The Alternate Story

I recently started reading a book written by Ray Comfort entitled The Defender’s Guide for Life’s Toughest Questions. In it, I read where some atheists have a problem with the courtroom scenario that Ray uses to illustrate what Jesus did on the cross. Therefore I thought I would offer you a somewhat different scenario to help you understand what Jesus did for you and for me. However, while the story that I am about to tell you is not a complete alternative to Ray’s courtroom scenario, I think it is a wonderful illustration of what God did through Jesus on that beautiful, terrible cross.

I first heard this story told by Adrian Rogers. It goes like this:

There was a certain man that was in the hospital due to a rare and deadly disease. The disease was curable; however, the cure was so rare and expensive that most people could not afford it and therefore died. The man could not afford the cure, so he just lay there, awaiting the moment that he would slip into eternity.

A few days after the man’s diagnosis, the doctor stumbled into the man’s hospital room, holding a medicine bottle in his hand. The doctor looked disheveled. His hair was out of place, his clothes were ripped and torn, and his shirt was stained with blood. When the man asked the doctor what happened, the doctor replied with tears in his eyes, “I knew that you could not afford the cure for your disease. And I knew that, if you did not get it, you would die. So I took my life’s savings, and I sold my house and all that I owned and then I drove halfway across the country to get the medication so that you might live. On my way to the hospital, I was speeding and I had a wreck. My only son was in the car with me. He was killed. The blood that has stained my clothing is the blood of my only son.”

Suppose that man took that medicine bottle, opened it, and poured it all out on the floor of that hospital room. Could anyone be so ungrateful? He would then deserve to die after rejecting such an incredible gift.

That is what God did for you. God allowed his only Son to be beaten and nailed to an old, rugged cross that you might live. You do not deserve God’s love. That cross should have been you. However, it was not.

If you reject God’s mercy in Jesus Christ, you will be like that man pouring out the life-saving medicine that was responsible for the death of that doctor’s only son. Do not make that mistake. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Without Him, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Please, turn completely from all sin and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. If you do that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.