“While we were still helpless, at
the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
You received the news and you’re upset! A congenital
heart defect you didn’t even know about has been found! The doctor, by
reputation the “Great Surgeon,” looks at you with
sad eyes and continues: “You’ve got six months!”
You’re stunned! You’ve got plans, a spouse, children, a home that needs two
incomes to make the payments! You didn’t renew your life insurance because the
payments were high and it didn’t seem necessary because you were so “healthy.”
The doctor is still talking, but you can’t make out all
the words. It’s something about a “heart transplant,”
you think he said. Then he continued, “IF one is available
on time;” and then you hear him say, “but it may
not be time enough to find the right heart.” He looks at you and says, “Why
don’t you sit down for a few minutes” – you shake your head. He asks if
someone could take you home? “No,” you manage to
say, and stumble out of the office. You make it home without hitting anything –
just barely!
Four endless months passed and then another. Now you
have just weeks to live. All your anxious questions have received the same
answer: “No heart is available at this time.”
You’ve made all the arrangements. The Living Trust has been created and the
burial costs have been paid. You’re as ready as you can be, and then the phone
rings. It’s the Surgeon’s office: “It’s a perfect match!”
A heart has been found! “Can you enter the hospital next
week?” they ask. “Yes,” you shout, and don’t
remember if you even thanked them on the phone!
The time has passed and you’re being wheeled into the
operating room. You’re startled to see that your Surgeon will not actually
perform the operation. He’s lying on a table opposite yours in the operating
theater. To your surprise, you see that HE is being prepped for surgery at the
same time you are. “What’s going on?” you cry, and
then: “Who’s going to do my surgery?” He looks over
at you from His table, and says, “Don’t worry; my
Associate is an excellent Heart Surgeon and He will give you the new heart.”
You look into His eyes for another moment, and then the anesthetic takes effect
- blackness comes. You are unconscious.
Time passes and you are awake once more. You recover
slowly, but HEALTH returns and you are ALIVE more than ever before. You have
been told the incredible news that the Great Surgeon gave you HIS heart. As they
said, “a perfect match” was found at just the right
time. He died so that you might live. “I hardly even KNEW
Him,” you thought. “Who IS He?”
Your Savior, Jesus Christ, is the Great Surgeon. A
perfect match was found – He gave His heart and His life for you. Though you did
not know Him except by reputation, He knew and loved you from the beginning, and
He died so that you can live in the sight of God – forever! “While
we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly”
(Romans 5:6).
The story of the Surgeon is our condition before Christ is in our lives. Just reading the daily newspaper or viewing the
news on television is proof of our condition as people – something is
fundamentally wrong with humanity – we need a new heart! And that is precisely
what we are given in Christ Jesus.
Recently, we purchased a new car. Well, it was not
precisely a “new” car – it was a two and one-half year-old car, but it was new
to us. We were very pleased with it, for it had been driven just 7,300 actual
miles. In a few months, the three-year warranty will run out on that car,
however, and we are wondering, should we buy an extended warranty to cover it
for an additional time? It’s expensive, but it may be worth it. Should we do it?
You and I are not unlike that used car. We’ve been traded-in
on a newer model. Will anybody want us? Our repair warranty is running out or it
is already gone and soon we’ll need repair. What will we do? The answer is that
we can do – nothing! There is nothing a used car can do that will make it new
again. Cars have no money and can’t buy warranties and ours has run out. You and
I can do nothing about our condition, for like everybody else in this world we
have been sold into sin and have no money to buy ourselves back.
I like Isaiah Chapter 55, for it accurately presents
our situation in the sight of God: It says, “Ho! Everyone who
thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes,
come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).
What we receive in Christ Jesus is free to us, but it was not free to Him.
Isaiah also said, “He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
What we have in Christ is costly, but it, or more
accurately HE has been given freely to you and me. We could do nothing, and He
has done it all. We needed a new heart, and He has given His own heart, his life
for you and for me. We were starving to death, and He is the “Bread
of Life” (John 6:48). He is the “repair warranty”
we have always needed, and He is ours – forever.
A person who requires heart surgery needs help. If you
decide to look for a book entitled, “Do It Yourself Open
Heart Surgery for Dummies,” you won’t find one. Our friend, Pastor
Charley, just had open heart surgery for the second time. We’ve been praying for
him, and we have also been praying for a young teenager named Robbie, who also
needs heart surgery for the second time. Like us, they need the help that comes
from God. Just like the car can’t pay for its own repair and needs a warranty, we all need God’s abilities to reach through our limitations
and give us new life.
And by the way, Pastor Charley called me after his
surgery. He was home from the hospital, talking about his experience as “one
miracle after another.” He said, “God is always
good; better than we can think or imagine,” and he continued, “Jesus
is everything.” Charley was helped – please continue to pray for Robbie.
God can do what we cannot do! He loves Charley, He loves Robbie, and He loves
you and me.
Lord, we think we can do something in life, and in a
limited fashion, we can, but we need You. Help us, Great Surgeon. We need Your
healing touch. In Jesus Name. Amen.
