The Insulin of Grace

In January 1922, fourteen-year-old Leonard Thompson lay dying in Toronto General Hospital. He weighed just sixty-five pounds. Type 1 diabetes was devouring him from within — his cells starving in the midst of plenty, unable to absorb the glucose flooding his bloodstream. In those days, the diagnosis was a death sentence. Families could only watch their children waste away.

Then Dr. Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best injected Leonard with a substance they had extracted from animal pancreatic tissue. Within days, his blood sugar dropped. Color returned to his face. He began to eat again, to gain weight, to live. Thirteen more years were given to a boy who had been counting his final weeks.

Here is what makes this discovery such a striking picture of grace: Leonard's body already had everything it needed to survive. Glucose was circulating through his blood in abundance. But without insulin, none of it could reach his cells. They were locked shut, starving behind closed doors.

Sin works the same way. God's love, His mercy, His purpose for your life — all of it surrounds you constantly. But sin locks the door between you and what was meant to nourish your soul. You starve in the midst of abundance.

The cross is our insulin. Through Christ, what was always available finally becomes accessible. Paul wrote, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Not freedom from the world, but freedom to receive what God has been offering all along.