Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Blood of Sinners


     We are saved from the propensity. The propensity to do what they did. We were not only saved from the sins that were committed in our past and the sins to be committed in our future. We are saved from becoming what we could become if our sin carried itself to the conclusion. 

We are saved from being who we would be if we were left to ourselves.

A friend asked me this summer if I had ever thought of who I would be if I hadn't ever been saved. I had never thought about that before, and so, knowing my tendencies and my temptations and my disposition, I mentally carried my sins to their ultimate end. And the image of who I would be without God's grace was horrifying.
It reminded me that I am no better than the serial-killer or drunkard around the corner. Because I could have been like them but for the mercy of Jesus Christ on the cross. And yet before the world was created, God looked down on my sinful nature and chose me as His. “You are mine. And I will save you not only from what you will do, but I will save you from what you could do.

You are my Child, and on the cross a perfect sacrifice will be killed so that the sins which would kill you need not take hold of your life.”

From the beginning of time, God was carefully orchestrating who would be blood relatives with His son so that that we could be relatives through that blood. He saw a man named Abraham whose wife, and mother of Issac, disbelieved His promises.
Then Rachab, the outcast of society. The harlot. He chose a downright prostitute to carry on the human vein of blood that would mix with the blood of the only perfect man. And David was in that line. David, the murderer and adulterer and coward who took Uriah's life and then dispatched Uriah himself. Judah's in there, too. And Solomon. All in the line to Christ.
God chose the ones who lived out their sin to its conclusion and saw the devastation and endured God's punishment but then were renewed through his mercy. David lost his child, but David was forgiven his sin by the creator of the universe. Rahab was redeemed. Abraham was allowed to prove his trust as he offered his son on an altar.
These broken, erring people weren't perfect. They weren't amazing beings who loved God at every single moment or followed his words every day of their lives. They were sinners. They knew sin as you and I know sin. And yet out of everyone on the earth, God knew these people would fail, and God allowed them to carry on the line to his perfect Son anyway.
I stand in awe of that fact. The people God used to work up to the greatest moment in history were the same as you and me. They had the same propensities. They had the exact same sin nature. They failed. And yet God forgave them.
The humans sharing blood and genes and physical traits with Jesus Christ were just that. Humans.

How humbling. That God would allow us to be so close to the one who would save us. 

        Jesus shed human, tangible blood as he poured out himself on the cross for our every sin. Mary, a sinner, carried him in her womb, sharing her body with the body of the son of God. Jesus had everything to do with sinners.
His life was created in the body of a sinner by the breath of an infinite God.
And as he died, and the veil was torn, and his spirit left him, we became co-heirs with him through that redeeming blood. We joined together with Abraham and Rahab and David as children of the promise. We became one. And in that moment, we were saved from everything we would ever do and everything we could ever do.
We were saved from ourselves as we became nothing and He became the only breath bringing us to life.
O, grave, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55) 

Who I could be is not who I am, and I have no other boast but knowing that the one who made this possible is the one who gave his life for me. The only one who could give his life for me. The only one who would never sin, and yet who chose to share his blood with sinners.

And Hallelujah. All I have is Christ. 

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.