Fresh Start Devotionals

The Cure In 1879, Louis Pasteur ceased his investigation of an outbreak of chicken cholera to go on vacation. When he returned, he injected some chickens with germs that were left in some flasks while he was on vacation. The chickens didn’t get sick. Thinking the germs in the flasks had “spoiled,” he collected some fresh germs and injected them into the same chickens and some new chickens he bought at a market. All the new chickens died, while all of those injected with the “weakened cholera” survived. As he reflected on the experience, Pasteur remembered a discovery, Edward Jenner made 83 years earlier. Jenner observed that milkmaids who contracted cowpox never contracted smallpox. Seeing the cause and effect, Jenner created a vaccine using a weakened form of the cowpox to innoculate his patients against smallpox. It worked, but most scientists dismissed it as a “folk remedy.” Pasteur knew he was on to something and began a series of experiments that laid the foundation for modern studies of immunology, epidemiology and medical bacteriology. In early May of 1881, he vaccinated 25 sheep for charbon. On May 31, he infected those 25 sheep and 25 other sheep with the deadly germ. Within 2 days, all 25 of the inoculated sheep were alive, the others died. Today, the disease has another name: Anthrax. The principle is simple, exposure to a “weakened” form of germs builds an immunity to a disease—even something as potent as Anthrax. Unfortunately, the same principle works with things other than germs. Is it possible to be inoculated against the power of the Gospel by being exposed to a “weakened” form? Perhaps it is the “self-help” gospel, or the gospel of “prosperity” or the “cheap grace” that calls people to Salvation without calling them to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, regardless, the weakened state of the message can inoculate hearers from the Gospel’s impact. Our message must be the biblical message of “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” People don’t need an inoculation—they need the cure. Romans 10:9–10 NASB “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; [10] for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).