Love Wins

For many years, the messengers of a missionary society preached the gospel to the people of Papua New Guinea without seeing the fruit of their sacrificial work of patience. The people heard God’s Word, but they did not want to be saved. The brothers not only believed that God’s Word and His Spirit were working on the hearts of the hearers, but now and then they also heard the natives openly admit it. 

One of these men once said to a missionary: “You must wait a little longer and be patient with me. You are right: there is also a voice inside me that tells me that your Jesus talk is true, but I am still indecisive. I would still like to keep what I inherited from the fathers.” Again, years passed. Everything remained the same. No one made a move to become a Christian.

Then a child was born to the missionary family, the Bergmanns. The natives took an intimate part in the joy of the parents. “Nothing of all that the Papuans had come to know through the Europeans aroused such wonder as this white child,” Bergmann recounts. One day, unknown visitors had arrived at the mission station, men from one of the mountain tribes. They were wild fellows, who seemed to fully deserve the fearsome reputation they had among the tribes of the coast.

Bergmann used the opportunity to preach the Gospel to these otherwise unreachable people. They had heard it, but did not understand it. All of a sudden the missionary was inspired with an idea to make the gospel of God’s love clear and understandable to these indifferent souls.

He went into his house and returned with his child in his arms. He placed the tender little white baby in the arms of one of the wild fellows. “Look at it,” he said. “This is my only child. How sweet it looks! You wouldn’t do anything to harm this child, would you?”

The man’s arms, which held the child, trembled. Bergmann continued, “See, God has also placed His only Son, His holy child Jesus, in the arms of the world. And the world killed the Son of God. But what did God do then? He forgave the world this sin, and His love was so great that He gave them His Son as Savior and Redeemer. If you, dear man, were to kill my child, do you know what I would do? I would forgive you, pray for you, and still love you.”

Then tears ran down the man’s cheeks. He did not speak a word. With trembling arms, he handed the baby to the father and silently walked away into the wild forest. A few days later, he came to the mission station again, this time alone. “If this is true,” he declared, “that there is such a God, and if He sends us such messengers, then I cannot resist any longer. I must become all new!”

He had understood the sermon.