THE STORY OF HOW CHRIST RESCUED ME FROM MY SIN

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I was once asked to sum up salvation in Christ Jesus with one word. “Wow!” I thought. How in the world could I possibly encapsulate all that I now possess and have been made to be in Jesus? My entire existence, being, and identity has been completely renovated! I would imagine others could have a different word than the one I arrived at, but the word that best describes what Jesus has accomplished on my behalf is “RESCUE”.

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It is just as Paul described in Romans 5:6; For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. I always think of the first time I went on a cruise by way of example. My wife and I on our honeymoon went on a Caribbean cruise. I remember in the darkness of the wee hours of the night, I stood on our balcony looking off into the blackness of the Gulf of Mexico. There was no land in sight, just miles, and miles of water. At that moment, I had the craziest thought. If I were to have fallen overboard at that moment. I would have no hope. No one would be able to see me. I physically would not have the power to swim to shore. I could yell as loud as I want, and no one would hear. It would not matter how skilled or smart I might be. My only hope would be that someone, outside of myself, would come to my rescue.

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This is what Jesus did for me! I was bobbing along hopelessly in the gulf of my sin and disobedience, owing an eternal punishment of death for my sin. Jesus came to my rescue. He accomplished what I could not. I had no way to appease the wrath of God, to assuage the penalty that I deserve. There is nothing I could do in my power to make things right. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)