Assessing The Benefits!

by MCGLINCHEY, J. | Category: Interview | Mar 2008

John: There are times when I ask myself, "Why did God choose to save me?" Times when I look back at the hand of God reaching into my life and drawing me to His heart.

It sounds as if there's a dramatic story hidden away there! May we look back with you – to the glory of God? Trace for us, if you will, please, something of your early years?

John: As a young boy, born in the Gorbals of Glasgow, I knew little of the Christian life. Surrounded by overcrowded poverty in a seriously violent area, I found myself in a home where alcohol abuse and gambling led often to fighting within the single-roomed flat. Police often had to separate family disputes. I grew up thinking that this was normal family life.

At the age of fifteen my father died. My mother was in prison and my brother and I had to make our own way, often with nowhere to stay. Thankfully, I had pals who would let me stay for short periods. Life became desperate when a gang came looking for my brother, and I was on the streets with nowhere to live.

You paint a grim picture. Can you pinpoint a turning-point, some significant moment?

John: One day I asked a man if he knew where I could find lodgings. He directed me to an Irish landlady. "She is a Bible-thumper, but a good landlady," he said.

As I was now an atheist it didn't concern me. I was 17, desperate to settle down. So, for the first time in my life I met a real committed Christian who spoke openly about a God who loved sinners. One day I remember saying clearly, "I don't believe in God." She answered, "Yes, but God believes in you." She was a skilled soul-winner, as little by little through her the Lord revealed to my soul that I was lost in sin, but God loved me and Jesus died for me.

It seems you were discovering your real need and helplessness, and beyond that, the amazing provision of the God who truly does exist. You were coming under the Spirit's conviction of sin in your life. What did you do next?

John: One night I borrowed a Bible. I found it strange to read this book with unusual names and unknown titles. I came to the book of Romans and thought of gladiators and Caesars. But as I read it I found a picture of myself. My life seemed to fit in with what I read there, and I saw myself for the first time as God saw me. I read, ‘When you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?’ (Rom. 6:20,21). I could not escape the piercing logic of this question.

And again, ‘But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life’ (Rom. 6:22,23).The wages of sin – death with no escape. The free gift of God – eternal life in Christ Jesus.

So, the Spirit's analysis of the relative benefits of a life with or without Christ brought you to Him. By God's grace, you became a new creature in Christ through personal faith by hearing the word of God. We could sum up the message of Romans 6 to the believer as: 'You must not live as you once lived, because you are no longer the person you once were.' How, in fact, did your life change?

John: I still had many questions, doubts, problems and uncertainties, but one thing I was sure of was that I was a sinner, yet God loved me. I prayed, "God, if you will give me the strength, I will be a Christian." I got off my knees and had no faith in myself. "I'll never make it," I thought. But God had entered my life. Now I belonged to Him. He has kept me until today and for eternity.

I went on to be baptized and added to the Church of God in Glasgow. The Bible came to be my companion as I enjoyed studying it. Sharing my faith in God's love with others is my greatest pleasure. For many years I have had the privilege of visiting Barlinnie Prison and sharing the joyful news of God's love with the men within to see God's wonderful power changing men from servants of sin to servants of God (Rom. 6:19-23).

MCGLINCHEY, J. | Mar 2008
Interview