An ambulance and a Land Rover were at the side of the road near the foot of a mountain. The Mountain Rescue Team were out. These are local unpaid volunteers who respond to calls for help from people who get into difficulties in the mountainous region. They go out in all conditions to try to save lives. Many people do not realize how perilous it can be on the mountains. While some climbers are well equipped and knowledgeable and have unfortunate accidents outside of their control, some others are foolhardy, ignoring the local advice, and taking silly risks. The rescue team does not discriminate, but they risk their own safety to get to all these people if they possibly can. And there is no charge.
Looking on, one local commented, “Oh dear, they are amazing! If they had to come out to me I would for ever feel in their debt!”
We would hope that people would be grateful. Walkers who have been rescued should be aware that left on their own without help and unable to move, they would probably have died.
Jesus the Saviour
Mercifully, despite doing a lot of walking and often getting lost, I have never needed the Mountain Rescue Team. Nonetheless, having been ‘lost’ in a different way, and in dire difficulties, I have needed to be saved from death.
Two thousand years ago a righteous man died a horrific death to save us. One of the most famous verses in the Bible says this:
‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).
‘Perish’ is a strong word. Maybe, like some of the walkers, we do not realize the life-threatening situation all human beings are in. We cannot help being born mortal. That is the way life is. And, being mortal, we all die. But there is more to it than that, because death is the reward for sin—for disobeying God. And we all do that, so we all deserve to perish. Like the casualty stranded on the mountain, left to our own devices there is nothing we can do about it.
‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23).
‘For the wages of sin is death…’ (Romans 6:23).
Without Jesus we will all perish. But with Jesus there is hope of the most spectacular rescue to eternal life, also described as a ‘free gift’. That verse continues:
‘…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
In order to save us, Jesus did not just risk his life. He voluntarily laid down his life, in an excruciating death, for those who were ‘his own’. He said:
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15).
Action is Needed
A walker in trouble on a mountain is not rescued automatically. The team may be available but someone has to alert them. And if conscious, the casualty is wise to comply with the advice of their rescuers.
The death and resurrection of Jesus do not automatically save us. He wants to save us, and is waiting for us to respond to him, and to try to comply with what he says.
The Bible message is clear. We are told that in order to be saved we need to repent and be baptised. Repeatedly, the apostles preached this message (for example Acts 2:38, 3:19, 26:20).
Here is the example of a jailer in Philippi: ‘”Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family’ (Acts 16:30–33).
Saved For Ever
The Mountain Rescue Teams care about people, and they save many lives. But the people rescued will still eventually die. God cares even more.
‘But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).
However sinful, silly or foolhardy we are, Jesus died for us. And this ‘saving’ is eternal. Those who are being saved by Jesus are promised eternal life in God’s kingdom. If we obey the Gospel message then we are ‘known’ by Jesus and can truly benefit for ever with the gift of eternal life.
The onlooker said they’d feel for ever in their rescuers’ debt. Those people saved by Jesus are quite literally for ever in his debt. The question is: have we responded in loving gratitude to his offer to rescue us from death?
ANNA HART