MOVED BY A WORD

..Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  Romans 3:25

            “Propitiation” is a word we usually pass over quickly when reading through Romans.  Someone once said that it means “substitute”.  Knowing that, I pass over it quickly, thinking that I understand and don’t need to linger on it.  What a mistake.

            Worshippers in the ancient world knew the word well.  They would bring their sacrifices; animals, even new-born babies, and kill them at the altar, all for the purpose of appeasing angry gods.  While they faith was misplaced, their conscience was right in knowing that a ‘god’ who bore wrath needed to be appeased.  The one, true God sent Jesus to be the sacrifice.  He bore our wrath so we could appear guiltless before Him.

            William Cowper, a prolific writer and hymn writer, came to Christ through this verse.  Orphaned at six years old, he was sent to a boarding school where he suffered extreme mistreatment by bullies.  He was a frail child with an artistic temperament; an easy target for peers who abused power.  In 1756, when he was just 25 years old, he was committed to an asylum to supposedly live out a life sentence.  He is quoted to have said, “My sin!  My sin!  Oh, for some fountain open for my cleansing!”  The torment, which fed his instability, was little more than recognition of His need for forgiveness.

            God heard.  His doctor was a gentle old man, a follower of Christ, whom God used to bring Him to faith.  When he shared Romans 3:25 with him, the power of Christ’s death washed over him and he understood the magnificent implications.  He embraced Christ and the powerful experience was captured with his pen. 

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

 

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there have I, as vile as he,

Washed all my sins away.

            Many have ended their lives in suicide because they were overcome with guilt.  Others live out a life sentence of depression and regret as they rehearse their failures like a favorite old movie.  The track record haunts them like a ghost.  Some with obsessive compulsive disorder scrub their hands till they bleed in order to find a kind of cleansing that brings relief.  All is offered in Christ.  Complete cleansing, one that lasts forever, is offered in the fountain of His blood.  I stand in the flow and, with tears, say thank you.

If there’s any part of me that has not really taken in what your death means for me, today, please open my eyes completely.  Amen