Written by Clinton White -Excerpt

Suppose you lived in a beautiful kingdom where the sun always shone and peace ruled continually. But then you did something very wrong to upset this peace. You killed a neighbor. The law of the kingdom said that a person who did this must be banished into darkness and then be executed. So you were taken into a very dark dungeon far beneath the king’s palace to await your death. You were shackled to a damp wall with heavy chains. Rats scurried around your feet to scavenge a few of the meager crusts which were your daily diet. Your only drink was lukewarm water from a filthy cup. Then came the day for you to hang on the gallows for your crime. You could hear the executioner’s feet drawing closer and closer to your dungeon cell. It was the custom of the kingdom to throw a sack over the victim’s head and lead him to the slaughter. One of the executioners called your name … but before you could respond a voice in the next cell, said ”I am here.”  You heard a key turn in the lock. The heavy door cracked open. They groped about in the dim light thrown into the cell by their lamps and they cast the sack over his head and led him out.

A huge crowd gathered before the high gallows and the king was present. The prisoner was led up the steps and the noose was slipped over his head.

You are still in your cell… in your darkness. Who is this man standing where you were sentenced to be?

The moment has come. The lever is pulled and his body plummets down through the gallows trap door. The rope snaps tight. There is a heavy gasp and a loud crack. His neck is broken and life is gone.

A trumpet sounds from the royal box. The king stands up and speaks:

“Cut him down and take the hood from his head. I want all the people to look at his face and understand that the wages of broken laws is death.”

Several men went beneath the gallows and cut the body down. They carried it out before all the people and laid it on the ground before the royal box. The hood was untied and pulled off.

A cry came from the king, ”My son! My son!”

Astonishment stunned the crown … “It is the king’s son,” they gasped.

“Oh, my son is dead,” mourned the king, “Where is the criminal who was sentenced to die? Find him! He shall die a thousand deaths because of this!” Then one of the executioners spoke, “Your Majesty, we found this note on his person.” He handed the king a piece of paper. The king read, “Father, please forgive him. I gave my life for him. The law demands death for his crime … but I have died that death for him. The price that I pay for his freedom is my life. If my life is dear to you … then accept it as full price for this Crime. Restore to him all the benefits of your favor. Let him go completely free.”

The king lifted up his voice and decreed, “Open the prison doors. Let that man be fully restored to freedom with no charges against him. Let him live in the royal household. I shall receive him as my own because of the precious price that was given for his life. From this moment on, I shall look upon him not for who he is, nor what he has done … but rather as someone very dear to me because my son ransomed him with his life. What is more valuable in my entire kingdom than that which has been purchased with my son’s life?”

On the cross Jesus Christ shouted through bloody, swollen lips, “Father, forgive them”.

On the cross His fingers curled around spike heads and blood poured from His palms. His feet throbbed with searing pain and blood drooled into the Golgotha dirt, making scarlet mud. Flesh hung in ragged tatters from His back where the Roman scourge had taken huge bites of skin and muscle. Thorn points stung His head and sent more tricklets of blood down into the red river which flowed from His body. Finally, the agony reached a crescendo and the shudder of death coursed through His crimsoned limbs … It is finished!”

The price had been paid.

Open the doors of wretchedness. Swing wide the gates of guilt and shame. Let the prisoners loose. The King’s Son has died.

Who caused this tragic death? The Bible says, “Christ died to save sinners” 1 Tim.1:15. It was sinners who sent Him to that cross. Who are the sinners’? Scripture says, “All have sinned!” Rom 3:23. You and I. He went there in our place!

So then, this is how you and I become the children of God… not by natural birth, not by religious precepts and principles we keep, not because we have made ourselves worthy… but because the King’s innocent Son took the death we deserve, and the King regards the life of His Son above anything, anything at all.

He has accepted this as the complete price for our redemption.

If you accept Him as your Savior, you will have eternal life. You can do this today. In fact, you can receive Him right now!

Turn away from sin and selfishness… turn to Him. Ask Him to come into your life, and tell Him that you want to enter into spiritual life. Confess your sin. Ask for forgiveness. Tell God, in your own words, that you want to be saved, and you are willing to accept Christ as your Savior.