ENGAGING THE POWER OF CHRIST’S ATONEMENT

Imagine, if you will, a man lost and stranded in an expansive desert.  The conditions in the desert are treacherous.  His increasingly insatiable thirst escalates his fear of death.  The desert is so expansive that he is unable to know where he is or how to escape his deadly circumstances.  All he can do is trudge forward, driven by an innate desire to survive.  At last, almost bereft of energy, he encounters an enormous dune that blocks his path.  He is so tired, so downcast and discouraged that he determines that he just doesn’t have the strength to climb the dune and keep going.  He resigns himself to his own demise.  He tumbles to his knees and then falls sideways into the sand.  As he rolls onto his back he looks up at the top of the dune.  Surprisingly, he thinks he can see palm fronds waving gently in the breeze.  He wonders if he is hallucinating.  But as he ponders this new possibility, he can’t ignore the hope he feels.  If the tree is real perhaps there is an oasis at the top of the dune.  He decides to marshal all his remaining energy and invest it in one last gasp of hope.  He slowly climbs up the dune.  Triumphant at the top, he weeps as he sees the water and drinks.  Now, I have one question.  What saved that man?  For my purposes, consider the man’s condition in the desert as representing the mortal condition of all mankind, even though very few realize the dire straits in which they find themselves.  Consider the water at the oasis as the living water that springs forth from the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Consider the tree as evidence of the water that created enough hope to motivate the man to climb the dune, despite his weakened condition.  Consider his climb to the top of the dune as what he had to do in order to reach the life saving water.  So, what saved the man?  What was the only thing among those mentioned that had the capacity to sustain the man’s life?  It was the water.  But it’s important to recognize that the water would have been of no value to him unless there had been a tree that spawned within him the hope of reaching the water.  Even then, without the desire to live he would not have exerted his last energy to climb the dune, and without climbing the dune, he never could have found the water he so desperately needed.  When considering salvation, one must understand that Jesus is the living water.  He provides the means necessary to save a person’s life, both physically and spiritually.  It is wholly by and through His merits, mercy, and grace that lifesaving water is available.  Without that living water, no person can save themselves regardless of how many dunes they surmount.  But unless those other elements come into play, one would never even know the water exists, let alone be motivated to access it.  Reaching the water requires both desire and effort.  It’s the combination of these things, the sacred gift only Jesus can offer, and one’s willingness to seek, find, and endure in His saving grace that consummates the sacred process of salvation.  One cannot rely on only one part or portion of this process if the fullness of salvation is their objective.  It requires all of the components working together to produce a fullness.  But it must never be forgotten that a dying man cannot save himself without the living water and Jesus is the living water.  A real life experience recorded in Matthew 14 exemplifies the necessary components involved in accessing God’s grace.  After encountering a multitude of thousands seeking Him, healing their sick, and feeding them all with five loaves and two fishes, He instructed His apostles to get in their boat and cross the lake to the other side while He went further into the desert to pray.   The apostles found progress across the lake to be not only problematic but treacherous as a sudden storm assailed them creating threatening wind and waves.  Sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning Jesus went to them, walking on the water.  When the apostles saw Him approaching they cried out for fear, thinking He was a spirit.  Jesus immediately invited them to relinquish their fear and be of good cheer as He identified himself.  Peter, the chief apostle then posed an incredible question.  “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”  All the men in the boat that night had witnessed the miracle of Jesus walking on water.  Peter was a fisherman and spent much of his time on that very lake but had never walked on the water.  That was an impossibility.  But Peter realized something of great significance; if Jesus could walk on water, then with His help so could he.  Jesus responded matter of factly, “come”.  It was easy for Peter and the others to witness the miracle of Jesus, but this invitation to leave the relative safety of the boat required more than admiration.  It required Peter to place his trust in Christ rather than the boat, which he did, at least momentarily.  When his focus turned from Jesus to the wind and waves, his faith failed and he sank into the depths, calling for Jesus to save Him, which He immediately did.  He gently chided Peter for doubting what He could make possible.  Something that was impossible only moments before had suddenly become possible with Christ’s enabling power.  Escaping mortality’s morbid grasp is impossible for mankind to accomplish unaided by divine help.  It is only by and through the merits, mercy, and grace of Christ that mankind has any hope of overcoming both physical and spiritual death.  But Christ’s invitation to come unto Him, extended to all mankind, will remain inert unless one desires to seek Him, trust Him, believe Him, and act upon what they believe.  Jesus will never force you out of the boat.  It’s entirely up to you as to whether you will remain a witness from inside the boat or one who can, strengthened by the Lord’s powerful help, walk on the water.  All of these components must combine to produce that which is most miraculous of all.