Henry David Thoreau famously observed that once man has provided for himself food, clothing, shelter, and fuel, he should turn his gaze to consider the true problems of life. Instead of taking up his advice, however, we have done the very opposite. Having eaten, we seek richer food; having clothed ourselves, we demand newer fashions; having found shelter, we imagine grander edifices. We have made the means of our survival ends in themselves and in so doing, have drifted into a sedated existence, a "dream life" so to speak, from which scarcely any of us have been roused.

There are, of course, moments of clarity in which we become aware of an urgent need to wake up. In these seconds, everything seems clear: we realize that we must not allow our lives to be dreamt away and that sooner or later we must give an account of our lives. In these moments, we become clear that even if we awaken from time to time, merely being awake is not enough to ready us for the coming judgment. While some may curse these epiphanies, we should cherish them. For it is in these waking moments that God can stir us from our slumbers once and for all and reveal to us two divine provisions that will solve our problems with God and prepare us for His imminent return. He has presented them to us clearly and concisely through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Blood and Water
Never was there a man like Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was God manifested in the flesh, was perfect and without sin.¹ Despite His perfect living and His unceasing displays of tenderheartedness and love for all mankind, religion and politics colluded and sentenced Him to execution by crucifixion. Within hours of His sentencing, He was marched to a hilltop just outside Jerusalem and nailed to a cross to die. Six hours later, the soldiers went to make sure that He was dead. Although Jesus had already died, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear. Immediately, there came out blood and water.²

Blood and water. Not mere consequences of a grim death, the two substances that flowed from Jesus' pierced side represent God's twin bequest that would enable man to stand ready at His second coming. The blood that flowed from Jesus washes away our sin and the water brings God's eternal life into us.

Eternal Forgiveness
The first problem we have before God is the fact that we are sinful. Not only are the things we say and do sinful, our very disposition and nature are defiled with sin and its stain. Despite the popular opinion that sin is a social construct or a holdover from the middle ages, our troubled conscience quietly protests that sin is indeed present, that it is resident in us, and that we must eventually answer for it.

While we are sinful, God is sinless. He is righteous, and sin is utterly contrary to His nature. Consequently, He cannot tolerate sin and even hates it.³ He must, in fact, judge it and condemn those in whom it resides—that is to say, everyone. We have come face to face with a truly serious problem—our inevitable judgment by a God with whom sin is incompatible.

It was to solve this great problem that Christ shed His blood. God Himself said that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."⁴ Only the blood of the sinless Jesus could satisfy God. When Jesus went to the cross, He took upon Himself all of our sins, offenses, and transgressions.⁵ Bearing personally the amassed weight of all the sin of the world, Christ became sin in the eyes of God and suffered God's righteous wrath.⁶ His being judged by God in our place and the shedding of His blood on our behalf has made it possible for us to be fully right with God. Christ's blood, God's solution to our first problem, has brought us eternal forgiveness of all our sins.

Christ's blood takes care of our problem with sins, yet there is another problem which must be resolved. For this, we need the water that flowed from Jesus' side. This water represents the eternal life of God.

Made Alive
There is with our life a serious inadequacy. This shortcoming is not merely the fact that our life is finite and is inevitably trumped by death. The basic deficiency of the life we possess lies in the fact that although it may quicken our body, animate our intellect, and inspire our passions, it fails to give life to the deepest part of our being—our spirit. Our spirit is that part of us that is deeper than our body and deeper even than our soul, than our mind, our emotion, and our will. The Bible points out that in our natural condition, our spirit does not have life and is, in fact, dead.⁷ Within us is, at times, a sense that there is something dormant, something that, although wanting to be enlivened, is languishing. At times, we feel more dead than alive and long to somehow be filled, invigorated, and regenerated. What we feel in these moments is the sensation of a dead spirit. Our life, it turns out, is not much of a life at all, for it cannot enliven the deepest part of who we are.

In contrast, God is living. He describes Himself as the "living One" and the One who is "living forever and ever."⁸ He is the "Spirit who gives life,"⁹ the "life-giving Spirit,"¹⁰ the One who declares, "I am...the life."¹¹ To God, He who is the definition of life, death is intolerable, for it is the antithesis of His being. Death, He proclaims, is His final enemy, and it is death that He is abolishing even now.¹² In order to stand approved before the living God when He judges us, we must be filled with His life. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth, will He find us full of the eternal life which flows from Him or will He discover us in that deathly condition which is intolerable to Him and judge us accordingly?

The water that streamed from Jesus' pierced side is the solution to our dead inner being. When we receive Christ, His life flows into our deadened spirit to regenerate us. No longer will we be haunted by a lingering sense of death and corruption. Our spirit will be made alive, and our whole being will begin to enjoy God Himself as life as He flows to restore and renew us inwardly. In order to be fully ready for His coming, His life must flow into us and within us to make us as living as He is.

Double Cure
Jesus Christ's blood cleanses us from our sins and allows us to stand faultless before God, and the water from His side brings us the life, the vitality, the vital essence of God Himself. If the Lord Jesus were to judge us without our having received the double cure of blood and water, we would be found hopelessly lacking. But because He shed His sinless blood on the cross, He can forgive countless sinners. Moreover, because He has made His eternal life available to us, we can receive His life and be enlivened in our spirit. When we believe into the Lord Jesus, we receive God's double cure for us: forgiveness and life.

The way to receive God's forgiveness and begin to enjoy the rich flow of His life within us is as simple as it is profound. First, we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—believe in His dying on the cross for our sins and His being resurrected to give us the eternal life. Then, we must call upon His name and acknowledge that as sinners, we need Him.¹³ By these simple steps, we who are sinful and dead receive God's forgiveness and life and so commence our enjoyment of the marvelous salvation that God has prepared for us.

1 First Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:15 (back) 2 John 19:34 (back) 3 Hebrews 1:9 (back) 4 Hebrews 9:22 (back) 5 First Peter 2:24 (back) 6 Second Corinthians 5:21; John 1:29 (back) 7 Ephesians 2:1; 4:18 (back) 8 Revelation 1:18 (back) 9 John 6:63 (back) 10 First Corinthians 15:45 (back) 11 John 14:6 (back) 12 First Corinthians 15:26 (back) 13 Romans 10:9-10

Mankind in general is unprepared for the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. The way we begin to ready ourselves to meet Him is by turning to Him and praying the following with a repentant heart:

O Lord Jesus, thank You for waking me up to my real condition. I am a sinner who needs You. Thank You that You shed Your blood on the cross for my sins. Thank You that You resurrected from the dead to fill me with Your eternal life. Lord Jesus, save me from the world's stupor. Fill me with Your life every day so I can be prepared to meet You when You return. O Lord Jesus, thank You for saving me!