Road of Life and Book of Sins: A Parable

Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, shares a parable of sorts from his sister Jobje, who is fighting pancreatic cancer. In the parable she receives a large mirror through which she looks back to survey the many years God has so graciously given to her. “I’m ashamed as I look back and see my road of life,” writes Jobje, “a road of life strewn thick with stones, rocks, and boulders—my transgressions are everywhere…making for a very rough and uneven road toward my final days on earth.” As she retraces the path of her life, the Lord then places into her hands a book of her life’s journey. “My book was so heavy and so full,” she says, “as I stumbled over and around the many boulders filling my road from the day I was born. I opened the book, and I was horrified at what I saw—every sin and transgression of mine was listed in that book. I was so jealous here, I lost my temper there. ‘Yes, Jobje, read each one of them, confess them, own them.’ ‘But Lord, there are so many of them, I am so ashamed.’” Having retraced her life’s path back to the beginning, she weeps bitterly. She turns to begin anew and retrace her journey forward. “Carefully picking my way around all those many boulders and obstacles—offenses of my sins—I look up in my tears and see my Savior standing in the far distance waiting for me upon the Rock of my salvation—upon Mt. Calvary with His cross. I see in His eyes the pain and sorrow that I have caused Him. I begin to run and climb up and over all the boulders of my sins until finally this prodigal daughter is reaching her heavenly Father.” Ashamedly, she hands Him back the book of her life’s journey and sees that on the cover is written a big “F.” “Failed.” She drops to her knees, weeping. “Please forgive me for all those sins,” she pleads. He hands back to her that awful book, and “there is still that ‘F,’ boldly written. But now,” she says, “I see the word ‘Failed’ crossed out, and behind it, boldly written, ‘Forgiven.’” “But, Lord, how is that possible?” He tells her to open the book again. “As I page through my book, I see His shed blood everywhere—blood obscuring all of my sins. He takes back my book and puts it in the ‘Forgiven’ section of His library. Now I turn around to look at all those boulders and to my surprise, I see thousands of lighted crosses”—each stone, rock, and boulder covered by a cross. “A glorious sight of total forgiveness! My previously darkened path has become a lighted pathway.” She hears the choir singing those precious words, “My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more.” Because of His great sacrifice on the cross, she can sing, yes, “It is well with my soul.”