November 11, 2006
Newsletter Archives

I was just 4 years old when World War II ended in 1945. So all that I know about the war is not from memory but from history.
It was a costly war. It is estimated that 55 million people died – 25 million military and 30 million civilian. The cost in dollars is estimated at over $1 trillion. And it is the cost that I am thinking about. The fact is that I sit at a desk in peace, enjoying priceless freedom that was purchased at unthinkable heartache and loss.
And this brings me to my point. Others paid a price so that I might be free today. This parallels exactly with the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. He paid for my sins with unspeakable anguish so that I might be at peace with God. I had nothing to do with the battle waged at Calvary, but I reap all the benefits. As the apostle Peter states so well, “Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous One for the unrighteous ones, that He might bring us to God….”1 Peter 3:18.
As I sit here and enjoy the results of a war that was won when I was just a child, so I sit here and enjoy the fact that my sins are gone and heaven shines brightly in my future because of a battle that was fought almost two thousand years ago. And with deep sadness I think of thousands that are still trying to “be good” to pay the price for their own sins, when provision for all sin has already been made.

Russ Nesbit