The Nail we Make

I have heard about Jesus’ sacrifice my entire life. I grew up hearing people talk about how Jesus died for us, and everything that went along with it. I have seen the movies, heard the stories, and read the accounts of how Jesus died. But it never really tied together for me until a few months ago. Let me tell you the story.

I love to work with my hands, and forging metal has been a hobby of mine for almost ten years. One of the simplest things to make, in fact the first thing anyone learns to make, is a nail. In older times, an apprentice would make 10, 20 thousand nails before they would be allowed to move on to anything else.

Somehow I skipped making nails when I was beginning to learn to forge. But three months ago, I finally got a chance again. I heated up the steel, hammered it out hot, and continued to reheat it until I had made a nail. I didn’t think anything about it at the time, I was just glad I got the chance to forge again.

But when I got home and was holding it in my hand I began to feel a little funny about it. Something about the nail I had made was very familiar to me. I did some research, and I was right. The nail I made is nearly an exact copy of a Roman crucifixion nail.

I had made a nail that could have killed Christ with my own hands, and for fun. That is exactly what we do, but I had never seen it so physically before. I do that every day with my sins. I casually do something because it seems fun at the moment, but in the end we are really making something that will kill. And suddenly we look down and realize it. We press the nail against our wrist and realize that we made it just for that purpose. Our deeds have killed us.

But instead of letting what we made do us in, Christ takes it and lets our sins kill him. I have known that for years, but when you have held the nail you made in your own hand, and felt it pressed against your wrist, and imagine in piercing through Jesus’ this whole salvation thing becomes so much more real.

What we made without even thinking about it, what should have killed us, Jesus took on himself. It’s as real as the nail I made, and even more deadly.