THE ONLY WAY OUT
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
John 12
At Dalhousie University, after years of top-secret research, they have perfected a time machine that really works. You step into the capsule, and they can send you anywhere into the past you want to go.
But you can't stay. You are given just 24 hours back there in time, and then you are suddenly jerked right back here---only to discover that you've been gone exactly 24 minutes. But what amazing things you can learn in those 24 hours back there in the past!
One day a man came knocking on the professor's door over there at Dalhousie. He was agitated. Tears were streaming down his face.
"I know this is a lot to ask, Professor. But you are my last hope. I'm going out of my mind with guilt and despair. I've been to preachers. I've spent a fortune on psychiatrists. Nobody seems to be able to help me get free of my burden. They tell me I've got to forgive myself and move on. Easy enough for them to say.
"I don't even know if I believe in Jesus. I've been to a dozen churches, and can't seem to find him there, if he really is alive from the dead. But if you could send me back in time, back there in Galilee where they say Jesus used to teach and heal---if he really did what they say he did---maybe he could show me how to forgive myself and move on."
"Well", said the professor, "to tell you the truth, we've never sent anybody back that far in time. There's a risk, you know. If we send you back that far, what if, when the 24 hours are up, we can't connect with you? You might be stuck back there in Galilee for the rest of your life."
"What have I got to lose?" answered the troubled man. "I can't go on like this."
"Okay, said the professor, "Come back tomorrow morning at 8:00, and we'll see what we can do."
The next morning at 8:00 the professor locked the agitated man in the time travel capsule, punched the data into the computer, and shipped him back through 20 centuries. Suddenly the time traveler found himself on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. In the distance he saw a crowd gathered at the water's edge, listening to a man teaching from a small boat.
As the time traveler walked toward the gathering he looked down at his jeans and tennis shoes, and wondered what a strange appearance he would make in the eyes of these people. As he came nearer and heard the Teacher's voice, he realized that he could not understand a word of their strange language. The man slipped up to the back of the crowd and waited.
When the teaching was over, the Teacher stepped ashore. He spotted the troubled man and pulled him aside from the crowd.
In perfect English he said, "You've come from afar, and you're a stranger to our language. Tell me what's on your heart."
"Master, I have this burden. And nobody seems to be able to help me. I'm going out of my mind with guilt and despair. I've made such a mess of my life. I've hurt so many people. All the experts tell me I have to forgive myself and move on. But try as I might, I can't seem to do it."
"Forgive yourself?" said the Teacher. "That's not your problem. Here's your problem: You're obsessed with yourself. You're so preoccupied with yourself it has made you sick. You don't need to forgive yourself---I'll do the forgiving. You need to be delivered from yourself. You need to escape yourself."
"How can I do that" asked the man.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. That's what you need to do. You need to die to yourself and let me guide you into a new life. I'm going to help you."
"But Lord, I don’t deserve the new life you offer. I'm unworthy. I'm unclean."
"Of course your unworthy," said the Lord, "But I love you just the way you are. Put yourself into my hands now. I'm going to help you."
"But Lord, you don't understand. I belong to the 21st Century. I'm going to be back there in a few hours."
"No problem," says the Lord, "I'll be there too."
Thank God, we don't have to time-travel to connect with the Lord Jesus. He's Lord of Time. He's the Eternal Word, closer to us at this moment than our own breath. And his message to us is exactly what it was to that troubled man.
Whatever burdens weigh on us as we read these words, whatever burdens weigh on our hearts as we face the future, it all boils down to a single problem: self. "Me."
We children of Adam are a race of prisoners. Our prison is not a building with walls and bars. Our prison is self. We're so preoccupied with ourselves, so full of ourselves, so obsessed with ourselves, we can hardly think a thought without self being in the middle of it. Every so often we break out of our prison to do something kind, something unselfish or even heroic. But before long we're right back on the old "Me" treadmill.
And there is only one way off that treadmill: On the cross, by his atoning death, the Lord Jesus opened a way for us to get off the treadmill, to come out of our prison. No matter who we are, how troubled and sin-stained we may be, he opened the door. All we have to do is walk through. He pioneered the way, all we have to do is follow.
Jesus was that first grain of wheat. He went into the earth and died, rising three days later, alive never to die again, the Firstborn of a New Creation. The Firstborn of a race of truly free men and women, who are no longer obsessed with themselves. Men and women so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that they're learning to love God more than they love themselves.
To be part of this New Creation, all we have to do is abandon ourselves to the Lord Jesus afresh today, and let him take us down with him into the death of self, so that he can raise us, even now, into the freedom of a life lived to the glory of God. A life that bears fruit for God.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and she who hates her life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, they must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also."
John 12
"If any one serves me they must follow me"…….to a cross. That's where you die to yourself. That's where you turn yourself over, surrender your will and rise to a new life in the power of God's Spirit. Men and women have been taking this road for 2000 years. It's the only road that leads to freedom. It's the only way out of our prison.
"Here I am, Lord.
I turn myself over to you.
I reckon myself crucified with you.
It is no longer I who live, but you who live in me.
And the life I now live in this body, I live by the power of your Resurrection Spirit."
This is not a mind game. It's a spiritual transaction that changes your life. Opens the door of your prison. Sets you free. Let me say it one more time: You present yourself, body, soul and spirit to the Lord Jesus.
"Here I am, Lord.
I turn myself over to you.
I reckon myself crucified with you.
It is no longer I who live, but you who live in me.
And the life I live in this body, I live by the power of your Resurrection Spirit."
Nobody ever prays such a prayer and comes up empty. In answer to that prayer the Lord Jesus enters your life with all the power of heaven. Leads you to freedom, as you begin to live to the glory of God. And then, every single day for the rest of your life, you present yourself to him afresh:
"Here I am, Lord.
I am crucified with you.
It is no longer I who live but you who live in me.
The life I live this day, I live to the glory of the Father by the power of your
Resurrection Spirit."
There are dozens and dozens of books out there that tell you how to forgive yourself, accept yourself, fulfill yourself. These books sell like hotcakes. But the poor souls who buy them are never told the one simple truth that will set them free, which is:
You are your own prison… and there is only one way out.
Let the Lord Jesus take you down into his death and raise you up into new life in him.
Right now…..and every day for the rest of your life.
The time traveler returned to Dalhousie University, shaking his head in amazement. "It's so simple", he said. "Why has no one ever told me this before?"
"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
I'm that grain of wheat.
I died with him.
I rose with him.
And now he lives in me, never to die again.
One day at a time….to the end of Time.