We have to realize our limitations and say: No mas. That's what is prudently being said in Utah were six men have been trapped in a mountain as a result of a mining accident. Even though it seems unlikely the six men still survive -- tests of air quality from holes drilled into several areas of the mountain indicated that the air was not sufficient to sustain life --heroic efforts were made to tunnel into the mountain to try to rescue them. And that effort claimed three lives last week, while injuring six others of the rescue team.
Family members of the six who were initially trapped are understandably disappointed that the tunneling has been stopped, upon the orders of federal safety officials. But why risk the lives of rescue teams when it seems so unlikely that the original six can possibly alive after more than two weeks?
At some point we have to be prudent and realistic, even if that brings little comfort or closure. The families of those who died when that bridge over the Mississippi collapsed in Minneapolis seemed to understand that and to exercise patience. They could see the danger in sending divers into the murky waters at night amid all sorts of hazardous debris while trying to recover the dead. That task has stretched out until now. The last known missing person was pulled out of the water yesterday.
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I certainly understand the need and desire for closure, but I agree that there's only so much risk that should be considered acceptable.
I really feel for those families, though. Never recovering your loved-ones' bodies has got to be awful on top of awful.
I once asked a man, “Do you think any bad people will be saved?”
“No, sir; I think not” was his reply.
“Then I have no chance,” I said. “Have you any?”
“Oh, yes, sir; I am not a bad man.”
“But are you not a sinner?”
“Oh, yes,” he said, “we’re all sinners.”
I then told him that, in God’s sight, all sinners are bad people, for the Word of God declares that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12), and also that in the whole Bible there is no promise of salvation through Christ to any but to the bad. Good people could not want Christ to save them. I urged him to admit he was a sinner, and as such to accept pardon through the death of Christ in his behalf, seeing that “Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
The man went home. But the Spirit of God used the word. That night, about half past ten, he came to the house where I was staying and told me he was so troubled on account of his sins that he could not go to bed. “I went home,” he said, “with those words, ‘salvation for bad people,’ ringing in my ears. And now, sir, I’ve come to ask you, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ ”
“Have you found out that you are a sinner?” I asked.
“I am, sir, a great sinner,” he replied.
“And where are your sins?”
“All on myself, sir.”
“Then,” I said, “you are like one who has a heavy debt upon him, weighed down by the feeling that he cannot pay it.”
“That’s just the way I am,” he replied.
“If you owed a large sum of money and could not pay it, you would be afraid to go out, lest you should meet your creditor. And if I went to the person to whom you owed it and paid it for you, you would still be afraid to show your face, unless you knew that I had done so. But if I came and told you I had settled the debt, you could walk out boldly and challenge your creditor to touch you.”
“He could not lay a hand on me.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because the money was paid.”
“Yes, but you did not pay it.”
“That’s no matter—the money was paid, and he couldn’t touch me.”
“Well,” I continued, “if you knew that God was satisfied about your sins, you wouldn’t be afraid to meet Him, would you?”
“No, sir.”
“God,” I said, “is satisfied in regard to our sins. We had nothing to pay, but Christ paid our debt with the price of His own precious blood, and He says, ‘His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree’ (1 Peter 2:24).”
“We are redeemed . . .with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18).
“The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
“So you see, God sent the Lord Jesus to pay the debt which we owed, and God is satisfied with Christ’s payment. Are you?”
“I am,” he said, “and thank God for it.”
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