Reformation Through Jesus Christ

The greatest reformation that ever comes to a man or nations comes through the power of Jesus Christ. When a man willingly surrenders his life to the Lord, he is reformed: the same is true for nations. Nothing changes a person like the blood of the risen saviour.

Ade came out a changed man after being to prison for the 5th time. This change did not come by the effort of the government or the prison warders; efforts had been made to change him in his previous periods of imprisonment to no avail.

Ade had become notorious in the state and had particularly terrorized his neighbourhood for years. This in turn took him to prison for five good times with the hope of rehabilitating him while there. Surprisingly, each time he went there, he came back more hardened than before.

He had formed his criminal gangs with which he unleashed terror on his neighbourhood: nobody dared challenge him. He trained some youths on how to smoke marijuana, cocaine, and even how to rob. Most of the boys that were caught in robbery and burglary eventually pointed their fingers back to their sponsor, Ade.

He became a regular inmate of the prison; he never showed any remorse for his criminal acts. Going to prison was like going to a tourist attraction; he seemed to enjoy every bit of his experience while there. He did nothing to change his ways. First time he was imprisoned for raping a girl of five. Just four months after his release, he was imprisoned again for burglary. And the story continued just like that – from one crime to another.

Each time he went to prison, instead of changing for good, he came back with a new criminal skill. At a time he became so deadly and violent that the conventional police were afraid to come and arrest him each time he committed a crime. So on such occasions, mobile policemen were drafted to arrest him. The government did everything to see that he got out of crime but nothing worked. They even offered him a lucrative job which he did for only six months and abandoned it for the jungle.

Then on his fifth time in prison, something remarkable happened to him. A pastor from one of the churches around went there as part of his prison outreach. He preached Jesus Christ to him; and for the first time in his life, Ade wept like a baby. His heart was broken: he accepted Jesus Christ into his life and then promised never to go back to his old ways. The pastor gave him a bible which he promised to read. He kept coming to see him to make sure he actually read his bible daily.

Within a few months it became visible to other inmates and the prison authority that something new had happened to Ade. He was released few months later and now lives peacefully with his neighbours; he no longer steals, do drugs or sponsor criminals. Some of the boys who had been part of his gang have also repented. What the power of the state could not achieve, Jesus Christ did it for him and brought a lasting peace to his neighbourhood. He is the only one that brings true reformation to any society or persons.