It is amazing to me how words and ideas drop into your spirit. Just everyday words all of a sudden barrage your mind. This week the word escape took me on a journey. While pondering the word escape several thoughts began to occupy my mind. The first thought is found in Luke 2:36, that speaks of escaping the things that will come upon the earth. But there is another escape that took over my thinking. I call it the great escape.

There is an escape mechanism in place for the world, it is the original escape plan. Escape implies once being locked up or unable to move about freely. Escape means to get free from something as in confinement or restraint, to gain liberty. The great escape is found in John 3:16-18. Most people can quote John 3:16 but do not have a clue about John 3:18, which says “whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only son.”  Verse 17 tells us that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.”  This is the great escape, God’s plan for salvation. The world is condemned because of sin and the wages of sin is death. The world deserves to die but Jesus is the mechanism God used to ensure the deliverance of mankind.

Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, sin entered into the world, a world God created and loved. The Godhead put their plan into motion to redeem creation, to get the people back. After all, God is all knowing, omniscient and nothing comes as a surprise to him. He knew what needed to be done. He knows the end from the beginning, He knew what was on the horizon.

In the natural, escaping from most environments is hard to do. Escaping an abusive relationship has proven to be difficult; escaping prison is difficult but if successful, eventually they are caught and returned to prison. The great escape covers all the bases of escaping and there is no possibility of being returned. Once you accept the plan and follow its directions you are free, never to be in bondage again to a condemned world. Salvation is the great escape, and it could only happen because Jesus took our sin to the cross. He paid the price; he eliminated the debt we owed for sin. The only requirement for salvation is to believe (John 3:16); confess (Romans 10:8-9); and receive by faith (John 14:6 & Acts 4:12). There is no such thing as having your own personal plan for salvation. Although many think they can have a plan, work that plan, and receive what God has for them. Not a one of them has died on the cross for the sin of the world. The great escape is a gift from God, and he alone paved the road for us to receive it.