Sermon illustrations can be powerful, unforgettable things. One that I heard almost a quarter of a century ago has remained with me ever since. The late Ted Donnelly was preaching at the Aberystwyth Conference. His text was Romans 5. In the latter stages of this compelling sermon, he took us back to 6 August 1945 and to Hiroshima in Japan. He described the US aircraft flying toward the city with its lethal cargo onboard.
He emphasised that if you were in Hiroshima as that plane approached, then you were doomed. Nothing you could do would help. You could try, he said, donning a pair of jeans and a baseball cap and draping yourself in an American flag! But it would not make an ounce of difference: you were in Hiroshima, and therefore you were doomed.
His point was that we are by nature in Adam – the place where God’s judgment is going to fall. We can try all sorts of things in the hope that God will spare us. We can go down the religious route and be zealous in attending church and reading the Bible. We can go down the moral route and heap up an abundance of good and noble deeds. But it will be as futile as wearing a baseball cap in Hiroshima.
