The plane crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing three adults but leaving four children between the ages of one and thirteen alive but alone, surrounded by snakes and poisonous insects. A month later, some of the search party had given up. However, one army general was determined to continue, and the code word “Miracle” was agreed upon if anyone found a child alive. After forty days, the announcement blasted through the radio, “Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle.”
While their forty-day endurance was an incredible feat, the four children were so weak that they would certainly have died soon after, had they not been rescued.
Their plight is an effective metaphor for our spiritual reality. It can be tempting to forget that, on our own, we were as lost as those children. Jesus died for us “at just the right time, when we were still powerless” (Romans 5:6). The rescue was not only vital for us but costly for Him: we were “justified by his blood” (v. 9) and “reconciled to [God] through the death of his Son” (v. 10). Even more remarkably, we did nothing to deserve this rescue from eternal death: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” ( v. 8).
Christ is our rescuer, and we would perish without Him. As I consider the joy the children felt when they were safe again, I rejoice too in my own salvation: it is miracle, all miracle.
By Tanya Marlow
REFLECT & PRAY
What are all the things we have been rescued from, as Christians? How does the image of Christ as our rescuer increase our gratitude in our everyday lives?
Compassionate Jesus, You loved us even though we were still sinners. Help me reflect and rejoice in Your rescue today.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Romans 1-3, Paul begins his letter by showing that those who reject Jesus are enemies of God and objects of His wrath (1:18; 2:5; 3:23). Then he shares the good news of God’s salvation through Christ: “God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin” (3:24–25 NLT). In Romans 5 , Paul affirms God’s lavish love for us. First, we know how much He loves us “because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (5:5 NLT). Second, while we were still God’s enemies (vv. 6–10), He showed His great love by giving us His only Son to be “an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10) and making us “friends of God” (Romans 5:11 NLT).
K. T. Sim
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