3/11/07

“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.