A South African surgeon, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first heart transplant operation on Louis Washansky, a middle-aged grocer. Although Washansky needed a new heart desperately, his body rejected it, and he died eighteen days after the operation.
Dr. J.C. Callaghan, another celebrated heart surgeon, disapproved of such surgery at the time (Globe and Mail, Toronto, Jan. 10, 1968). "It is not fair to give a patient false hope" he said.
But there is a Great Physician who offers man a certain hope—the gift of a new heart—in an operation which can never fail. Every person should know about this operation, for we all need a new heart. Why? Because God says that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart we now have is evil (Gen. 6:55And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)).
Man has filled the world with battlefields, jails, and concentration camps, and not satisfied with that, men commit fresh crimes daily! At the same time they deny their own guilt and their part in the evil in the world. Man always blames someone else—never himself.
But, "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. 3:1212They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:12). No wonder God says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Only God can. "I the Lord search the heart." Jer. 17:9, 109The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9‑10).
If you need a new heart you can only get it from someone who has died to make the gift possible. Washansky's new heart came from a young woman killed by a car. Her death was an accident, but it gave him her heart so he could live. But Christ died on purpose. Being God, man could not take His life from Him, but He laid it down willingly.
Why? Because God loves us. Christ took on Himself the sins of every man who will believe on Him, and accepted the judgment of death for those sins just as if they were His own (though Christ Himself never sinned). "Christ died for the ungodly." Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6).
All God asks you to do for salvation is to believe this NOW. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
Something inside Washansky's body made it reject the new heart he had received from another's death, and so he died. He couldn't help his fate, BUT YOU CAN. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [or Jesus as Lord], and shalt believe IN THINE HEART that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9).
Why don't you trust the Great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and His work can never fail. He gives eternal life to His sheep (those who believe on Him) and they shall never perish (John 10:2828And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:28)).
If you refuse Him as your Savior NOW, you must meet Him as your Judge LATER. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" Heb. 2:33How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3). You cannot escape from Him in the day of judgment, for He can read the deepest secrets of your heart.
If you accept Christ as your personal Savior NOW you will never have to meet Him as your Judge later. Won't you accept Him today? "And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:4040And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40).