Good Tidings from Heaven

SAVED!

In August 2005, a Russian mini submarine was trapped 190m (629 ft.) down off the Kamchatka peninsula, in the Russian Far East, with seven crew members on board. It was entangled in nets and underwater antennae, which formed part of the military coastal surveillance system, and could not get to the surface. The temperature inside the vessel had dropped to around 6C (43F) and their supply of oxygen was fast dwindling.

The cry for help reached Britain and the British had a Scorpio craft that was suitable to undertake the task. It was flown to Kamchatka and taken on to the site on a Russian vessel. The British operatives worked skilfully and quickly as the Russians had only a few hours of oxygen left. They cut away the entangling mesh and the mini submarine reached the surface. The men were saved from certain death.

As I read the account of this rescue, I pondered a very similar situation in which I was found. I was trapped, bound and facing death if not rescued. No person on earth could effect that rescue and I was helplessly and hopelessly lost. Not only was this a picture of me but also it was of all who read this paper! Let me explain.

The Bible teaches us that we were all enslaved by sin and could not extricate ourselves from this bondage. In Romans 6.17, 20 we read twice of people, “ye were the servants of sin.” Hebrews 2.15, tells us a people who “were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

The only Person who could help us was God. Religion or good works could not do it. It would have been useless to ask the Russians to become religious and do good works when they were at the bottom of the sea! God undertook our rescue. The rescuing vessel came from another country and so with God’s plan of salvation. Read again the precious words of John 3.16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What a glorious statement, that God so loved me, and you, that He sent His only Son from the glory of heaven to deal with our problem. 1 John 4.9, 10, “ In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The reason He came was to save us, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, 1 Timothy 1.15. Again, Luke 19.10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

How did He do it? Let the Word of God answer. Romans 5.6, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly;” v8, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 Peter 2.24, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;” 1 Peter 3.18, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” He did it by going to the depths of suffering and death thus breaking the bands of sin and death in which we were held and delivering us from this bondage. Isaiah 53.5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”

It would have been foolish for those trapped to refuse the salvation offered. Are you foolish enough to refuse God’s offer of salvation and perish eternally or will you accept His Son and be saved eternally?