The power of One

If my couch cushions over the course of my life are any indication, I do not look for lost coins. However, if the lives of our dogs are any indication, I would look for lost dogs.

Jesus talked about both lost coins and lost sheep. He talked about how people left other coins and sheep to find the one they lost. He told of how the person rejoiced and shared their joy at the finding of ONE who was lost.

The power of the one is in the value placed on the one by the people who went looking to find their lost “object”. Coins are objects, sheep are (kind of?) objects, but people get to decide the worth of them. Usually familiar animals and rare coins are sought when they are discovered to be missing.

When it comes to our Savior, the power of ONE is the same. Because there are no people that Jesus does not value. He was utterly destroyed for each ONE and every ONE. He was beaten to take the punishment and the consequences of sin’s destiny in us, and He did it long before any of us alive today were ever born. God, who knew us before we were more than DNA planned and fulfilled our deliverance from disease and destruction, whether the “one” is drugs or cancer, an earache or ALS.

His body in crucifixion absorbed the curses that were our destiny as a result of disobedience in the law. Because He was beaten, each ONE was healed and redeemed from destruction. Because He was crucified, we are free from those consequences coming back. Because of His bloodshed, we are redeemed, delivered, set free, made whole from every vile plan of our adversary, satan.

And there is a downside to the power of ONE. When “one” is considered insignificant, a low number of low importance…destruction comes. We have a Biblical example of when “one” wasn’t held in high esteem.

When God told Abraham destruction was coming to Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham began to intercede for the people there. He had family there and Abraham wanted them to be protected. In his ‘bargaining’, Abraham started with 50. God responded that the entire city would be spared if He could find 50 righteous there. (Grab your Bible and turn to Genesis 19 for the entire exchange!)

Abraham stopped negotiating at 10 because he surely thought that his nephew’s family, a total of 10 people, were righteous and if he could get God to agree to 10, then Abraham could know with confidence that God would keep His word and the people, and the city, would be saved from destruction.

It’s a related topic that Abraham was incorrect as to the status of righteousness in his own family (Likely so are we, on occasion),but as I’ve been considering this, I think of Abraham’s lack of concern for the other people there. I can’t judge why. He was put on the spot, so to speak, and he, like we would, was looking out for his family.

He likely didn’t know all those others. He may have known some and held an opinion that they weren’t worthy of mercy, but it saddens me that Abraham didn’t negotiate to the point that he said, “God, if there is ONE righteous…” God is quick to show mercy and He has always been.

As a friend of God and in the middle of the situation, Abraham may have known more about it than I do centuries later. I can’t help but wonder, though, were their children in those places that had never heard of Jehovah and were unrighteous because they had never been taught righteousness?

Perhaps it’s a lesson to me that in this current generation, in the region I live, I need to be “negotiating” for every person in my region. I need to be repeatedly asking “God, if there’s ONE more who will receive Jesus, will You keep drawing people to You, even if there’s just one?”

I don’t know them all. I know the ONE who knows them all. I know the ONE who is not willing that any should perish. It has been said that God can only involve Himself in the affairs of humanity when we pray. Do I have to know people to want them to escape an eternity that was made only for the devil and his minions? Do I have the “right” to pass over praying for people that God loves simply because I don’t know them? I think not. Jesus and the Father know all of us.

The blood has been shed, His back has been beaten. The nails opened His body to receive and overcome the curse. For each ONE of us. Does everyone know? Has everyone in our neighborhood heard about the goodness of God?

If under an old covenant (sealed with animal blood) God would encourage Abraham to “negotiate” (and He did not stop His agreement to deliver until Abraham stopped his petition for deliverance), how much more with the blood of His own Son would God answer the prayer of His children if it were “God, if there’s just one person who is perishing, will you please draw all to You?”

ONE. Your neighbor. Your taxi driver. Your convenience store clerk. ONE. Your crazy relative at the holiday dinner. “God, if there’s just one more…”