Last Sunday the church I serve hosted a “Be the Match” bone marrow drive. We have an amazing young man who is a great husband, father, and friend who needs a bone marrow transplant. So, the church stepped up…and many from the community came and swabbed their cheeks and agreed to be a bone marrow donor if they “matched” this young man or anyone else who might need a transplant in the future. The turnout was amazing. We were told that most drives are only able to add about 25 potential bone marrow donors to the world wide registry. We had 175 people added to the registry that day. Praise the Lord!
I am in continual prayer, begging God that someone in that registry will be a match to this young man and save his life. Or better yet, that God will show again his power and just take this blood disease from him. I believe he still has the power to do that!!!
As I sat there on Sunday welcoming people as they came in and went through this process…God was working on my heart. I was reminded of something…everyone of us need someone to be our “match.” We have all been diagnosed with the terminal disease called SIN. Romans 3 reminds us that the “Wages of sin is death.” Our hope for a cure is NOT found in trying harder, it is NOT found in being better than the other people around us, it is NOT found in doing more good than bad, or having a more positive mental attitude. Our only hope is for someone to step in to donate to us, someone who has not been infected by the same SIN disease. Romans 3:10, however, gives us some pretty grim news “there are none who are righteous, not even one.” No match is available for us. Swab every person on planet earth and there would still be no match for us.
We are hopeless for a cure and unable to save ourselves. UNTIL God decided to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Enter Jesus Christ. Emmanuel. God “with” us. He is the only one in the history of the world who SIN has not corrupted. Every thought he had was in tune with God’s. Every decision he made…right. Every temptation (and he was tempted in every way like everyone of us are tempted) never led him once to giving in or giving up. Yes, he was God’s son, yes he was divine but he emptied himself of all of that and took on flesh and experienced everything we experienced with ONE gigantic difference. He NEVER sinned. Never.
When he saw our condition. When he saw our hopelessness. When he saw that there were no matches to be found. He “swabbed” himself on the cross and became THE blood donor for all of us. When we unite with him…the sin that infected us is CURED. The disease called “SIN” that threatened our lives…gone. But Jesus takes a step further…he doesn’t just cure our sin problem…He gives his perfect righteousness to us. Paul says it this way, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Thank you Jesus!
The young man who we hosted the drive for and his extended family were all at the drive the entire day. They thanked every person that came in…they hugged the necks of strangers who came to support them. It was an emotional day…to put it mildly. That got my mind racing some more…how do you thank someone who is willing to do whatever they can to possibly save your life?
Great question. That is really our question too, isn’t it? How do we thank God for allowing his only Son to “be our match” and sacrifice so much for us?
- We thank Him everyday.
- We remember what He did everyday.
- We cherish the new life that we have and make the most of it.
- We point others to the cure that we have found.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” 1 Peter 3:18
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