In the previous THOUGHT I examined my attempts to avoid contracting the virus, which unfortunately were unsuccessful. In this THOUGHT I want to consider the severity of the illness and my ability to overcome it.
The illness began rather innocently. Saturday I had a little cough, which is normal for me at this time of year. I made sure I was masked so as not to take any chance of communicating anything to anyone else, and went about the normal routine of work at the church. All in all, it was a pretty normal day. When I awoke on Sunday, everything seemed “normal” until around 9AM and I felt a little feverish. Things went downhill from there. I searched in vain for a Covid testing site that was open on Sunday. Monday morning I was able to be tested and I told the technician that not exhibiting any of the signs of the virus other than the fever and cough, I thought the test would come back negative. The fever, and associated chills, increased through Monday, at one point hitting 103.8 degrees and remaining in the 102-103 range for the next day or two and of a lesser degree in the week to come. I didn’t realize it but I had become dehydrated. This made for two very serious consequences.
The first is that I was unable to think clearly. I was not hallucinating, but I was having serious trouble thinking coherently. I remember that what thoughts I had I was trying to express on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and the same thoughts kept repeating themselves. The second consequence is that the fever had robbed me of any and all strength or energy to do anything. I could barely keep my eyes open for a couple of minutes at a time. All in all, I was completely helpless to do anything to get better.
Enter my wife. Carol has asthma and contracting the Covid virus was something that she simply could not risk. Yet, if she preserved her own health, mine would have disappeared forever. Her love for me motivated her to provide for my cure. The doctor had prescribed a regimen of Extra-Strength Tylenol and Ibuprofen to reduce the fever. He also prescribed a “Z-pack” of antibiotics just in case there may be some bacterial element to my illness. Carol administered the medications on time. She saw to it that fluids were always available to me. She went far beyond the call of duty in making anything that I wanted to eat. I could do none of these things. She watched over me even when I was not alert or aware. She is the reason I am able to write this THOUGHT today. She became the administrator of the saving provisions of my illness.
Sin corrupts man thoroughly. Like my inability to think clearly, the unsaved person cannot even comprehend life accurately (Isaiah 55:8). And as I was unable to do anything that would affect my health for good, so too unregenerate man is incapable of doing anything to produce a right standing before an infinitely holy God (Romans 3:10-12). Outside help is needed. Enter the person of Jesus Christ.
There is no reason that Jesus had to do anything about mankind’s condition. He was, and is complete within Himself; He does not need man. But His sacrificial love for man motivated Him to not only be the administrator of saving provisions for sin, but also to be the cure. The One who was eternally God, voluntarily took on genuine humanity, without compromising it with sin. He lived perfectly before God, fulfilling all of God’s righteous demands. Ultimately, on the Cross of Calvary He bore my sin as well as the sin of the whole world in His body and died (1 Peter 3:24-25) paying sin’s debt in full. 39 years ago I “swallowed the pill” by receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior from sin through faith in His finished work at Calvary. Immediately, the judicial consequence of my sin was gone! In the same way that I am now seeking to recover from the consequences of Covid, I am, have been, and will be for the rest of my life learning to live in the fullness of God’s love for me. But that will be the subject of the next THOUGHT.