Trays full of food were moving quickly to table sin the employee cafeteria after the noon hour. Several people joined me at my table, and the topic of Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ immediately became the hot topic of conversation.

"I saw the movie," Jennifer offered, "but I didn't understand it at all. It was an hour-and-a-half of Christ being brutally tortured, and at the end He seems to walk away. I didn't get what all the fuss is about."

"Well, the reason this movie has had such a great impact," I explained, "is because Christ took the torture and death penalty that was meant for us."

"What?" Jenny had a look on her face of mild shock. "What did I ever do to deserve that? I mean, I'm a good person. I've never murdered anyone."

"Oh, we've committed a far worse crime than murder," I answered. "We are actually guilty of Grand Theft Life." By now, the entire table was listening in, so I figured I had better explain in detail.

"You see, we do not own this life that we are living. The three ways to own something are you either create it, or you buy it from the one who created it, or the one who created it gives it to you as a gift to own. None of those things apply to this life we are living, so we do not own this life.

"We did not create life for ourselves. That is logically impossible. No being could create himself, for he would have to first exist before he existed.

"We certainly did not buy this life from the one who created it. If you did, I"d like to know how much you paid and to whom you paid it.

"God says in the Bible: -Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine' (Job 41:11).

"God created all life and sustains every moment of all life. Therefore, He owns all life. And contrary to the error of modern thinking, God never gave us this life as a gift for us to do our own thing. God says He owns everything He created, and that includes the life of every person."

The entire table seemed stunned, but interested, so I continued.

"God says in the Bible that He granted us life for one purpose: to serve Him with it. But every person has stolen this life from God to serve himself or herself with it. We are all guilty of Grand Theft Life, a crime worse than murder, worse than any other crime. God calls crimes against Him - sin."o:p>

"We falsely assumed that, just because we seem to have control over this life, that we own this life. But control does not give ownership. We are like taxi drivers. Though we have control of the cab, and are totally responsible for what we do with the vehicle, we still do not own the cab. The taxi company owns the cab.

"We have stolen this life from Almighty God, its true owner. We are all guilty of Grand Theft Life. The just penalty for offending the eternal holiness of God is eternal torture in hell."

"I don't want to be tortured forever and ever like they tortured Christ in that movie," Jenny loudly interjected.

"Well, Christ Jesus declared that God's rule for going to His heaven-and avoiding hell-is to be as perfect as God is perfect (Matthew 5:48). God is eternally holy and will have nothing short of perfect holiness in His family."

"But we are all guilty of the crime of Grand Theft Life," Lance replied at the end of the table.

"Correct," I affirmed. "And this brings us to God's amazing plan of love and salvation.

"Just as you get to choose who can come into your house because you won the house, God gets to choose who gets to come into His heaven.

"Remember, everyone is guilty of heinous crimes-sin-against God, so no person has any right to go to heaven. Quite the contrary. Everybody is guilty, and fully deserving to be tortured in hell forever.

"But God so loved the ones He had chosen to come into His heavenly family, that He had an amazing plan. This awesome plan of love and grace would save God's loved ones from hell by making them as perfect as He is perfect.

"But God could not simply declare these sinners He loved - not guilty." Doing that would violate His own perfect justice. God is eternally just, and if one commits a crime, that person must endure punishment that fits the crime.

"God's amazing plan guaranteed that His loved ones would be legally declared perfectly innocent, so that they would be qualified to live forever in heaven and escape the torture of hell."

"How did God do that?" Penny asked, surprising me because I didn't even realize that she was listening.

"Imagine your teenage son, one month away from graduating high school, was caught red-handed spray painting graffiti on a wall. The judge declared that he is guilty of the crime, and to set an example, sentences him to two months in jail.

"You realize that he will miss his final exams and will not graduate. You ask the judge for permission to serve his sentence, and the judge agrees to the plan. You, the innocent one, legally take the sentence upon yourself. Your son, though guilty as sin, legally goes free. That is how God did it.

"God the Father sent God the Son into the world to take the sentence of death that we deserved for our crimes. As you watched in The Passion of the Christ, innocent Jesus took the torture and death for the sins of the ones God loved; the ones God chose to become His children.

"The crimes of God's loved ones were legally transferred to Christ on the cross, and He died to pay for those sins. Christ Jesus is God the Son. His holy perfection was legally transferred to the account of every person God chose to come into His heavenly kingdom.

"The guilty teen was legally declared innocent because his sentence was paid. Likewise, God's amazing plan of love makes all of His chosen ones fully innocent, legally as perfect as God is perfect."

"What an awesome plan for an impossible situation," said Lance.

"Yes!" I agreed. "Again, Jesus Christ is God. It is only His perfection, applied to the accounts of chosen sinners, that makes them legally as perfect as God. Though they still fail, they are legally guaranteed eternal life in heaven.

"To prove that He was and is God, Christ told everyone that He would allow man to crucify Him. Then He would do something no mere man could do: He would raise Himself from the dead."

Jennifer spoke up. 'Yeah, I remember the line in the movie where Christ said, - I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father."

"Exactly," I said. "The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ - which is celebrated around the world every Easter Sunday - is proof that Christ is God. He accomplished His task of making God's chosen ones perfect, guaranteeing them eternal life in heaven."

"So, how does someone know if he is chosen by God, in order to get the legal advantages of Christ's sacrifice?" Lance asked.

"Remember, in the movie, Christ said that God would send them a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to empower them to obey God?" I answered. "God gives the Holy Spirit to every chosen one, making him born again, transferring him from the kingdom of sin to the kingdom of God.

"It's easy to tell if you are still in sin, or if you are born again. Do you live this life by your desires, or by God's desires? When you make decisions, do you make them by what you want, or by what God wants? When you do things that are selfish and sinful, does that sin bother you because you have offended God? Or do you claim that this is your life, and can do what you want, serving yourself instead of serving God?

"The difference between the two is so vast that it is easy to tell if you are chosen. The one chosen by God desires to serve God with this life. He may fail often, but his desire is to obey God. The real chosen one hates it when he sins against God, and he asks for forgiveness. God's true child realizes the awful, torturous price that Christ paid in order to clean his sinful account and make him acceptable to God.

"If you truly desire to be in God's family, there are two commands that Christ gave which would prove that you are chosen. The first is to repent, and the second is to believe. A true child of god must do both, or he is only kidding himself and will still pay for his sins forever in hell.

"To repent means to give this life back to its rightful owner - God -and live to serve Him, not ourselves.

"To believe means to trust in Christ's perfection, and nothing that we do, to be acceptable to God and go to heaven. Christ took our sins and paid for them in His death on the cross. Christ's resurrection guarantees that God's plan is accomplished, which guarantees God's child eternal life with Him.

"If, in your heart, you truly desire to repent and believe, then talk with God. Admit your sin of Grand Theft Life. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you by giving you the Holy Spirit. Read His Word, the Bible, to know God more intimately. Lastly, join a Bible-believing church so that you can learn how to serve God."

Everyone got up because it was time to go back to work. I pray the Holy Spirit moved in many hearts to bring God's children into His kingdom, to love and serve Him.

Ralph William Moore is the author of the book Yes, I'm a Christian! So What Do I Believe?