At the hospital that I currently work for, when we are assigned a certain letter, we are responsible for responding to code blue alerts. If you’re not familiar with what code blue means, it is when someone has gone into cardiac or respiratory arrest or is experiencing any other sort of medical emergency. As soon as the code pager goes off, we grab up what we need and bolt out the door to the designated area. I’m not a huge fan of responding to code blue alerts because I’m somewhat sensitive to the distress scene. But despite how averse my emotions are to the situation, during these emergencies, my training and knowledge both kick in, and I am ready to play my part to do what’s best for the patient and the team.
This reminds me of a particular passage in Scripture that underscores the code blue response to the distress of the world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This verse shows us the means by which we can receive eternal life, and it also tells us why we have access to this type of life. The sacrifice of Christ was God’s answer to the sin problem that the entire world inherited from Adam. And the belief we have in the sacrifice of Christ is what solidifies a life spent in eternity with the Father. A father who loves every human being in the world so much, no matter how depraved, that He sent His only Son to the world to redeem those in it. God’s love for humanity led Him to action, and so should our love for Him lead us to a response to act in accordance with His word.
Because a distress signal was sent out in the garden by Adam, God knew that it was necessary to give all humans access to a rescue plan. Whenever we respond to codes, there is a plan that includes a crash cart, a team of trained individuals, medications, and a whole host of other medical equipment and supplies readily available as part of our rescue mission. The same goes for our souls. Because sin separated us from God, God had a plan in place to bring us back into a covenant relationship with Him. But what’s so awesome about God is that because He knows all, He had a plan of redemption in place before there was a need for repentance.
Compared to all that we have on deck for our rescue mission in the hospital, God’s plan included only one element—Christ. Romans 5:18–19 tells us this: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” As much as we’d like to think that our good deeds, overcompensatory gestures, and our rush to many tasks and missions in the name of the Lord will put us in right standing with God, they won’t. Only Christ had the ability to initiate CPR and exercise rescue measures that would serve as our avenue to reconciliation.
Jesus came to our rescue as the Suffering Servant. But this rescue mission didn’t come without its share of sadness and dread. Even in His deity, as a human, Christ knew what it would be like to feel God’s hatred of sin as He was assigned the duty of taking on the sin of the world. The suffering that Christ endured was because of us, and it is that suffering that serves as our means of salvation. In those last hours, Jesus expressed His angst over being separated from the Father. He had never been unconscious of His Father’s presence. It was during that time that “God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
As believers, we know the depths of the sacrifice of Christ and the importance of the code blue alert that was sent out in the garden. In our nostalgic moments, we can reflect on our lives before Christ, and like Him, we now know the pain of being separated from God. At the time, we didn’t quite know how to describe it, but because we have been brought back into right fellowship with the Lord, we realize the dread we were experiencing all along. Sin causes this separation. It causes this anguish and emptiness. But the code blue that was called for us in the garden is what saves us and keeps us one with God. That code blue was written in red and comes with a guarantee of survival and eternal communion with the Lord.