The God who Rescues

 

READ 2 Corinthians 5–8

Last night we watched Thirteen Lives, perhaps the most dramatic movie ever made, the true story of a boys’ soccer team and their coach rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand. We cried and cried.

This morning, I’m thinking about the brevity of life and the hardships faced as well as the “rescues” and blessings from the Lord. This reading is filled with truth that lifts me, and likely encouraged the original readers. Everyone experiences those emotional caves when it seems all is lost and there is no hope.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens . . . .So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:1; 6–10)

Everyone has days when life is a struggle and we’d like to be in heaven. This passage encourages me with the reminder that the goal is to please God. He will reward me for doing His will, in good times and in trials.

Paul told the church that whatever he was doing it was for their sake because “the love of Christ controls us” and this is like Jesus because He died for all. Because of Jesus, those who belong to Him are “new creations” and “the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” We are reconciled to God and He does not count our sin against us but has instead entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.

Another plus is that we are His ambassadors, imploring others to be reconciled to God. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” so we are “working together with him” and have not received His grace in vain. (2 Corinthians 5:16–21; 6:1) When I feel useless, this reminds me that my life fits into His plan. I may not see what He is doing, but I must walk in faith, not by what I can see.

Paul lists a whole range of experience from calamities to sleepless nights as well as truthful speech and genuine love. He has been poor, yet made many rich, and had nothing, yet possessed everything. God wants me to know that no matter what life is like, don’t let my feelings about it determine my behavior. Pleasant or unpleasant, I’m to be open to whatever He allows and not restricted in my affections for others.

Walking with Christ means being close to Him, not “unequally yoked with unbelievers” or having fellowship with anything that is lawless or idolatrous. I am the temple of God as He said: “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:14–16) This means keeping my life clean and submitting to Him that He might bring holiness to completion in me.

I need to watch out that my repentance is real, not ‘sorry I got caught’ but godly grief that changes me. Even this carnal church repented and the people were earnest, eager to change and to be innocent. (2 Corinthians 7:10–11) One way of proving that change was an earnest desire to help other Christians who were in need. They excelled in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in giving — important ways of showing genuine love.

Some say faith can be measured by how a person manages their pocketbook! This passage says the measure was not how much we give but how eager we are to give and then follow through by doing what we can. “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” (2 Corinthians 8:11–12)

I’m blessed by this thought of being eager to give and serve God coupled with “what a person has” because my ambition far outweighs the opportunities the Lord has given me. I know that I cannot serve Him apart from His leading and direction. I learned the hard way that self-effort is fruitless and a waste of time and energy. He only wants my response to what He asks me to do. As I think about that and also about the thousands of men and women who pitched in to do what they could do to save thirteen lives, I am glad that God can add my small efforts to His big plan. Eventually, all that are to be rescued will be rescued — and the glory will be God’s, praised by all who do their part. Simple obedience is enough.

 

Rescued with no debt to pay . . .

A praise song begins with: “I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more . . . .” and my vivid imagination has me up to my neck in quicksand rather than the ocean, the more I strive to get out, the deeper I’m pulled down. Awful.

However the song goes on, “But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.” This is the experience of being saved, a rescue that only God can do! He proves His power to save in many ways.

There are three Hebrew verbs in the OT and two Greek words in the NT translated RESCUE. These could be translated “to save, rescue, deliver, or escape, flee to safety, or take away, or even heal.” These five words are used about 500 times. I quickly realize that even an intense look at this word requires selection of the most significant passages that describe God as the one who rescues His people.

The first is in David’s prayer after many escapes from the hands of Saul. He also sings the same words in this psalm:

Psalm 18:17–19. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

In the same sense of relying on God, the psalms repeat this testimony. For example, David says again in Psalm 31:1–2, “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!”

The prophets also tell of God’s power to rescue His people:

Isaiah 49:24–25. “Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the Lord: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.’ “

Ezekiel 34:12; 22. “As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered . . . . I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey . . . .”

King Darius of Persia said of God in Daniel 6:27, “He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

In the NT, Paul gives testimony to God’s power, an encouragement to Christians today who suffer at the hands of those who persecute them:

2 Timothy 3:10–13. “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

2 Timothy 4:17–18. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Using Lot as an example, Paul repeats this encouragement in 2 Peter 2:9–10:

(If God rescued righteous Lot who was tormented over the sin around him) “then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones” but they “will also be destroyed.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. God rescues His people from all sorts of danger, but even if danger or persecution or ills of all sorts overcome us, we have been rescued from His just condemnation concerning sin. Death cannot hold us because Christ paid our debt and no matter what happens in this life, we have been rescued to live with Him in the next — and for all eternity.