I am reminded form time to time that to do or be better sometimes requires a certain amount of pain. Which is something that none of us look forward to or enjoy. If you do, that is a problem of a different sort all together and not anything that is going to be addressed in this posting. But yes, we as human beings we look to avoid pain at all costs. It has unfortunately infiltrated the Church and in some ways tainted the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us look at an account found in Jeremiah 38:7–13

[7] When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate—[8] Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, [9] “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.” [10] Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” [11] So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe in the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. [12] Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did so. [13] Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. (ESV)

Now the Prophet Jeremiah has given the word of the Lord to the King and the leadership of God’s people and it did not make them happy. So the officials seized Jeremiah and cast him into an empty cistern to die. Which brings us to today’s text, where a man of little stature in the King’s household speaks up and rescues the Prophet from his muddy doom. But note what Ebed-melech does in vs 12. He has Jeremiah take the old cloths and to bundle them up under his arms where the rope they were going to use to pull him up with was going to be. You see given when they start to pull him up out of the cistern, all the weight of Jeremiah’s body would be concentrated upon the location of the ropes. Which can cause massive amounts of pain and discomfort as the ropes would cut into his flesh from the weight of his body. Simply put, this is called rope burn.

Depending upon how deep the cistern was or how easy the lift up was, the pain and discomfort could last for quite some time. As time passed the ropes cutting deeper into Jeremiah’s skin. They did not have winches and so they would likely have pulled and reset, puled and reset, pulled and reset. Each time jostling him and inflicting more discomfort and more pain as he bounced up and down. But which is the greater pain to face, the temporary pain of the ropes? Or the longs suffering of staring to death in a muddy hole in the ground? If I were stuck in a great big muddy hole in the ground with no way out, I would gladly endure the ropes for a short period of time to escape. I do not care what happens, just get me out of there.

You see that sometimes, we have to deal with pain in the process of salvation. We have to look at the sin of our lives and confess it and deal with it and to repent of it before the Lord. Sometimes that process can be easy. But sometimes there are serious hurts that have occurred due to our sin that are painful to have to deal with. Not that there is a hierarchy in sin as it is all disobedience to God and an affront to him. But there are sins that we engage in that inflict pain not just upon us, but those around us. Sexual sin for example, does not just impact the one engaged in it, but those around them.

Husbands and wives and Children are torn apart in the aftermath of sexual sin as the family is crush and torn apart. Some sin means facing the consequences of ones action, maybe even legal problems with the secular authorities. It might mean that we have to confess the sin publicly to our shame, to our friends and family or the Church. Or sometimes it is the emotional damage done from relationships gone badly. Dealing with sin and confronting it and especially repenting of it is a painful process that we must go through if we are going to be saved. Repentance is a key part of our walk with Christ. It is not just believe and we are saved, but repent and believe. Which means that sometimes salvation requires us to go through a painful process in order for our betterment.

But that is the bad news. There is good news for those of us who are in Christ. Let us return back to the account of Ebed-melech and the Prophet Jeremiah. Ebed-melech knows that there will be pain and discomfort as they pull Jeremiah out of the cistern. So he planned for this and he got rags to pad the ropes, reducing the pain and suffering he would have to endure to receive salvation from the cistern.

For those in Christ, the act of salvation will still be a painful process as we deal with the sin in our lives. We still have to put the ropes on and to be pulled out of the pit that is sin and death. But in our case, Christ by the means of his broken body and spilled blood not we are not only lifted out of the pit of sin, but by the means of his perfect life, his atoning death and his resurrection he paid our penalty. Christ took the full cup of God’s wrath so that we would not have to endure the full measure of God’s wrath for the sin in our lives.

Not only that, in return for Christ doing this, we receive not just forgiveness of our sins, but ever lasting life. In our Case, Christ did not just give us padding for the ropes. He himself lifted us out of the depths of our sin, restored us in the eyes of God and he then took our place to suffer for us. Yes, salvation can be painful, that will not change and it must be this way. But any suffering we do in the process is nothing compared to what Christ did for us to give us the means of salvation and deliverance. Christ took all the suffering and pain that we would have to endure upon himself, so that we would not have to. That is why he is mighty to save.