1075. Onesimus Saved but Serving His Term in Jail

Onesimus Saved but Serving His Term in Jail

"I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

"Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the Gospel" (Phm_1:10, Phm_1:13).

1. Onesimus saved. What! Onesimus saved! And why not Onesimus? God's grace can reach the vilest of the vile. Onesimus is not the only sinner who had gone to the end of the ropes and who has been saved. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa_1:18).

Who has sins which outreach the "red" and the "scarlet" of this precious verse?

Illustration: Tom Needham was saved. What? Tom saved! After all his prodigality? Yes. Tom Needham once showed me the cross a cruel captain had tattooed upon his arm, after he had been discovered as a stowaway on a ship bound for South American coasts. Tom told me how the captain had hated him; how he had been cast off the ship when in the sight of land; how he swam ashore and soon had found himself among some cannibal tribes; how the natives had determined to kill him and cook him for their meal; but how they were startled when they saw the "man upon the cross," tattooed on his arm. He said that was the first time he was saved by the cross; for the superstitious natives set him free.

Tom Needham told me how, after many years of sin, he had at last reached Boston and had dropped into the church where his brother George was preaching Christ. That night Tom was saved by the Cross, the second time. This time he trusted unto the saving of his soul. I heard Tom Needham preach. Yes, Tom was saved. So also was Onesimus.

2. Onesimus serving out his jail term. "Too bad," you say. Not at all. Our sins may be blotted out; but we must still feel the sting of the days when we went astray. Onesimus' conversion did not lessen the fact that he was under condemnation by a Roman court. The government did not recognize the power of the cleansing Blood.

This is all too true. Let some man who has wasted his physical strength in sin, receive the Lord. God at once counts him as righteous. The curse of his sin is gone. It is transferred to Christ's account. Yet, the body does not recognize the imputed righteousness of Christ. And one who has wrecked his body by his sin, must serve out his jail term. He must reap in his body, what he has sowed.

3. Onesimus serving Paul. After he was saved Onesimus never wearied in helping Paul. He ministered to his needs. He made himself so valuable to Paul that Paul would fain have kept him, had he followed his personal desires (see Isa_1:13).

The saved always have joy in serving those who follow Christ. The saved always have joy in the fellowship with saints. Onesimus had a nearness and a oneness to Paul that he had never known with any, in the days of his sin.

"Blest be the tie that binds,

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds,

Is like to that above."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR