Easter and Engines

Back in the 1960s I bought a nice A554 International tractor, it was made in Australia. That was back in the good old days when we made Chamberlain tractors here too, as well as Holden cars. Unfortunately, one day the A554 Engine just stopped and I found that the Crankshaft had snapped in the middle so would no longer rotate. Now that meant that the tractor could no longer operate at all, and unless I could repair that engine and give it new life I would no longer be able to farm the country that I was hoping to farm.

 Let us consider a hypothetical case: suppose that I had no money to repair that motor and a friend came along and said that he had been talking to my father and mentioned my difficulty, and my father had then contacted the Tractor repair garage in Tottenham (our nearest town) and paid the proprietor for the repair in advance so all I had to do now was take the tractor to him and he would “rebirth” the engine making it as new. The friend who told me this, would be expecting me to be thrilled by an offer like that, and would be amazed if I said: “I haven’t been speaking to my father for years and I am therefore not interested”. He would also be amazed If I said that my pride wouldn’t let me accept the offer anyway because if I cannot do it myself then I’m not prepared to accept charity, even from my father. Either of these actions by me would have been very foolish, to say the least, and I am pleased to say they never happened. Yet they are quite common in our society, and unfortunately, in the Spiritual realm of our lives they are even much more common.

You see, the “engine” that drives us is our Soul and the scriptures tell us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “all” includes you and me, but worse still we have been told that “the Soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4) because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), how dreadful is that? However, just like in the scenario above, our Heavenly Father has paid the price for the rebirth of our Souls, through Jesus sacrifice, so “the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord” (Romans 6:23), what a relief,  does this mean then that all people have Eternal Life? No it doesn’t unfortunately: Jesus himself clarified this point by saying that “as many as received him to them he gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12). And John 3:15&16 confirms this where Jesus said that “whosoever believeth  in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. So how many people will make it to Heaven? I don’t know, but it won’t be as many as it should be because even though “It is not His will that any person shall perish” (2Peter 3:9), many of us behave like I did in the above hypothetical scenario and either don’t speak to our Heavenly Father or are too proud to accept His offer of help. Of course there are some who haven’t even heard of His offer and it is up to us to tell them.

You see, unless our “Engine” (Soul) is rebirthed (Born again) we are like that tractor that would end up on the scrap heap if its engine is not rebirthed. Whether or not the tractor looks nice, has new tyres, and a newly upholstered seat etc. is irrelevant. Likewise, it makes no difference how nice we seem to be or what good things we do either, because our Soul has sinned and it must be rebirthed before those things are of any value. This was clarified by Jesus when a very sincere religious leader of the Jews named Nicademus came to visit him, this man would have obeyed every law written in the Old Testament to the letter. He started to compliment Jesus on the miracles he had done and so on, but Jesus made no comment on that but came straight to the point by saying: Nicademus, “you must be “born Again” or you cannot

enter the Kingdom of God”, (John 3: 3&5) and went on to explain that he wasn’t talking about a physical rebirth but a Spiritual rebirth, and this comes about when we believe in Jesus, repent, and follow His ways. Then, and then alone, are we qualified to enter Heaven. This, of course is what Easter is all about. We can have God’s forgiveness because Jesus “gave his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). You and I are part of those “ransomed” “many” when we accept that gift of God by prayer.

May God richly bless you and yours this Easter and forever more,

From Tom and Audrey.