Salvation

"The wages of sin are death...Sinner." A man named Adam is caught in the middle of a struggle between good and evil. And Adam chose evil. The price for his choices is given by a monk...death.

Adam dove to the stone floor of the monastery as a bullet cracked the silence and embedded itself in the ancient wall. “Who are you?” Adam yelled.

Another shot echoed through the room and shattered the window pane above his head. Adam’s eyes darted back and forth, looking for any weapon or escape. Nothing.

“What do you want with me?” he asked, regaining some composure.

Silence. Dead silence.

“What do you want?!” Adam demanded to the darkness.

A low monotone voice shattered the silence. “Sinners.” The word sent a chill down Adam’s spine. “Sinners like you.”

Like you.

Adam sat up and backed against the rough wall.

Slowly, a black pistol came into view. Then the arm that held it. Then Adam could see the person behind the gun.

It was a monk in a black robe, hood obscuring his face.

He cowered and waited for the inevitable gunshot that would shatter his skull.

The shot didn’t come, instead the monk spoke again. “The wages of sin is death...Sinner.”

“Is this your twisted idea of a joke?!” Adam spat.

The monk stiffed, and Adam imagined the look of rage underneath the hood. “A joke? Do you think that’s what his is? Ha! It is the furthest thing from it Sinner.”

“I don’t deserve this!” Adam was suddenly enraged.

“You’re right Sinner, you deserve far worse punishment than I can give out. You were born in your sin. You violated the law in more ways than you could possibly count and you have the audacity to tell me that you don’t deserve it?! Have you not heard what I’ve told you? ‘The wages of sin is death.’ It isn’t some cliché. The smallest of lies means you deserve death. You have sinned Adam! I am merely the arm of justice. Delivering the punishment you deserve.”

“This can’t be real.”

“It’s more than real, Sinner.”

Adam’s mind spun. This psycho was going to shoot him. “There must be something I can do. I’ll give anything. I’ll stop sinning.”

“Your righteousness is dirty rags, Sinner.”

Adam didn’t know what to do, or what to say. This monk was going to shoot him.

“Alvah, put your gun away.” This was a new voice. It came from the shadows to Adam’s left. The monk in the black robe named Alvah spun towards the new voice.

“He is a sinner, Jehoshua. He deserves death.”

Adam heard footstep. And Jehoshua walked into the light. He was a monk as well, but he wore a white robe and his hood was down. His hair was black with flecks of grey and had a neatly trimmed beard.

“I know he does. But I also know God loves this man.”

Alvah sputtered, “How could God love a rotting sinner like him?”

Jehoshua’s voice remained steady as he answered, and the serene calm never left his eyes. “God’s ways are not our ways.”

Alvah wasn’t going to give up easily. “You know the law just as well as I do. This man deserves to die. There must be death to appease the law.”

“Then kill me Alvah.”

“Kill you?”

This monk in white hadn’t so much as blinked throughout this whole discourse. “I will lay down my life in place of his. I will be his sacrificial lamb. I take his sin on my shoulders and I take his penalty.”

Alvah couldn’t say anything. He shook his head in resignation.

Jehoshua turned to Adam and looked him in the eyes. His stare penetrated his soul. This man was unlike any other man he’d ever met. “Do you accept, son of man?”

Adam couldn’t do anything but nod.

“The man accepts, Alvah.”

The monk in black didn’t hesitate. He raised the pistol and fired. The bullet ripped through Jehoshua’s head and the monk crumpled to the ground.

Alvah turned on his heel, gun still smoking, and left the lite area.

Adam’s eyes welled up with tears. This man had just sacrificed himself. Taken the bullet that was meant for him. And now this man’s blood was staining the stone floor.

He began to sob.

But as he broke down, he heard Jehoshua’s voice saying, “I love you…Son.” It wasn’t audible, it was much louder than that. A voice that echoed in Adam’s head. At first he thought he was going crazy. But this was way too real.

“Do you love me, Adam?”

“Yes.” Adam whispered. Another tear slipped down his cheek.

“Why are you crying?”

Adam was overcome with emotion. He’d never felt like this before…never been loved like that. Someone had died for him. What kind of love was that?

His ex-girlfriend that cheated on him…that wasn’t love. His father that ran out on him when he was three, that wasn’t love either. When his mom would get drunk and call him a waste of space and wish he’d never been born…that wasn’t love.

But this one man"who he didn’t know"was willing to die for him. What kind of love was that?

“God’s love.”

Adam’s mind went numb and another tear snaked down his cheek.

“Why are you crying?”

“You’re dead.” Adam said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“The light came to the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it. So the darkness tried to extinguish the light. But light cannot be killed by darkness. And love is not so easily killed.” This voice was audible. Not just in his head.

Adam’s eyes jerked open, Jehoshua’s body was gone. A bloodstain was still on the floor, but the body vanished. His eyes darted around the room, looking for the source of the voice, but he couldn’t see it.

“I love you, Adam.”

Author's Note

An attempt at a short story.

Reviews

[David Scott]

It is from your heart I can see...
This is a good thing.
The greatest story over told is how the Creator of the universe was willing to give up His eternal and perfect life to save even one lost soul. This is love; or rather Love.
I am always confused when I see this same Savior characterized as vengeful or demanding, or judging.
Truth will never contradict itself.
A worthy write.

[Mike Wolfe]

Thank you!

[Apebble]

This is...incredible. I generally have a poor imagination (I know, odd for a writer...but still), yet the way you wrote it...it was as if I had a front row seat.

The message is wonderful as well. I'm a sucker for this genre, and I truly respect what you had to write here.

Do you plan on continuing it?

[Mike Wolfe]

Thank you for the review! Unfortunately, I believe the story has run its course and I won't be continuing it unless I get more inspiration.