Charles Colson passed away this past week at 80 years of age. To the non-Christian world, he will be remembered most for what took place during the first half of his life, as the corrupt and cold hearted “hatchet man” of Watergate. He was known for his ruthless ambition and calculating deception.

   But for those who know anything about what has taken place in the Christian community for the last 40 years, Charles Colson was a voice of reason and truth. His writings, commentaries and speeches have served as an inspiration and instructive force. I know that he impacted my life as well as the lives of millions of other Christians.

   His life was an indisputable example of the change that God can perform in the heart of a sinner. After his conviction, Colson met Jesus Christ and was born again, which he wrote about in the first of his many books. During his prison experience, Colson developed a compassion and empathy for incarcerated people and spent much of the rest of his life building a ministry of evangelism and outreach to inmates and their families.

 
   While he courageously combatted the secular worldviews of politics, he did so with a humble and gentle spirit, imparting wisdom, intellect and moral perspective all along the way.

  While it is true that Colson was rather a hero to me, my purpose is not to put him on a pedestal, but rather to point out that the work that God did in his life is the same as what He has done for all of us who have trusted Christ to save us from our sins. The change may have been more pronounced in Colson’s life because of the depth of his corruption, but the fact remains that he was given a new nature once his sinful nature was put to death.

  So we, too, are to count ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11) I pray that Colson’s legacy will be to remind all of us of the reality of the new birth and the life of victory over sin that is ours through our faith in Jesus. May we live our lives with that sense of purpose and contrast to the world’s view, so that others are drawn to Jesus Christ and the change that He can bring to even the darkest of hearts.