Let me tell you a story.
This is the story of a man. This man is a confident, strong man. He sets out walking down a road on a clear, warm spring day. He is not sure where he is going, but he knows he will know his destination when he gets there. The longer he walks the less certain he is of where he is going, yet he still presses on sure he will eventually get where he wants to go.

After a while, he sees a cloud forming up ahead. He can tell it is an ominous cloud, but he is curious so he goes to investigate. The closer he gets, the more he realizes it is a perilous mass, yet still, he gets closer, intrigued by it. Soon, he is right upon it, and it quickly envelops him, as if it was waiting for him. Naturally, he thinks it is an odd occurrence, but he is sure that it will disperse quickly as he moves through it. He continues to walk in the way he thinks the road was leading, figuring the cloud would go away after he had walked a little further. However, he was gravely mistaken.

The farther he goes in the cloud, the thicker and darker it gets. It is soon impossible to see the sun; the cloud has completely blocked it out. As he continues, the darkness seems to get closer to him. He tries to clear the way before him, but he cannot see anything, yet for all of his efforts to clear the fog, it encroaches ever closer to him. He begins to feel frightened, not knowing what is going on, so he begins to run. As if he was running in a nightmare, he puts all of his strength into his strides, yet he seems to stay in the same place. Wallowing in this strange mist, he feels it grabbing hold of him, he can barely move. The more he struggles, the tighter it grips him.

Before long, he is completely still, exhausted from his efforts, yet the darkness of the cloud still tightens its clutches around him. As the merciless cloud squeezes ever tighter, he starts to choke, barely breathing, knowing that this cloud is going to be the death of him. He realizes this was all his doing. He had no purpose to his journey, and he thought he could solve everything himself.

When the darkness set in, all of his strength was futile, his confidence was worthless and now he has doomed himself to die in this agony, and the arrogance of his heart that did not need help. With little air in his lungs he cries out, “Is there no one who can help me? Is there anyone strong enough to clear this cloud?” A voice, strong as the waves of the ocean, yet gentle as an autumn breeze calls from outside of the darkness, “I Am.”At the sound of this voice, the man looks up, he sees a light shining through the clouds, faint at first, but growing brighter. As the light cuts through the darkness, he begins to feel the warmth of it. Air returns to his lungs. He looks to see where the voice came from all he sees is a Man, bloody, bruised, and nailed to a cross. He stands up and asks the man on the cross, “Are you the one who called to me?”

“I Am.” the man on the cross replies.

“It was all my fault, I thought I could do it alone. That I was right. The harder I tried, the less I could do. But then I heard your voice. Are you the one who made the cloud go away?”

“I Am.”

The cloud recedes but now attacks the One on the cross, coming to rest, heavy on His back. He cries out in searing pain, “It is finished!” Then he lowers his head in death. Silence falls all around, the darkness sets in again, slowly, cold and confident. The darkness had vanquished its only hindrance, the Light. The man falls again to his knees and begins to cry, then weeping he falls on his face. The only One who could help him out of the darkness has died before him. Shivering in the cold, he tries to remember the face of the Man. He looks up, straining his eyes wanting to see the face of the One who bore the darkness one last time.

Certain death now seems to be lurking at the fringes, but he does not care. A few short moments ago he was terrified of this darkness, now all he thinks of is the Light; he was just afraid of being slain in the darkness, now all he wants is to see the face of his Salvation. Through his tears and his shaking in the cold darkness, he begins to make out the outline of the cross before him. Is the light shining again? He looks hard at the cross, reaching out to touch it, his fingers stiff from the cold. As he touches it, he sees that the Man is no longer on the cross. Confused,  he wonders where He could have gone. Was it a dream? Was the Man ever there? As he starts to despair, not sure of what happened, just then, a warm, strong, gentle hand touches his shoulder from behind. Immediately the darkness recedes and the warmth of life returns to his body. He turns to see the Man standing behind him, with His loving hand on his shoulder. The hand is scarred and pierced, but it is the hand of the One who makes the darkness go away. It is the hand of the One who has saved his life. He looks up to see the face of his Salvation and asks, “Who are you?”

Tenderly, the Man looks him in the eyes and says “I Am!”

This may be an analogy, coming to my mind in the wee hours of the night, but one thing remains. While we wallow about in the dark cloud of our sin, disbelief and self-dependence, the sacrifice Jesus made still stands. It has paid for all of it, every lie, every selfish action, every lustful thought, it was all laid on Jesus when He died on the cross. This is good, but there is greater news. Jesus is not dead, He is alive! He died, taking our sins with Him, and rose again, gaining victory over death. He became the sacrifice for our sins and rose again restoring our standing with God. He gave us an avenue so that we could approach God’s throne as redeemed sons and daughters.

Therefore, do not live in the dark suffocating cloud of sin, look now to the light of the cross, where Jesus saved you. And feel the warmth of His resurrection at your back as you approach the Holy God with confidence. You have been redeemed! Come away from the darkness, because He has cleared it away forever. Amidst it all, His Salvation stands, the darkness is gone forever, and He has given us new life.

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus‘Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ‘ Hebrews 12:1-2