In December of 2013, two opportunistic thieves saw what was too good to be true. Around 1:30 a.m., they found a cargo truck parked near a gas station in Tepojaco, a town just north of Mexico City. The driver was asleep. The armed thieves woke him, tied up him and his assistant, then drove off with the truck.

This wasn’t just another carjacking. It set off a frantic search for the vehicle and its contents. The truck was on its way to a disposal facility with Cobalt-60. The radioactive material had been used for treating cancer patients in a medical facility, but it was now being discontinued. The Cobalt-60 they stole could have been used to create a “dirty bomb.”

Evidently the thieves were totally unaware of what they had. The truck was found less than thirty miles from where it was taken. They broke open the box containing the radioactive cobalt sources and unknowingly exposed themselves to lethal radiation. Although the thieves were never found, they most certainly died within days of being exposed. Their desire to have something that was not rightfully theirs brought them death.

And that is the story of mankind.

• Adam and Eve knew they should not eat the fruit of that one tree, but did so anyway, wanting to be like God.
• David thought a little peek at Bathsheba wouldn’t do any harm, but it led to adultery and murder.
• Ananias and Sapphira said they gave all the proceeds from their home sale to the church, but held some back for themselves.

The list in the Bible goes on, as do the sinful activities in our own lives. It doesn’t matter if it is a “big sin” or a “little sin.” Every sin separates us from God and deserves condemnation and death.

Thankfully, you and I are better off than those thieves who stole that truck filled with radioactive death. There was no cure for them, but in Christ you and I have the thing we need to correct our fallen condition.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through His life, His suffering, His death, and His glorious resurrection from the dead, Jesus provides the healing that can cleanse sinners of all unrighteousness. He transforms us from death to life.