Titanic's Two Lists

We know about the iceberg. And the lifeboats. Even the wreckage and debris two miles under the ocean.

But with a blockbuster movie and all the Titanic TV specials, we probably won't be hearing about the lists. Not the first, second and third class passenger lists from when the voyage began. But the two lists that emerged when the Titanic went down. As it turns out, the only lists that mattered.

They appeared on two large boards just outside the Liverpool office of the White Star Lines in the dark days following the disaster. That's where hundreds of relatives and friends of Titanic passengers waited to learn the fate of their loved ones. Which they did each time the White Star representative posted more names. On one of two lists.

On one board, printed in large letters, were the words, "Known to be saved;" on the other, "Known to be lost."

That hits me personally. Because I used to be on one of those two lists. And now I'm on the other.

First, I was "known to be lost." Actually, the Bible showed me that everyone I know, everyone on this planet is either "saved" or "lost." In God's eyes, that is. He puts it this way: "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; He that does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12).

Saved. Lost.

Of course, not everyone realizes they're on the "lost" list and they need to be "saved." But we all are. In the Bible's words, "The entire world is guilty before God...everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Romans 3:19, 23). Which means we're all sailing toward a deadly "iceberg," destined to be "forever separated from the Lord and His glorious power" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). I was.

But - and I'll be thanking God for this forever - Someone who loves me saved me. But for me to be saved, He had to be lost. Jesus. Dying on a cross. Absorbing all the guilt and all the shame for every sinful thing I've ever done. Doing my hell so I could go to His heaven.

And one day, His love captured my heart. He was reaching out His nail-pierced hand for me - and I grabbed Him as my only hope. The Bible describes it this way: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31 - NLT). I did. And I was. That's the day I changed lists. And had my name entered in what the Bible calls heaven's "Book of Life" (Revelation 20:15).

Now it breaks my heart to think that anyone would be lost. Not because there's no one to rescue them. But because somehow they never grab His hand.