BY JACK WARD
The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, “This is good!”
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.
Examining the situation, the friend remarked, as usual, “This is good!” The king replied, “No, this is not good!” and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.
“You were right,” he said. “It was good that my thumb was blown off.” And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”
“No,” his friend replied, “This is good!”
“What do you mean, ‘This is good’? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”
“If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you.”
How could the death of Jesus Christ be declared by God to be good? Because Jesus Christ died to pay for a debt that we could not pay ourselves. This is much more than good; this is more wonderful than we can even imagine. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
According to God, this is good that Jesus came and died for our sins. This is good that Jesus purchased for us by His shed blood on the cross our salvation. This is good that sinners can put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and have forgiveness of all their sins. This is good that saved sinners should follow Jesus Christ and have loyalty to no other but Him. This is good that saved sinners can go and be with Jesus in heaven, where we become all that Jesus wants us to be without the restraints and constraints of our sinful natures. This is good because He is good, and there is none good but one, and that is God.
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