternity in the heart of God.  The result of this was that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth on a mission of mercy and love.  This mercy is for those who do not deserve it; this love is a profound compassion God displayed in the death of His Son on the Cross, as a punishment for our sin.  This means that the way is cleared for all our sins, past, present and future, to be transferred to the sinless Christ.  It is because of His love
that He was willing to stand in our place and meet the justice of a Holy God. He punished His own Son for our sin.  The debt is cleared.  As well as this, the Lord Jesus Christ did something else we could never do, and that was to fulfil the expectation of God’s Law.

How can we obtain such a salvation? We are given faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as well as repentance towards God.  Nothing we could have done could have achieved anything of spiritual worth.  Christ did it all.  We ourselves would fall hopelessly short.  Christ is our only hope. 

How does all this happen?  He brings a feeling of unrest in our souls and at the same time prompts a desire for God.  He begins a work in us which ultimately brings us to trust in His Son and makes us children of God.  It would be a sad thing indeed for us to be passing enquirers to such wonderful and important matters.  If we have not considered the Lord, then what regret there will be!  But if we have considered the Lord and trusted Him, what joy it will be to meet our Saviour!  We will share the confidence of Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians:  ‘Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15 : 55 – 57 ). My dear friend, do not pass by so great a salvation. Stop and look at the glory of the gospel. Decide within your heart that you will have this precious jewel. Acquire the gospel today through faith in Jesus Christ.