Tag: freedom in Christ

The Greatest Rescue

Leave a comment

life saver with far off ocean scene in the back ready for the rescue

Tell me that your heart isn’t moved when you watch a cluster of videos about heroic life-saving moments. The suspense, the adrenaline, the moving scene, and the moment when an unsung hero steps into their ordinary day to perform an extraordinary rescue.

When you see these videos, your heart is instantly captivated by the unfolding story before your eyes. Even though the videos themselves are often just seconds long, it’s as if you see a lifetime whizzing by with each person perfectly placed in their role of that life-saving moment.

You can almost feel for yourself the strength that grabbed, the energy that ran and moved into place to snatch someone from some impending doom.

Feeling so fantastically real, yet unreal, you rewatch that catch, that coming to the aid of another, that rescue repeatedly in awe, wonder, and relief.

With your held breath now released, you cannot believe what you just witnessed. Courage that was not trying to be courageous. Strength that just made itself available for the moment. Determination that stepped in when no one else could or would. Humanity at its best, we say.

“Not all heroes wear capes” is what many declare, and I can personally attest to that because the greatest hero of my life didn’t. He wore a crown of thorns and bore the pain of the cross to give me the greatest rescue I could have ever imagined.

And I am still in awe of it to this very day.

One thing that became plain to me years ago is that we all needed a great rescue. None of us was born a Christian. Oh, we may have been born in a Christian home, with Christian parents and relatives, but there is not one person on this earth that can have the testimony that they entered this world saved and in a whole, completely pure relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Scripture reminds us, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Each of us has had our B.C. (Before Christ) moments.

Previously, I wrote,

“We all have a past. We all had things that were not characterized as being a godly lifestyle. Still, even if one tried to live perfectly, we all had a place and time in our history where we had to choose to trust and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior because any personal righteousness we may have thought to have had, outside of Him, it was merely “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).” (We All Have a Past/WordforLifeSays.com).

Jesus Christ is the only spotless one. He is the one who was not only born sinless but remained sinless through His life on this earth for our great rescue.

I remember my time of rebellious living when God stepped in and saved my life. And now, today, I live on the other side of that rescuing moment.

I went from self-reliance to leaning on those everlasting arms. From dealing with anger to finding true peace. From broken relationships that were destructive and led to bad decisions and choices, to the most wholesome relationship anyone could ever experience.

Having my life now found in Jesus Christ truly is the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

I was now considered one of the redeemed. My old nature, my old life, was now something wonderfully new.

Today, my life looks completely different, inside and out. How I lived then, I don’t live anymore. How I walked then, I do not walk anymore. In the gospels, we are given this promise: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). There is now a walk of freedom! This was a promise spoken by our Lord!

At the beginning of that chapter was a woman who was caught in her own sin. To make a long story short, she found release that day from her failures, just like I did. Further down that chapter, Jesus spoke this promise (promise of freedom) for those who would believe in Him (John 8:31), then and today.

He who spoke that promise is the same Jesus Christ who was born on this earth just so that He could go to the cross and die. He is that same Jesus, whom death could not keep a hold of, because on the third day, that same Jesus rose in victory, putting death in its place once and for all. Forty days later, that same Jesus went back to heaven to prepare a place for us: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).

He didn’t do all of that just for that woman or me – but for all who would believe! There is a walk of freedom anyone can experience today, but it must come through Jesus Christ only, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Then, you can experience this great salvation for yourself.

Videos are moving and their stories compelling, but the best thing you will ever experience is Jesus Christ coming to your rescue and doing for you what nobody else ever could.

Blessings~

In Christ, We Are Free!

Leave a comment
Grace is God’s move to save souls.  Grace is something that has been afforded to us by God.  To revert back to the old covenant would be a moment of rejection, saying what Christ did on the cross was not enough.

The Bible emphatically lets the believer know over and over again, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” (Ephesians 2:8).  Our salvation is us receiving what we did not deserve, that unmerited favor.  Thus, we are no longer “under the law, but under grace,” (Romans 6:14).  To return to the old covenant is a return to the law.  Galatians gives this warning, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace,” (5:4, ESV).

That move would undo the work that God accomplished by sending His Son to the cross.  If the law and adherence to those rituals could have saved mankind once and for all, then Jesus Christ would have never needed to come to this earth, be born a babe in a manger just to die on that old rugged cross, bearing the sins of the world.  Paul wrote in the book of Galatians, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain,” (Galatians 2:20-21, emphasis mine; see also Gal. 3:21).

Jesus very plainly spoke, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” (John 14:6).  John the Baptist also declared, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” (John 1:16-17).

Before Paul’s life was changed on that day on the road to Damascus he was known as Saul.  Before Jesus met him there and shined on his life a new mission, he was a persecutor.  Before grace met him in the midst of his sin, he was bound by the law.  At one point Paul told of his background enveloped in legalism and trusting in works of the flesh, saying, “Though I might have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,” (Philippians 3:4-6).  According to the law, Paul had all the right marks checked off his list.

Yet, when Christ changed his life all that previous stuff was counted as “loss for Christ,” (Philippians 3:7).  His life now was marked by faith and grace.  He wrote to the Corinthian church, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” (1 Corinthians 15:10).  Now, he encourages those in Galatia to let their walk of faith be molded by the grace of God and not by the bondage of the law wherewith they have been made free, as his life now demonstrates.  He wants their life to be marked by the power of Christ living on the inside and not by outward symbols and empty rituals reminding them, and us who are born of the Spirit:

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” Galatians 4:28-31

Copyright © Word For Life Says.com (Sharing any posts or lessons can only be done through the share buttons provided on this site from the original posts, lessons, and articles only. You can reblog from the original posts only using the reblog button provided, or share using the share buttons provided from these social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, etc., and they must be shared from the original posts only. All other repostings are prohibited. Posts and other items of interest found on this site MAY NOT BE COPIED AND PASTED, downloaded, uploaded, etc to another website or entity not listed (physical or electronic).  See COPYRIGHT PAGE for more details.