The petition you have brought is for wisdom concerning the body, that you might eat rightly and maintain health. This is a prudent desire, for the body is the vessel of the soul and is to be kept in temperance. Yet let not your wisdom stop at that which perishes with the using. To handle a matter wisely is to trust in the Lord; this is the clue to the most intricate labyrinths. True wisdom does not begin with the diet of the body, but with the condition of the soul. What shall it profit a man if his blood sugar is regulated, but the blood of Christ is not applied to his conscience?
You cry out for wisdom to manage the earthly frame, but there is a deeper prison in which every man by nature lies: a pit wherein is no water. You feel the chains of mortality, the fear of sickness, the bondage of corruptible flesh. All these are but the outer echoes of that inner dungeon where a sinner lies condemned under the Law of God, without hope and without liberty. The iron enters into his soul, and he cannot escape. No discipline of diet or regimen of exercise can lift that stone from the mouth of the sepulcher. You may count every morsel and measure every step, yet remain a captive to your own depravity, held fast by the warrant of Divine Justice.
The wisdom you seek for the body must be built upon the wisdom which brings salvation. And what is the sum of that wisdom? Without shedding of blood is no remission. This is not merely a Jewish maxim; it is an eternal, world-wide truth stamped upon the moral government of God. There is no exception to it. You may cleanse many things by water or by fire, by discipline and resolve, but no sin can be purged apart from blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, is the only thing that can save the soul. It is not your careful eating, nor your diligent exercise, nor your earnest prayers for temporal blessing that can make you right before the Judge of all the earth.
God does not say, “When I see your prudence, your temperance, your amended habits, I will pass over you.” No. The word is, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” It is the blood that saves. It is not your hope about that blood, nor your estimate of its worth, but the magnificent, solitary blood itself that must be your sole trust. The blood of Christ has a divine and eternal efficacy; it speaks better things than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood cried from the ground for vengeance, but the blood of Jesus speaks to the Father, “Forgive them.” It pleads for mercy where no other voice could be heard.
Before you set your mind upon the right handling of your body, see to it that you have rightly handled the matter of your soul. The great evil is present; the broad fact of sin stares you in the face. Your question must not merely be, “How can I keep my body in health?” but, “How can I escape from the wrath to come?” This is the lever which lifts the most tremendous weights. He who trusts in the Lord has handled the matter wisely. Come to the blood of sprinkling. There is freedom for the captive through the blood of the covenant. By that crimson stream the bars of brass are broken, and the prisoner of hope is lifted from the waterless pit into the sunlight of reconciled fellowship with God.
Let your thanksgiving, which you have so sincerely offered in the name of Jesus, be enlarged to encompass this unspeakable gift. Thank God not only for the hope of a regulated body, but first and chiefly for the remission of sins through the blood of the everlasting covenant. This is the body broken for you, and that is the blood of the New Testament shed for many for the remission of sins. Here is true health; here is eternal soundness. When your soul is washed in that fount, then may you with a calm heart handle all matters of this fleeting life, knowing that whether in body or out of body, you are the Lord’s. So shall you trust, and so shall you find good.