By: The Rev. Dr. W. Ross Blackburn
This from a letter Georgette recently wrote:
I am currently ministering to two women. The first girl is 18 and is truly suffering from her abortion three years ago – some days she is inconsolable and her pain comes through the computer screen. The 2nd is a 30ish woman who has aborted two children, and lost a two-year-old in a car accident. Her pain and grief often threaten to swallow her whole. Yet both reach out and through texting and messaging, hear the hope of the Gospel in my responses. Please ask God to give me the words they need to hear and read. Let His love cut through their pain and help them find healing, forgiveness and hope again.
As Jesus came up from the waters of baptism, he heard his Father from heaven: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Think of Jesus’ response. Is there anything that the human heart longs for more than to know the love of a well-pleased father?
The stunning truth of the Gospel is that the Father’s words are not only for Jesus, but for we who are in Christ. Jesus was baptized because we need to be. How do we know? In baptism, Jesus identifies with us. Identification is everywhere in the Bible. Jesus is our high priest, representing his own before God. He is our sacrifice, wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. He is the one who taught his disciples to likewise call God “Father.” He is the one who told the story of the blessed lost son, coming home in rags only to find himself soon dressed in the robes and ring of a well pleased father.
The images and meaning of baptism are rich, and full of hope. In Jesus’ death is our death, death to our old life. In Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection, to new life. Not improved life, but new life. There is a radical discontinuity between the old life and the new life in Christ. The old has passed away, the new has come. And that is great hope to those who mourn for their lives, who want nothing more than to take their life and bury it. The Gospel does not tell people they can be better. It tells people that, in Christ, they can be new. And that, in Christ, our Father is well-pleased. It beckons us to hear the words of the Father “You are my beloved child—with you I am well pleased.”
There is nothing more important in our work for life than to make the Gospel plain to the hurting and the hopeless. Repent, and believe the Gospel. And ask God for grace to make it plain to those whose grief threatens to swallow them whole.