Heart Transplant
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
The tension in the operating room was palpable as the chief surgeon resolutely pushed the gurney carrying the heart donor through the doors. Waiting inside lay the terminal patient with his gray, shrunken, diseased heart.
The chief surgeon made the incision, removed the donor's whole, healthy, perfect heart, and put it into the preserving solution.
Next he removed the diseased heart from its suffering owner, carried it gently to the donor's side and tenderly positioned this heart in his chest.
There was a somber reason for the tears in the chief surgeon's eyes. This donor-turned-recipient was his beloved son.
Now his attention turned to the other patient. He was a nobody in the eyes of most. Yet the chief surgeon proceeded to implant his son's whole healthy perfect heart into this one as if he were the most important person ever to have lived, as if saving this life was the most important thing the surgeon would ever do.
We have been crucified with Christ. Jesus took our diseased-with-sin selves and died with them. Simultaneously, He gave us His healthy sin-free self that we may live.
We are prone to believe that the fact we still sin means we are still that old “I.” But thinking in terms of having a heart transplant may shed some light on this.
A new heart means we can live again! We can breathe, we can move, we can relate and serve and worship.
However, someone given a heart transplant has to respect their new heart. Old ways like smoking or eating junk food have to be replaced with healthy habits. It is the same with us spiritually. Habitual ways like fear, anger, apathy, and a host of others—that are perhaps only now surfacing because of our current health crisis— need to be broken and replaced.
Blessedly, the more we become acquainted with Christ in us, the more we learn how to surrender to His power over our old ways.
We become profoundly aware that I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
It's good to take stock of how our respect for our new heart is coming along. Then remember—we get to concentrate on Christ in us, not on our bad habits. His is the power working in us that overcomes; our job is to cooperate with Him.
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