Vitamin Save

"For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." John 3

I just finished reading Frank Perretti's book, The Oath. In it, Peretti compares sin to a dragon who "marks" the people he owns by creating a wound over their hearts that oozes black slime. This mark gives the dragon the right to consume them. 

The people, at first, notice these wounds. They fear their impending doom. But towards the end of each person's life, he or she sinply ceases to care. People begin living as if they have no wound. Sinning and hurting others with reckless abandon. Marching towards their own death in a sickening display of denial. 

This idea aptly illustrates the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3. In this conversation, Jesus says that the world already stands condemned, and that Jesus came to do something much different than condemn humanity, again. He came to save.

See, just like the people in Perretti's story, every one of us has been marked with sin's wound. This gives us a fatal connection with our enemy, sometimes called the Dragon in the Bible. Eventually, he will consume us. We can pretend we're immune. We can live as we please. But truth will claim us in the end. 

When Jesus came to earth, He knew our soiled, sin-sickened state. Rather than sealing that existing condemnation in stone, He came to provide an escape. A substitute. Someone who could pay the penalty that our festering wounds would demand.

It is a beautiful picture, yea? A sinless Lamb, facing down a bloodthirsty dragon, armed with nothing but His own death-damning Love

This love runs so deep that even if I never admit I'm oozing sin's slime, Jesus still offers His gift - His substitutionary blood - to me all the same. My response makes no difference: His love -- and my condemnation, without accepting it -- will not change. 

So what will I choose to embrace? The dragon, his "freedom," his mark? It's already mine, actually. As a child of this world, I took my first breath with that slime-seeping wound, and without Christ,  I'll carry it til I die. No choice is a choice. I can deny it, but nothing can alter the truth. 

Only the Lamb and His ridiculous plan,  His chosen cross and His arms spread out wide, offers any hope for my condition. My state can be changed, but I must admit that I'm dying in order to take receive the Lamb's life. This means letting go of my pride, seeing my rights crucified, and embracing God's world-changing gift.

The dragon? The Cross? My way? Or the Lamb's? Jesus came to save me, if I will but accept Him. Can I admit that I need Him, and live?

Can you?