Daily Devotionals for Difficult Days [47] God our Rescuer

 Our Sunday Devotionals are written by assistant pastor, Mike Loveridge

God our Rescuer

The song for this week is Rescuer by Rend Collective. You can listen to the song here. Like previous weeks, I suggest you listen to the song, dwell on the words and then read through my brief comments. I hope this song blesses you as it has me.

He's our rescuer
He's our rescuer
We are free from sin forever more
Oh how sweet the sound
Oh how grace abounds
We will praise the Lord our rescuer

There is good news for the captive
Good news for the shamed
There is good news for the one who walked away
There is good news for the doubter
The one religion failed
For the Good Lord has come to seek and save

He's our rescuer
He's our rescuer
We are free from sin forever more
Oh how sweet the sound
Oh how grace abounds
We will praise the Lord our rescuer

He is beauty for the blind man
Riches for the poor
He is friendship for the one the world ignores
He is pasture for the weary
Rest for those who strive
For the Good Lord is the way, the truth, the life
Yes the Good Lord is the way, the truth, the life

He's our rescuer
He's our rescuer
We are free from sin forever more
Oh how sweet the sound
Oh how grace abounds
We will praise the Lord our rescuer

So come and be chainless
Come and be fearless
Come to the foot of Calvary
There is redemption
For every affliction
Here at the foot of Calvary

This song talks of the greatest need of all humanity. A rescuer. Whether we admit it or not all of us fall short of God's standard, whether in our thoughts, actions, words or attitudes. We should not be surprised by that fact. Romans 3 makes it perfectly clear:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”
¹³ “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
¹⁴     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know.”
¹⁸     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And slightly later in verse 23, just in case we missed his point the first time, Paul drives the point home: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

With the exception of Jesus, every human being who has ever lived is worthy of punishment by God. No one has ever lived up to his perfect, holy standard. Yet we can have hope because we have a rescuer and that rescuer is Jesus. This song points out the glorious fact that through the grace and love of Jesus all are welcome to come and find forgiveness - the captive, the shamed, the doubter, the disillusioned, the ill, the poor, the weary, the over-worked, the lonely. In Luke 5:31, Jesus points out that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. We are all sick as a result of sin. But the good news is that there is a doctor with the remedy. What an amazing reality that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can be free from sin forever more. What an incredible reality! The song lyrics echo the truth found in Hebrews 10:10&14 that Christ died once for all, making us perfect…forever!

As a Christian, do you ever lose sight of this awesome truth? The gospel lies at the heart of our faith and yet it can be all too easy to forget just how good this Good News really is. The wonder and delight we first feel on becoming a Christian dims, and the gospel is no longer on the tip of our tongue, bringing salt and light to our conversations with friends and family. I have certainly gone through ‘dry spells’ like this.

To regain our love of the gospel, we must first gain a right understanding of our own sin. When thinking about sin, people tend to fall into one of two camps – those who think too little of their own sin, and those who think too much of it!

For those of us in the former category, we too easily forget how deadly serious our sins are. As this crisis has shown, it’s often not until we or a loved one are really ill that we truly appreciate the NHS. Just so, until we recognise that the just penalty of our sin was death, we will not be able to truly appreciate the wonder of what Jesus did for us when he died in our place. Is this true of you? If so, stop and ask God to reveal the depths of your sin so that you can go on to delight all the more in the depths of his love and grace.

But perhaps you fall into the second category? You are already painfully aware of your sin. In fact, as you continue to fall into the same sins day-in day-out, guilt and shame pile up and you lose sight of the all-encompassing grace that God has given freely to you. Your sin looms so large that you forget that Christ has overcome it! If this is you, then pause now and remember that Christ is your rescuer. If you are a disciple of Christ, your sin, past, present and future, is dealt with – it is finished! Don’t let your sin distance you from God, but allow it to remind you of your great, great need of him. As Martin Luther once said, ’When Satan tells me I am a sinner he comforts me immeasurably, since Christ died for sinners’.

So, the gospel is wonderful, life-giving news. We can all say with John, ‘I am a great sinner but I have a greater Saviour’ (1 John 1:8-9). And it’s this good news that we need to remember when we have opportunities to share our faith with those around us. If you had news of a pardon for an inmate on death row would you keep the news to yourself? If you knew the cure for a terminal illness, would you keep it secret? Of course not! Well, the gospel is a pardon for every human being who calls on the name of Jesus for forgiveness. It is the only cure to the fatal condition of our sin. As today’s song reminds us, ‘there is redemption for every afflication’. There is no one beyond the reach and power of the gospel.

Prayer for today

Loving Heavenly Father,

We thank you and praise you for sending a rescuer, you Son Jesus, into this world for sinners like me. I pray that we may daily come before you as our rescuer and praise you for the freedom we now can live in.

Thank you that it is even by the power of you Spirit at work in us that we are being transformed into the likeness of you Son. May we daily resist the temptations of our flesh and fix our eyes upon you. Thank you that we are free from sin forever more.

I pray that we will also know and cherish the good news of the gospel and may you give us a heart for those we know who don’t yet know you. May we be bold in sharing the good news with them.

In the precious name of Jesus we pray,

Amen