An eminent German surgeon, ... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:18

An eminent German surgeon, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, whose decompression chamber opened the way for lung, heart and chest surgery at the start of the 20th century, wrote his autobiography in his old age. The work ends with a reference to the last judgment. The doctor imagined God asking him, "Who will witness for you, poor soul?" Dr Sauerbruch proposed answering, "I hope that any injured and sick persons whom I have helped and whose life I have saved will speak in my favour."

He had fallen into a common error, assuming that God would grant him salvation because of his own beneficence, and that others would plead his cause before our righteous God. If the surgeon, who was consulted by numerous European monarchs and prominent politicians, had no other hope when he died in 1951, he will have fallen short of God's approval. The basis of salvation is exclusively an acknowledgement of our sinful state before God and faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God can accept nothing else.

The only point on which Dr Sauerbruch was right concerning the last judgment was his attributing to the Judge the role of prosecutor. There God will produce the evidence of sins committed; defence will be neither necessary nor possible. The verdict will be "Guilty!", the sentence everlasting torment in hell. But "Whoever believes in him (i.e. Jesus Christ) should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3, 15).