The recent sad story of the destruction of an undersea vehicle with five passengers, seeking a "sightseeing" trip to the deep burial site of the Titanic ship, struck by an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland, has generated an immense amount of attention. The Titanic story came to my attention recently by "accident" in the NKJV of The Evidence Bible (Bridge-Logos 2011 page 175) in a commentary by Ray Comfort.
Allow me to paraphrase from the commentary. The sinking of the ship in the freezing cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean has its comparability to the plan of salvation instituted upon the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus, the Savior of mankind, sent to earth by the Creator God to establish a way by which humanity has the Lifeboat of the Savior that takes us from this world, wherein we can live forever and not perish and not sink due to our sins. So many of us know there is a World with all its enticing entanglements of living lustful, hateful, jealous, acquisitive and thieving lives. God provided us an alternative to the Worldly life and that is a life based upon the Word of God. A great moral code, the Ten Commandments, was established by God to the Hebrews seeking the Promised Land after their Egyptian captivity.
There will be those, who attribute no value to these timeless truths, embodied in the Commandments. However, living by them does provide us a lifeboat. Obviously, the crew members of the Titanic marshaled rescue of the women and children first. There never were enough lifeboats for all anyway, but, even had there been, there were those on the ship that believed the ship was unsinkable and would not have taken advantage of rescue with the boats. The life jackets they wore were not enough. A life jacket today of only "good works" will not be enough for salvation. Only living a righteous life through true faith in Jesus will be enough to save us.
The "ship" carrying many through their lives will sink. There is a way out. That is to believe that the story of Jesus, dying on that cross two thousand years ago at Calvary outside the Old City of Jerusalem, was real and that believing the story told and retold for two millenia is what will be our ultimate lifeboat.
All of us need saving from something or other than the ultimate spiritual salvation to guarantee eternal life, but, as we swim our way through life's challenges, I believe my favorite scripture as one to live by is 1 John 3:22: "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." With this scripture as a guideline we can keep our head above water daily as we face the traumas and travails of life.
The Honorable Allen B. Clark
Author Soldiers Blood and Bloodied Money
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