Resurrection of a Heart

Friday, I was privileged to see something I had never seen before. I saw on a video screen what was tantamount to the resurrection of a human heart. On the screen was a picture of the heart, taken by whatever electronic magic they use to see through skin, bone and tissue. There were veins, and arteries coursing with blood, just like God had made them. I could see the muscle contracting and expanding as it sent the blood on its appointed rounds. But there was one section of the heart barely visible. There weren't very many lines running through it, and it looked pretty bleak, desolate, and inactive. The doctor said this was the section where the blood had been blocked. The doctor fast forwarded through the procedure he used to alleviate the blockage. Suddenly, it was as if a floodgate had been opened, blood rushed through the freshly opened artery down into the part of the heart that had not seen blood in some time. What had been a single, barely visible thread of a line, suddenly became a huge pulsing artery carrying blood to the part of the heart that had only moments before been virtually starved of blood. Then, a little way down the artery, it split into a dozen smaller arteries and then a dozen more. It looked for all the world, like a tree growing before my very eyes. What had been a slender thread of a sapling, suddenly became a giant oak. What had been a dead section of that heart suddenly came to life. It was the most amazing display of medical intervention I had ever witnessed with my own two eyes.

And, that dear ones, got me to thinking. When I was a sinner, I was like that section of heart. I was dead, without hope, without life in this world. Something was preventing me from being the kind of creature that God wanted and planned for me to be.

[J]ust he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Eph 1:4).

I was blocking myself off from the magnificent blessings that God had promised me. I was lifeless and devoid of hope. But then, I allowed something to happen that brought me back to life. I took the blockage (self) out of the way and allowed myself to come in contact with the blood of Christ. Guess what happened then? Like that section of the heart, I was brought back to life.

Peter responded to the crowd's request for instruction by telling them they had to repent (remove the blockage) and be baptized (come in contact with the blood) in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. It is through blood-contact we are resurrected to life and forgiveness.

In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7).

[J]ust as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).

And if we should stumble and fall, we once again cut ourselves off from the blood. Something blocks it. Once again, we have to remove the blockage and come in contact with the blood.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, ... the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him (Rom. 6:3-8).

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