Thursday, June 12, 2008

Jehovah's Witness Refuses Transfusion

58-year old John Edwards is still hospitalized and in critical condition. His serious injuries stemmed from being struck by a silver Mercedes in an early morning accident. The operator of the car was a 23-year old, suspected to have been a drunken driver. Although Edwards survived the crash and his trip to the hospital, his recovery is still in question – but not for the typical reasons.

The victim’s wife, Sheila, is a devout Jehovah’s Witness and, because of her religious convictions, has refused to allow her husband to receive badly needed blood transfusions. The husband has supposedly signed forms previously stating his agreement with his wife and requesting alternative treatments. Mrs. Edwards said on behalf of her husband, “Giving him a transfusion would be like assaulting him — and he wouldn’t want to live knowing he’d disobeyed his God.” The couple’s sons are in total disagreement with their parent’s decision to bypass the blood.

Blood is likely the key element pertaining to the physical life. The God of Israel, while warning His people against certain vile practices, stated in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” But the Israelites also were made well aware of the sacrificial value of blood as it related to their redemption and deliverance.

In Exodus 12 God made a promise to His special people and it directly involved blood.The use of blood, or lack thereof, would be the literal difference between life and death.Verse13 records God’s sobering warning. “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” The blood coursing through their own veins sustained their own vital signs, but the literal blood applied to the door would protect them from God’s fast approaching judgment.

In the New Testament the emphasis on blood remains but is even more intensified. However, the source of life-saving blood shifted drastically! It was refocused from the prior sacrificial slaying of a literal lamb to the ‘Lamb of God’ who was Himself the ultimate sacrifice and replacement for the old system.

This great truth is clearly spoke of by the writer of Hebrews. “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14) The reason for his words is then referred to later in verse 22. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

Blood is arguably the single most important ingredient in God’s economy where salvation is concerned. After relating in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned”, the Apostle Paul continues on and records the significance of Christ’s shed blood in the matter.

In verse 25 he penned, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed".

A careful study of the Scriptures reveals precisely why man is in desperate need of spiritual rescue and what God has used in His ingenious redemptive process. But in order to understand why the Savior would submit Himself to a process of unthinkable humiliation and brutality requires only the consideration and comprehension of just one New Testament passage. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8-9)

The disaster of human sin and the accompanying design of God to cure it can be boiled down to a few simple and profound phrases from the above verses:

The malady:
“For all have sinned.”
The mystery:
“While we were stil lsinners, Christ died for us.”
The motive:
“His own love toward us”
The means:
Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
The method:
“Through faith”
The miracle:
“Having now been justifiedby His blood.”
The mission:
“To serve the living God
Those who are truly concerned about their spiritual condition and eternal directionsimply mustnot ‘bypass the blood’. They must, instead, be willing to open the arteries of their heart to the spiritual transfusion as offered by the Savior who willingly shed His sinless blood just for them. (1 Peter 1:18)

Bill Breckenridge

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