Access Denied - when your computer locks you out!

A friend of mine recently bought a new computer. He, like me, was not very computer literate. Having set up the various programs and their passwords he sought to type his first message. Diligently following the on-screen instructions he was asked for the password, which he carefully typed in. Disaster! A message flashed across the screen "Access Denied". He tried again with the same result. He contacted me for advice. All I could do was ask him if he was sure that he used the correct password. He was adamant that he had. He had done nothing wrong, was sure that all was correct but something was wrong.

I went to see him and we sat looking at this message! What was wrong? Where was the mistake? We checked the passwords he had set up. He had chosen the passwords for the programs he anticipated that he would use most frequently, as being the birthdates of himself, his wife and children in descending order of age, commencing with his own, as being the oldest. However, after I left, when the initial set-up was complete, he confessed that he thought that it would be too easy for his computer to be hacked into if he used his birthdate and he changed it to that of his late mother. In the excitement of using the computer for the first time he forgot that he had made the change. He was convinced he was right but he was wrong and was unable to gain access.

How like many people who are convinced that they are going to heaven, but they will be shut outside. There are many who depend on religion, good works, the philosophies of men and many other things, but the unchanging, unerring Word of God, the Bible, tells us there is only one way. In John 14.6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." The apostle Peter preached in Acts 4.12, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." What will happen if we neglect the salvation offered by God? Hebrews 2.3 states, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" There is no escape; access will be denied. The Lord Jesus Christ clearly taught this when He said, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are ..." Luke 13.23-25.

Is there no hope? Thank God there is a way of access; a way of escape and it has been provided by God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" John 3.16,17.

He took the guilty sinner’s place and suffered in his stead;

For man (O, miracle of grace!); For man the Saviour bled.

    (Anne Steele)

By faith in the risen, exalted Christ every sin can be forgiven.

Republished by kind permission of Assembly Testimony