We’ve been talking for months and months (and months) about the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has disrupted our lives socially, economically, emotionally. It’s challenged us to reevaluate the way we approach relationships, school and work. It’s a worthy opponent – something worth taking steps to avoid, to respond to, to contain.
There’s no one easy scientific answer to “What are my chances of getting COVID-19?” and that’s not what this post is about anyway. Without in any way making light of the seriousness of the situation, it’s sufficient to say that you do not have a 100% chance of becoming infected by the coronavirus, or of developing the severe illnesses that go with it in the most serious cases, or of dying if you do contract the virus. But the other day I came across this verse in Romans – “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone” (5:12) – and it kind of stopped me in my tracks. When Adam sinned, something entered the world that had never been there before. It was completely new. And it brought death – wreaked havoc, destroyed lives, upended everything.
What got me was the last part – “death spread to everyone.” A 100% infection rate and by definition, a 100% mortality rate. And what are we doing about it? Hardly anything.
We aren’t that concerned about our sin problem. We don’t do very much about it. Most people would say that their individual case isn’t that bad anyway. It isn’t that we think it will go away on its own, but that we aren’t overly concerned about its long-term effects. We’re content to live with it indefinitely.
To be honest, on our own we can’t do that much about it. We don’t have the power to overcome sin in our lives. We can’t cure what ails us. Masking it won’t help us. Keeping our distance won’t save us. Death is a patient adversary. No matter how well we live, we don’t have the ability to defy death forever.
But there is a promised cure for sin, a vaccine against death. It’s only available from one source – Jesus. Before He ever told the paralyzed man to get up and walk, Jesus first told him that his sins were forgiven (Luke 5:20). If the healing Jesus offered was only for this lifetime, it would be an incomplete reprieve at best. Instead He has removed forever the power from sin and the sting from death by mending the rift that separated us from the Father. That healing can never be undone. It needs no repeat dose. “He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him” (Hebrews 7:25 AMP). It’s a fully effective, 100% cure for what truly ails us.
He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! Psalm 103:2-5
