WE’VE BEEN RESCUED: 3 REMINDERS OF CHRIST’S REDEMPTION IN OUR LIVES By Juliana Gordon
Imagine a man who has been lost, deep in a jungle. He is able to survive, but just barely. Then one day, a search party finds him! This great rescue is covered on every newscast, every news website, and every newspaper. His friends and family rejoice over his rescue. Yet he continues to live a life as he did in that jungle. He doesn’t talk to anyone; he eats small amounts of scavenged food, and he continues to look for someone to rescue him. We’d think something was wrong with him, correct? Yet, that is what we can do when we’ve asked Jesus into our hearts, but don’t fully recognize how His redemption has changed us. These three reminders of Christ’s redemption in our lives can help us see how we’ve been rescued from a life and eternity without Him. 1. Because we’ve been rescued, we can live a forgiven life, not weighed down by our past mistakes. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) tells us that “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This verse was originally written in Greek, and the word for both instances of “new” in this verse is the word “kainos.” In Strong’s Greek Dictionary, kainos is defined as “recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn.” Because Christ redeemed us, He sees us with those qualities! We are fresh, unused, and unworn in Him. Does everyone see us that way? Unfortunately, not always. With other people, we might have to live with the consequences of how we’ve acted in the past. But the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2) will help us grow in Him, hopefully producing the kind of change that others can see and repairing some of the relationships that have been hurt in the past. 50 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 3 50
2. Because we’ve been rescued, we do what’s right to honor God, not to earn our salvation. I grew up as an overachieving Sunday School student, wanting to earn every prize I could for reciting books of the Bible, memorizing Bible verses, or reading Christian books at the church library. Was there anything wrong with doing these honorable tasks? No. But the gold stars it might have earned me in the teacher’s book did not transfer over to God’s view of me. Because Jesus is my Savior, when God looks at me, He sees me through Jesus’ sacrifice. Anything that I’ve accomplished for God is by His grace and strength and is my grateful service to Him. Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) says, “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.” 3. Because we’ve been rescued, we have the privilege of showing others how to be rescued, too. If a volcano erupted and you knew the sure path away from the deadly lava, wouldn’t you want to tell other people? God has provided the way out of the consequences of our sins. We need to let others know that Good News. Romans 6:23 ESV says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Our lives should be signposts that point to Christ. The way I point to Christ might look different from how you do it. But we have the privilege of being part of letting others know about Christ, and the rescue He offers us.
