Words by Scott McCullar | Image by Blakeney Clouse
COVID-19 is awful. My wife caught this virus in August of 2022, and although the symptoms started out mild, she eventually landed in the hospital. We have realized after a second awful bout with COVID that it is dangerous and can cause serious issues.
I also can’t imagine what people thought when the horrible Spanish Flu hit our nation in 1918. That virus was disastrous on a level that is almost unfathomable today.
Though both diseases have wreaked untold havoc, did you know that you are infected with something vastly more dreadful and frightening than any coronavirus or flu? It’s true. You are infected with sin.
I know you may be rolling your eyes, but what I am sharing with you is more devastating, life-changing, and horrible than you can imagine. Let me explain.
Imagine the Garden of Eden. God had created a veritable paradise where the weather was perfect, work was never a chore, animals were friends, and the relationship with God and spouse was wonderful beyond words. But Lucifer, along with a third of all the angels, was kicked out of Heaven for rebelling against God. Now called the Devil, he realized that if God expelled him from Heaven for rebellion, then God would have to do the same for the pinnacle of God’s amazing creation, Adam and Eve, should they rebel, too.
It was a sinister plot to be sure. Disguised as a serpent, Satan unleashed a virus into the Garden of Eden and its unsuspecting inhabitants with simply a conversation regarding God’s expectation about not eating of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 3:1-8). The virus then spread to all of creation and, ultimately, to you and me today.
It should be noted that it wasn’t caught through coughing or sneezing, but through disobedience, a lack of faith, and rebellion. All of us are infected and all of creation has been twisted because of it. Death, heartbreak, divorce, disease, tornadoes, murder, abuse, war, perversion, and every other woe that has erupted onto this world has been and is caused by sin.
How awful it is! As a Pastor, I have seen families ruined, joy lost, dreams crushed, tears shed, cries screamed, cemeteries filled, communities wrecked, and churches devastated because of what was released on us. And frankly, instead of fighting sin, we have unashamedly accepted and welcomed it into our lives. But we should hate sin! How I hate COVID and what it has done to my wife and many others I have known! It is terrible! BUT SIN IS WORSE. We are all desperately sick with it. And it is terminal…
But could there be a cure? A pill, a vaccine, a treatment that can heal us from it? Is there any way to recover from what sin has wrought on you, me, and everyone we love?
Oh, yes there is! And that cure is a Savior! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became the cure with his miraculous birth into the world, his perfect life while in the world, and his sacrificial death on the cross for the world. Jesus took all our sins onto Himself and took our place in receiving the just judgment of God while hanging between Heaven and Earth on Calvary. And then He secured this cure for all eternity by physically rising from the dead! Hear the Scriptures!
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” – John 1:29
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” – John 3:16-17
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:21
“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ – Romans 10:9-11
That sounds like a game-changing, life-altering cure to me! As a Christian, my ultimate deliverance from sin is when I close my eyes in this world and wake up in glory. Because I have accepted and live in Jesus’ love and sacrifice for me, I will be completely healed! Satan, death, hell nor the curse of sin will have any hold on me! As I thought about my wife’s journey with COVID, it hit me that while sin attacks and ruins our hearts, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection heal, rescue, and secure our hearts for all eternity! Hallelujah! Hope is available for all of us!
Will you be cured? WL
