The powerful heat of the sun warmed the people who were strolling on Bolstadt Beach that day, but the Pacific Ocean was very cold-so cold that anyone immersed in it would only survive a few minutes without some kind of special suit to keep warm. Two seventh-grade girls, Amelia and Krystle, were walking along the beach. They stopped to write their names in large letters in the sand with their feet. As they walked on down the beach, the water looked inviting. They watched the surf wash onto the beach and then recede as the undertow sucked it back into the ocean. At first, the girls went into the water up to their ankles, even though it was freezing cold. Then they went in up to their knees and splashed each other, flinching and shivering but screaming with delight as the cold water hit them. Down the beach they saw boys in wet suits bodysurfing. It looked like fun, so they thought they would try it too. They braced themselves against the cold as they waded in up to their waists. When a wave came rolling in, they lay down and floated on their backs, gritting their teeth against the cold. The waves swept them along. However, more than one force was at work. The undertow had caught them and was carrying them away from the shore. The two girls suddenly realized what was happening and tried to stand up, but they were in water too deep for their feet to touch bottom. They tried to swim to shore against the current. Despite their efforts, the current continued to carry them out to sea. In a very short time they were a hundred yards from shore. They called and waved their hands, signaling for help. People began gathering on the shore, watching them, but would none of them come to help? Panic set in, and their breathing came in gasps. As they tried to call for help, salt water would fill their mouths and choke them.
About then, a young man arrived with his family. Joshua Squibb, a strong swimmer, quickly surveyed the situation. He told his wife to watch their family, and then he ran into the surf and plunged into the water. With long, powerful strokes he swam out to the girls. Joshua reached Krystle first and spoke reassuringly to her. He got her to stop thrashing about and told her to float on her back. He kept repeating to her, “You’ll be all right...you’ll make it fine.” Swimming behind her, he pushed Krystle out of the current towards shore. When she could touch bottom, he turned back to rescue Amelia. Even with the extreme cold of the water taxing his strength, Joshua swam the long distance again out to Amelia. He spoke reassuringly to her, just as he had to Krystle, and told her to float on her back instead of fighting the current and exhausting herself. Amelia did not realize that her rescuer’s strength was running out from the great effort in such cold water. She saw him go under once and then raise his head, gasping for breath. He went under again, but this time he never came up. She suddenly realized that the person who had come to her rescue had just drowned trying to save her! She didn’t even know who he was.
Amelia lay on her back in the water, stunned by what had just happened. Soon a beach lifeguard swam out to her with a flotation device. Moments later a jet ski raced to the pair in the water and took them both to safety. This man who had risked his life and lost it in saving the girls was neither a friend of theirs nor a relative nor even an acquaintance, and yet he had died while trying to save their lives.
This reminds me of another one who was willing to die so that others might live. He was a stranger in the sense that the ones He died for didn’t know Him, neither did they love Him, nor would many of them even acknowledge what He did for them. This one is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born in lowly circumstances and raised by parents who worked hard to earn a meager living. He never possessed money; He never occupied a position of political power. He made no name for Himself in literature or the arts. He never sought for any of these things. He grew up in a town that had a poor reputation, and someone said about Him, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” He certainly was a stranger to what this world thinks is important. At about thirty years of age, Jesus began His public ministry. He preached, and the poor heard Him gladly. He performed many miracles, healing the sick, lame and blind. At the end of three and a half years, He was taken by force and nailed to a cross where He died. His death was no surprise; He had talked about it beforehand to His followers. His death had been foretold in the Holy Scriptures, even that He would be crucified. And this was long before the Romans used this form of punishment.
Although He was taken by force and nailed to the cross, He also was the willing victim. At any time, He could have called many thousands of angels, and they would have set Him free. He willingly went to the cross. He died there because of His love for you and me. He knew we were lost in our sins and needed to be saved. Now, because of His death, no one needs to perish in their sins. The Lord Jesus died in the sinner’s place so that everyone who believes on Him might have eternal life. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). Here is the best news this world will ever hear. When our sins were carrying us away to destruction, God’s beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, died to rescue us! Isn’t this exactly what we need? Isn’t this what you need? God is inviting you right now to receive the gift of salvation simply by believing that you need to be saved from your sins and that Jesus died on the cross for your sins as your substitute. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). Will you do that right now? A few months later, Joshua’s wife was presented with a gold Lifesaving Medal from the Rear Admiral of the Coast Guard. It was the highest honor that could be bestowed on a civilian.
Will you honor the One who died for you by trusting in Him?