The Father who never left us to save ourselves.

Growing up with three brothers and three sisters, presented some challenges to going on a family holiday. Perhaps that is why I remember so well an incident from one of the rare occasions we found ourselves together at a resort. It was in Waterford, in what is called the ‘sunny southeast’ of Ireland (I think they use the term ‘sunny’ in a relative sense!). There we came across a lake where you could hire rowing boats. My sister Maria and my brother Feargal asked permission of my father to go out by themselves in one of the boats. They were both very young and had never rowed a boat before. Much to our amazement, dad said yes and the rest of us watched rather nervously as they somehow managed to manoeuvre their craft right out to the middle of the lake. It was all too good to last. As suddenly as that tempest had descended on Jesus’ boat on the sea of Galilee, so the inevitable argument broke out about whose turn it was to row and in the ensuing struggle the oars fell into the water. Panic ensued and they both began screaming at the top of their voices, convinced they were about to drown. But then a miracle! Something happened that caused them to immediately go silent and sit there perfectly quiet and at peace and not a little mortified. One of the men hiring the boats just stepped into the lake in a pair of waders and the water was only up to his knees. He walked straight out to their boat and just pulled it in behind him. On seeing him, all their grasping to save themselves ceased and the cries of their flesh were silenced, for the truth had finally dawned; their father had never left them in a place where they would have to save themselves!

Only when your heart and mine is persuaded of the same; that our heavenly Father has not left us to save ourselves, will our attempts to save ourselves through our own piety be put to rest. Only that revelation of how well we have been saved, delivers us from all the grasping of a world lusting for life (2Peter 1:4). The Gospel declares a God who has not left us by ourselves, to save ourselves. It declares in effect, “Behold Christ; the power of God and the wisdom of God, for God never believed you could save yourself, so He never left you to save yourself. Jesus Christ, His life, death, resurrection and ascension, is God not leaving you to save yourself!”

Our pride may struggle to accept this, but when Jesus declared “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), nothing really meant nothing. No man can even have a metanoia (repentance unto God) apart from the empowering of God’s Spirit (1Cor.12:3). We do not have a Savior who stands on the bank of the river shouting instructions on how we can repent better from drowning! We have a Savior who dived into the depths of our death and united His body with ours (Hebrews 2:14), for despite what the spirit of the world would teach us, God doesn’t help those who help themselves. Rather He demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom.5:8). The Gospel is more than “Here is what you need to do”, it is “Behold what He has done”, for there is power in this beholding; the power to be saved! (Rom.1:16)

To a world now addicted to information, drowning in advice on how to save themselves and in bondage to the fear of death, there is no power in the message “Here is what you need to do”, for there is no power in any message that points man to himself (John 6:63). “Here is what you need to do to save yourself from death” is the message every earthly government is already proclaiming. We have not been given the Holy Spirit that we would merely speak an earthly message more eloquently (1Cor.2:1,2). Rather, if we then have been raised with Christ(Col.3:1-4), have we not been raised by the power of the resurrection to think from above that we may speak from above, words that can only be spoken by those who can now see what all the heavenly host can see; the sufficiency of Christ for all our needs (Eph.2:8,9). From the heavenly realm no one says, ‘One day, if you,’ but with one voice all of heaven declares ‘Today, because He!’ (2Cor.6:1,2).

A world that does not know of a Saviour, can only teach men how to save themselves. The longer we as believers have been sitting under the message of the spirit of the world and drinking in a diluted gospel, then the more foolish to us the gospel of God’s grace sounds, for any gospel that promises more blessings for more effort, sounds eminently more reasonable to the earthly minded man, whose hope has always been in himself (Rom.10:1-4). I have found that those most open to the gospel of God’s grace, are those who have been around long enough, to have lost all confidence in their own ability to lead a holy life (1Tim.1:15,16)

A world that does not know of a Saviour, can only teach men how to save themselves. Such a world is flooded with advice on ‘what you need to do to save yourself’. The more our ‘gospel’ becomes tainted with such advice, the more our churches become mere advice centres. Now if you want to attract and keep advice consumers, then your steady supply of principles and teachings on ‘what you need to do to please God’ must never come to an end. Consumers must not be allowed to grow out of their fears and their need for instruction. Obviously, a gospel that declares that Christ is the end of all this self-help religion (Rom.10:4) would be bad for business! Give them a lesser gospel and they will never grow out of their fears (1John 4:18). They will keep coming, to keep hearing, what they need to keep doing, in order to be saved. Unfortunately, the only message such advice consumers now have for the world, sounds very much like “Here is what you need to do to save yourself”. If the world doesn’t appear to be listening, could it be that they have remembered what the Church forgot; the difference between good advice and good news and that is a world of difference!

Only the truth dawning, that our Father never left us to save ourselves, has the power to put our flesh to rest and allow the life and peace of God to reign in us and through us (Rom.8:6). Then when the storms descend on our boat, the world will see us remain in perfect peace, the peace of He who was not left to save himself (Matt.8:24). Any earthly orator can preach up a storm that stirs the flesh to action, but only the gospel of heaven still causes men to wonder, that even the wind and waves in their heart obey and be still. Our calling is to rise and speak into the storm of darkness that rages in the hearts of this generation, the only message that can impart life and peace; the gospel of the Father who never left us to save ourselves.