The Pivot Point

March 14

Our loving God takes no pleasure in the condemnation of the ungodly. He desires that all mankind come to salvation through Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:9). But man has a free will and the One who loves him enough to have died to pay the penalty for his sin will not require him to accept His payment of sin’s price. Any who so chooses, may bear his sin himself.

There is a stark contrast between the mindset of two men who were steeped in sin. Each was a condemned criminal—one an unrepentant thief and the other, a leader of an insurrection against the government. Both were condemned by the laws of the land to face the consequence of their crimes—execution.

These two condemned men hung on either side of Jesus when He was crucified for the sin of all mankind. One criminal railed against Him, challenging Him to save Himself and to save the thief, too—if He were indeed who He claimed to be. The penitent one, the insurrectionist acknowledged his own guilt and the just nature of his punishment—and asked Jesus to forgive him and receive him into His Kingdom. (See Luke 23:35-43.)

How is it that a man may live a life of lawlessness yet be given a promise of eternal salvation at the end of his corrupt journey through time? Jesus is the pivot point upon which any man’s eternal destiny turns. And when a lost one comes to Christ, “There will be more rejoicing in Heaven over a sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who are already in His Arc of Safety,” Luke 15:7.