Walking through the NJ Veterans Home to visit my grandmother, I pass room after room of walls decorated with the highest Medals of Honor offered by the US Military. These once valiant soldiers, who earned these marks of distinction at the prime of their lives to defend our freedom, are now suffering with physical infirmities which have them confined to beds and wheelchairs. When young, these soldiers probably never imagined that the conclusion of their lives would be marked by such immobility and physical ruin. Many are so, so near to meeting God. Will they meet Him as their Savior, or their Judge?
Their frail forms illustrate to me a likeness to that of the crippled woman healed by Jesus in Luke 13:10-17. She suffered the physical, crippling effects of Satan’s bondage for 18 years! She was helpless, and a hostage to sin. Not everyone suffers such physical infirmities, but one thing does plague every human. The Bible states that we too are all sinners (Rom 3:23), and because of our disobedience to God, we are subject to physical death (Gen 3:19) and spiritual death (Gen 2:17). However, “God commended His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
As Jesus called out to the woman, and laid His healing hands on her, her infirmity was “made straight immediately.” What a display of love, grace, and power! She made herself available by being at the synagogue, but Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, saw her first and healed her. And so it is with God’s love; unasked, it pours down freely to all sinners, giving all it can to those who are seeking. Never did man have to pray for God to provide a Savior. Even though we are sinners, God still loves us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Our need was met by the finished work of Christ at Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, Substitute, and Sin Bearer. Is He yours?
Today, your sins are not too vile or numerous to be forgiven immediately. Just as the woman was freed from her infirmity, you can be freed from your heavy load of sin. She suffered 18 years but was healed. How many more years do you think God will spare your life? Better yet, how many more months, weeks, or even minutes do you think you have before you pass from this life into eternity? Be honest; none of us knows when death will come. So then, are you prepared? Not physically, emotionally, or legally, but do you have the assurance that your soul will spend eternity in God’s Kingdom? This is the urgency which accompanies the grand message of the gospel. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2Cor 6:2). The Word of God tells us that our lives are like “a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Today, make sure that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, by trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10:9).
