The Scarlet Thread

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Romans 5:9


When kindergarten teachers need to move children from Point A to Point B--especially when it means a walk of any distance (particularly outdoors)--they sometimes take a long piece of rope and tell each child to hold on to it as they walk. The children hold on tight to the rope, keeping themselves linked to one another as they walk.

The late, great preacher Dr. W. A. Criswell once delivered a series of messages on a similar theme: the "scarlet thread" that runs through the Bible. The scarlet thread refers to the blood-bought redemption that secures the fate of the redeemed from Genesis to Revelation--first, the blood of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, then the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. Regardless of when a person is saved--past, present, or future--"without shedding of blood there is no remission" of sin (Hebrews 9:22). If you are a Christian, someday you will join that great "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) that are linked together by the scarlet thread of redemption.

All it takes to grasp that thread today is the hand of faith, reaching out and holding on.

Life is not worth living apart from redemption.
Oswald Chambers

From: Turning Points Devotional Magazine