Once and only once

For the first time ever, reading 'The Passion of Christ' by John Piper made me think of programming. In programming you can have 'if' statements, which kick into play when certain conditions have been fulfilled. e.g. 'if 'person is short' then give them high heels'. The special case of these are 'iff' statements, which stand for:

iff: 'if and only if'

so they only work for one set of conditions. While reading this morning, Piper referred to the Greek word 'ephapax' which means 'once for all time'. This is the hope we have in Jesus, where he took the place of all the sacrifices offered for our sin, as 'it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.' (Hebrews 10v4). Our sacrifices just don't cut it. God knew what was needed, and he sent Jesus to fulfil the prophecies & pay for our sin once and for all.

How does this tie in with programming? As I read it, I thought ephapax could be translated as:

Ephapax: 'once and only once'

Once and only once, because Jesus was perfect, the sacrifice God desired. It is a miracle that God can use computer programming to point us to him, but infinitely more amazing is the miracle of God sending Jesus to us. So whenever you see a programmer or read an article on us, remember that we may seem like geeks at times, but we have iff as a firm reminder of grace and that Jesus died once and only once for us!

TheWeeScottie

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