Perceptions #200130

"Two Knives"

by James Bailey

It was a brutal attack. The knife sliced through the man's shirt like a razor, entering his back at the shoulder, and cutting diagonally toward the spine. Skin and muscle melted like mutton before a cleaver. The shock paralyzed him, and the searing pain tore through his body like currents of fire. He tried to scream, but the knife had punctured a lung. Then, the knife being withdrawn was plunged again, and again. The third plunge was most cruel, as it nicked the spinal chord and punctured the heart. The victim twisted toward his attacker, seeing through anguished eyes, the face of his attacker.

Three times the scalpel lacerated the man's chest, scoring the skin, cutting along carefully drawn lines. The surgical steel grew red. The flesh separated and the chest opened, exposing the heart. Soon the heart was bared. Two knives. One in the hand of a killer, the other in the hand of a healer. One cut into the back, the other into the chest. Three stabs for betrayal. Three for the surgery. The surgeon, being healed, was operating on the man who had attacked him.

This story is found in Luke 22 and John 21.

Three times Peter stabbed Jesus in the back. And three times, Jesus cut Peter to the heart. The Lord knew that Peter's guilt and his sense of shame were blacker than coal. But He also knew that Peter would never become the bold and brilliant leader of the early church if he spent his day groping in the coal mines of guilt and moping in his mineshafts of shame. So he told him, in effect, to get over it. To put it behind him. To renew his love for his Master, and to get busy feeding the sheep.

This story is from a book by Robert Morgan. But it reflects how much Jesus wanted Peter to get over a malady that is far too modern--- unforgiven guilt. People, many who are strong Christians, who know God forgives sin, yet pray for forgiveness for sins long since forgiven. Who allow sins of their past to drag them down and keep them from being everything that God would have them be today. While in reality it is Satan's scheme, to render powerless the Cross and the blood that was shed there, by manipulation of our human minds. Telling us to think such things as "How could God forgive me?", "How can I ever feel forgiven?" or, "How can I ever feel that I deserve to feel free of my sins?" That's the glory of it all. You don't deserve it, you just get it as a gift, it's called grace. Grace that caused God to design such a marvelous plan for salvation; grace that brought Jesus to earth and then the cross, grace that raised Him from the tomb. Grace that allows you a way to contact the cleansing blood when you become a Christian. You might say, "Mercy forgave what love forgot." And if you understand this basic principle of salvation, no matter how you say it. . . you're free. Now shouldn't you live like it?

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