Christ Removes the Crushing Weight – February 21, 2021

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
Romans 8:10

Christ Removes the Crushing Weight

From time to time, we hear of human beings doing extraordinary things, like the woman who managed to lift the end of a 3,600-pound car off her son when the jack slipped. In extreme emergencies, people have been known to reach back into a resource of hidden physical strength and mental resourcefulness they didn’t know they had. Can they do this all by themselves? Or is this a miraculous help from God?

The author of the book of Hebrews devotes his 11th chapter to Old Testament men and women who were heroes of faith. It was from God that they drew their strength. In one dimension of life, however, human strength cannot avail. It does not enable us to save others or ourselves from the power and the punishment of sin. By the labors of our hands, we cannot fulfill God’s demands, earn salvation, or pull ourselves out of the dilemma of doing things we don’t want to do and not doing the good God demands.

What is more, the psalmist declares, “No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him” (Psalm 49:7). The ransom demanded would be entirely too great. But what we can’t do, Jesus did for us. He gave his life as a ransom for the whole world of sinners so that all who believe in him as the Savior are freed from the burden of unpaid spiritual bills, the fear of death, and the crushing weight of sin—just as that woman lifted the weight of a car off her son. WOW! Nothing short of a miracle of God! Jesus was lifted up on a cross that he might remove our load and bring us to himself.

Prayer:
God of heaven and earth, please stand near me with Your strength that makes me perfect in my weakness. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.