Automakers, Wall Street, banks and other institutions found themselves facing huge financial losses, and even bankruptcy. As some of them were about to go under, they realized their situations were too far gone to save their companies by themselves. At this point, they cried out to the U.S. government which came to their rescue, and saved them through bailouts worth billions.

The government’s intervention is being debated and may even have major lasting political implications. But from a spiritual standpoint, the issue illustrates an important truth about God: He has provided the ultimate bailout for people in trouble. Our trouble is sin, and without Christ we have a major crisis that we can’t handle.

The Bible teaches that we are spiritually and morally bankrupt sinners. On our own, we are helpless. We have a debt we cannot pay: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV). This means that none of us measures up to God’s standards. As the Bible says, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).

The cause for our predicament is clear. After all, we choose to break God’s commandments. We have a sin nature and we love the pleasures of the world. “Through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

Because God is holy, our sins get in the way of our relationship with Him. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you” (Isa. 59:2).

A life of sin can result in eternal separation from the presence of God. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). It also tells us that God “has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man (Christ) whom He has ordained” (Acts 17:31). There are terrible, horrific consequences for the sinner: “These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mt. 25:46).

The only hope for our problem is the ultimate bailout that God offers through Christ. John 3:16 tells us what it is: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ is the only way to Heaven and the only way to God, the Father. He’s also the only Person through whom our sins can be forgiven (Jn. 14:6). The Bible says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

When Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, He paid the debt that we owe. Now all we have to do is accept what He has done, and trust Him alone to save us from our sins – our spiritual crisis – and its penalty.

Are you in need of this bailout? Will you accept God’s free offer of everlasting life and the forgiveness of sins?

God wants to give you what you do not have. He wants to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Why not call on Him right now? Ask Him to save you and forgive you of all your sins. Trust in Him for the free gift of everlasting life. Take advantage of the ultimate bailout that only He can provide. We can tell you more.

By Roscoe Barnes III