I need a donor

Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King,  because when you live in the Anointed One, Jesus, a new law takes effect. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and liberates you from the law of sin and death.  God did something the law could never do. You see, human flesh took its toll on God’s law. In and of itself, the law is not weak; but the flesh weakens it. So to condemn the sin that was ruling in the flesh, God sent His own Son, bearing the likeness of sinful flesh, as a sin offering.  Now we are able to live up to the justice demanded by the law. But that ability has not come from living by our fallen human nature; it has come because we walk according to the movement of the Spirit in our lives. (Romans 8:1-4 VOICE)

Hans Selye, a Canadian scientist, once said:  "As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation."  This is so very true - no matter how much we think approval matters to us, condemnation is what we all focus on more than anything else.  Condemnation is really that moment when someone accuses you of being this way or that - usually contrary to the way we were "supposed" to be.  It isn't a comfortable feeling because it carries a sense of disapproval and maybe even a little bit of rejection.  Henry Ward Beecher said, "Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation."  I think he was just restating the gospel message that Christ came not to condemn the world, but to rescue it because it was headed toward a certain destruction it could not fully appreciate - and he did it in love!

The reason we live "above" condemnation is because of the new life living inside of us - the life of Christ.  A long time ago I discovered something quite interesting about bone marrow transplant patients.  You see, when a bone marrow recipient receives the donor's harvested cells, those cells actually go to work to shut down the blood cell production of the recipient's body and begin the blood cell production of the donor's cells.  In other words, in the course of time, a recipient with A+ blood who receives donor cells from an O+ donor will see his own blood type change to O.  What once was is no longer - something we need to really lay hold of in our own lives as this gives us the hope that once we once were is not what we are today simply because of the blood of Christ! It is as though we have received a "donor cell transplant" and our "internal type" now changes as a result of the "healthy" cells which have been transplanted!

This should give us cause for hope since the "old us" is really not what is alive any longer - that which is alive is Christ in us.  Guilt and condemnation are like the "rejection" cells at work whenever a transplant recipient receives new cells into his body.  Those cells have one mission in mind - something "foreign" has entered the body they are so determined to "protect" and they want to resist those cells' actions.  Guilt and condemnation want to surround the "good cells" of God's grace beginning to circulate in our lives, as they see these cells of grace as not really "belonging".  The thing is - the "donor cells" of grace are much stronger than those of guilt and condemnation.  They are there to do a job and eventually they will accomplish that which they are sent to do - to change us from the inside out until what is on the inside no longer is the same as it once was! 

This should be good news for many who think the power of sin is stronger than the power of grace.  Those "donor cells" of grace are way more powerful - simply because they aren't flawed, damaged, or destructive in nature.  They are perfect and as such, they exhibit a strong "defense" against the destruction of all that resembles the "sinful cells" once at work within us.  Sure, there is a period "warring" inside of us until those cells of grace begin to take hold, but when they do, there is no stopping the transformation.  Just sayin!