Who will rescue you?

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” Henry David Thoreau

Earlier this month three men in their 40s were on a fishing trip in a 20-foot skiff with an outboard motor near Micronesia, about 1,800 miles east of the Philippines. Their initial goal was to fish around an island named Pikelot, but the skiff was damaged when they approached the island from surging swells. They hit a coral reef, putting a hole in the boat’s bottom, causing it to take on water. Their only hope was to make it to a nearby island. They ended up stranded on an uninhabited Pacific Island with no radio or means of calling for rescue. 

  When they’d been missing a few days the Coast Guard received a distress call from a woman who said her three uncles were missing and hadn’t returned from their fishing trip. The initial search area was more than 78,000 square nautical miles. With no other way to communicate their dilemma the three-fisherman spelled out ‘HELP’ on the beach using palm leaves. Navy and Coast Guard aviators eventually spotted the sign from several thousand feet in the air. It was a crucial factor in their being discovered and rescued after their nine-day ordeal.

  Don’t you love a great rescue story? That’s what the gospel is all about. It’s the greatest rescue story ever told. The continual theme throughout the Bible is our desperate situation, all the way from the Garden to the last pages of the book of Revelation. Yet we were in worse shape and more desperate than those three fishermen. Our need for rescue is not just about this life, it’s about eternity. And worst of all, most of us don’t even know that we need to be rescued. We know that something is wrong but we’re often unsure of what it is. Like that hole in the boat, we know that we can’t fix it ourselves.  Why is that?

  Recently, I’ve been reading the book of Ephesians in my personal devotions. Ephesians 2 outlines for us why we desperately need rescuing yet are often totally ignorant of it. We know something is wrong. We know there’s something missing and a deep discontent in our hearts and lives. But we don’t know enough to even cry out to be rescued.

  It goes all the way back to those first chapters of Genesis with Noah’s ark. Though often presented as something like a child’s fairytale, Noah’s ark is the account of the world being so vile, astonishingly more than we can begin to imagine today, that God destroyed it after warning all of its inhabitants with the preaching of Noah for well over a hundred years. Because of Noah’s faith in God, he and his family were rescued from the floodwaters. The message of Noah’s ark is that for God to be holy and just, He must judge sin, yet He will always show mercy and rescue those who trust Him and have faith in Him. So, what do we need to be rescued from…

  The biggest problem we have is sin. Ever since Adam and Eve, we all sin and choose to sin. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is the cause of all our problems. It’s the cause of disease and death. It’s why there are wars in the world and fights in our homes. While some sin more than others, God is perfectly holy and just. Because He is, He can’t allow any sin in His presence which includes heaven.

  The cost of sin is death. Think of a child and a parent. When a child disobeys, the relationship with the parent is strained. The parent still loves the child and still has the child’s best interest at heart. The child never stops belonging to the parent. However, the child will experience consequences: mistrust, discipline, a sense of guilt, etc. So, it is with us and God. When we sin, we’re rebelling against God’s rule in our lives. According to Romans 6:23, the cost of our sin is death. When we sin, we experience “death” (a brokenness resulting in pain). God is perfectly just and the only just payment for sin is death, both physical and finally eternal.

  The God of love is the God who rescues. Like a parent with a child, God loves us and does not want to punish us. Yet, like a judge in a court of law, God is just – for justice to be justice, the penalty must be paid. A loving God’s plan from the very beginning was to pay the price of His own justice with the death of His perfect Son on the cross. That’s the full meaning of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

  On the cross, a just God took all of the guilt of this world and placed it on His own innocent Son. It’s why darkness filled the world the day Jesus died. God couldn’t bear to look at His own Son. Because Jesus paid for all of our sin, God can now be both just and Justifier (Romans 3:26) of those who put their faith in Jesus. God rescued us from our sin and guilt.

  Just as God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt (the book of Exodus), God rescues us from the slavery to our own sin. If you somehow foolishly don’t believe that sin is enslaving, try quitting gossip or griping or anger or impatience on your own…and those are some of the seemingly insignificant sin habits in our world.

  God’s rescue is a gift that you must personally accept. Did the Coast Guard owe this rescue to the three fishermen? If the stranded men had to pay for this rescue, it would potentially have been an impossible debt for them to repay. The Bible continually speaks of salvation as a free gift from God. Scripture emphasizes the fact that salvation is something given freely by God rather than something we can earn. Ephesians 2:8-9 contrasts salvation as a gift from God with human efforts when it teaches, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

  What must you do with a gift? You must accept it. If you have to earn it or pay for it, it’s no longer a gift. God gave His Son, Jesus, to die for us. How could we even imagine paying God back for the gift of His Son?

  A gift simply must be accepted. If one of those stranded fishermen had turned down the Coast Guard’s assistance, could they still be rescued? No. What if they’d said, “I’ll repair the boat or make my own.” They’d have died on that island. In the same way those who refuse God’s free gift of salvation will die in their sins and ultimately face God’s justice.

  My friend, God wants to rescue you, yet you must accept His gift of salvation. Have you done that? Have you accepted His free gift of rescue?

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.