It has been said, humorously, that three apples have changed the course of human history? Let us take them in reverse order.

Apple Inc. has spearheaded the information technology revolution of recent years with their remarkable array of electronic products.

Isaac Newton’s apple may not have fallen on his head, but it did make him think, “Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground?” His laws of gravity revolutionized scientific understanding of the day when first published in 1687.

What about the first apple? The Bible does not say it was an apple, only that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In doing so they disobeyed God who had warned them, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). This turned out to be the case, for them and for their descendants: “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

If the other apples signify man’s ingenuity and progress, this so-called apple tells an infinitely more serious tale about the human condition: “your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isa. 59:2). But a solution is available: God in mercy sent His Son to save us. Two thousand years ago on Calvary’s cross, the Lord Jesus “suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). What we have to do is repent of our sins and believe on Him as our Savior.

Newton said of the universe, “This most beautiful system … could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” He was right, and this most beautiful way of salvation proceeds from the same source. The Lord Jesus died and rose again. That is why it can be said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”