Corrie ten Boom, Her Story (continued)
15. Nobody Is Too Bad
DURING THE WAR in Vietnam, I was permitted to visit a hospital. I talked to the men who were wounded. In a ward with about twelve patients, I had an opportunity to speak. I told them about the living Jesus, who is with us, who loved us so much that He died for us, and who now lives for us. He is at the same time at the right hand of the Father, praying for us: I also told them that He said: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
I showed them what a joy it was that we could come to Him.
Afterwards, I had a talk with the man sitting next to me. He was not much more than a boy, and seriously wounded. He said to me, "What you told about Jesus is so beautiful, so joyful! But I cannot do what you said and go to Him. I have heard about the Lord, but I have always blasphemed. When there were boys in my class who followed the Lord, I teased them. There has been hatred in my heart—hatred against God—and now I know that I am seriously wounded. But I have been too bad, I cannot go to the Lord. | am ashamed of what I have done, of how I have tried to keep others away from Him. Now don't tell me that I can ask Him to help me. I am a very wicked fellow."
"There is only one kind of person who cannot come to Jesus," I told him. "They are the ones who think and say, 'I'm so good, I don't need forgiveness, I don't need the Saviour.' They are the Pharisees, and you can read in the Bible that Jesus
JESUS IS VICTOR 361 could not and would not help the people who were so proud of themselves and who thought they were so good.
"You are quite different. You think you are too bad. You are not. Jesus bore the sins of the whole world and that is a lot. He has also borne your sins on the cross: sins of hatred, of blasphemy, of whatever you did. Youcan go to Him. Jesus hates sins but loves sinners, and all His promises are really for sinners only. You are not good enough; you are not able. It is Jesus who is able and He is your Saviour. Just talk to Him! Tell Him what you have done and what you have been, and then ask forgiveness. The Bible says that when you bring your sins to Him, He will blot them out like a cloud. Did you see that cloud this morning? It is gone.
It will never come again. It has absolutely disappeared forever. So when you bring your sins to Jesus, He will make them disappear—He will destroy them forever and ever."
Suddenly I saw that all the men in the ward were listening. I asked, "Who of you will now come to Jesus as a sinner? When you know you are a sinner, you are forgiven." Many men in that ward responded.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9