The Rescue Mission of Jesus

On Feb. 18, 1952, four men risked their lives in a howling nor’easter off Cape Cod. An oil tanker called the Pendleton had shipwrecked and snapped in two during the fierce storm. Their distress call reached four Coast Guardsmen at the nearest rescue option, known as the Chatham Lifeboat Station. These men volunteered to attempt what appeared to be an impossible rescue. Confronting freezing temperatures and 60-foot waves, they made their way to the tanker. They were able to rescue 32 sailors that day. For this rescue, they received the Gold Lifesaving Medal, the Coast Guard’s highest honor, for “extreme and heroic daring.”  The Coast Guard has described this as the greatest rescue by a small boat in its long and storied history. When told they were heroes, the four men simply shrugged it off. “We were just doing our job,” they said.[1]

The writers of Christian hymns have long turned toward the seagoing world for inspiration to convey a sense of wonder at the rescuing mission of the gospel of Christ. One hymn I grew up singing went like this:

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From His lighthouse evermore;
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor, fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.[2]

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the theme of rescue stands forth like a lighthouse. He teaches the early Christians that we live in the light of Christ’s wondrous rescue mission. This is the theme I wish to explore in this brief article. I wish to unfold four descriptions of the marvelous rescue mission of Jesus.

Rescue

The first description of Christ’s mission is to rescue us from the dominion of darkness. Here is how Paul puts it in his prayer for the church at Colossae: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves . . .” (Colossians 1:13 NIV).

The kingdom we inherit as Christians is not like the kingdoms of this world. The ancient prophet Daniel, who was called into the court of a pagan Babylonian king, was never confused about the character of God’s kingdom. Daniel describes the Lord’s kingdom as everlasting (Daniel 7:27). This goes to the duration of God’s reign as King. Rulers in the future, as Daniel described it, would one day worship and obey the Lord. John the Revelator agreed, insisting that: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of the Lord and His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15 NIV).

The testimony of scripture is thus of the coming of a never-ending, enduring, and eternal kingdom. This contrasts strongly with the duration of the kingdoms of this world. Kingdoms rise, and kingdoms fall. Historian Arnold Toynbee has named some 28 major civilizations in human history that have risen, expanded, decayed, and died. The great American Theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote in a famous essay on God’s kingdom:

“We have seen how other things came to an end one after another; how states and kingdoms, and empires, fell, and came to nothing, even the greatest and strongest of them; we have seen how the world has been often overturned, and will be more remarkably yet; we have seen how it was first destroyed by water, and how at last it shall be utterly destroyed by fire: but yet God remains the same through all ages. He was before the beginning of this course of things, and he will be after the end of them; Thus God is he who is, and who was, and who is to come.”[3]

Not only in duration, but also in quality, God’s kingdom is superior to any alternative kingdom. For Paul’s purpose in verse 13, this is a clash of authorities. God’s kingdom of light conquers the kingdom of darkness. Light is the symbol of God’s purity, wisdom, and glory. Darkness is the opposite. We see darkness entrenched in impurity, foolishness, and shame. Darkness was one of the plagues God poured out on Egypt when they refused to let God’s people leave slavery. Darkness enveloped Jerusalem when the Son of God died on Golgotha. Darkness can represent God’s judgment (Exodus 10:21-23; Matthew 27:45).

Darkness is also a metaphor for ignorance. According to the Psalms, the rival gods know nothing as mere inert idols (Ps. 82:5). This draws a connection between darkness and idolatry, as idols have ears but do not hear, and eyes but do not see (Ps. 115:4-8). 

Darkness represents evil or moral turpitude to the Apostle John. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19-20 NIV). Light and darkness are thus dramatic in their contrastive characteristics.

Jesus, our Lord, delivers us out of the tyrannical authority of darkness. Martin Luther wrote in his classic hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” that: “The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure, one little word will fell him.”[4] As inhabitants of God’s kingdom, we live in the light of Christ’s wondrous rescue mission, the rescue first of all from the dominion of darkness.

Relocation

There is a second description of this mission, namely, our relocation into the Kingdom of God’s Beloved Son. Notice the last phrase of Colossians 1:13:

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. . .” (Colossians 1:13, NIV, emphasis added).

The NIV translates it “brought us” into the kingdom. But this verb is not strong enough in my view. The word in the original language is really “transports” or “transfers.” Relocation is the idea. The word here is a term that describes when ancient kings took captive entire populations and moved them in a massive caravan from one region to another. This was usually a frightening and traumatic term. Here, Paul takes a very scary word and turns it on its head. His idea is that believers are moved dramatically from a place of darkness to a brand-new land of light. Christ’s rescuing power transplants us into a land of joy and celebration. We now dwell or live in the kingdom of God’s Son, who loves us. He loves us; that is why He is willing to engage in this rescue mission.

Stories of rescue often show people who are willing to risk all to rescue the ones we love. I watched a film a while back about an American soldier who had been rescued from a likely fate of death by torture at the hands of the Taliban, and he was rescued by an Afghan translator whom he had befriended. After our abrupt withdrawal from that country, there was now no protection for the translator and his family. So the American soldier, now safely back on American soil, undertook a rescue mission. At great risk, he returned to hostile territory to get his friend out from under the threat of the evil Taliban. It was a beautiful story of true friendship, love, and care for one’s neighbor.[5]

Once we are brought out of the kingdom of darkness, we are transported into a new place, into a kind of colony of light. We still live in a dark world, and we still experience the gloom of dark times. So this is admittedly difficult for us to grasp. But the point Paul is making is that we do not need to surrender to the darkness of our cultural or historical environment. The church radiates like a city on a hill. It overcomes the darkness as an outpost of light in a dark and sorrowful place.

The power of light to overcome darkness is amazing. In a perfectly dark and flat environment, it has been theorized that the human eye could detect a lit candle at a distance of 14 miles. Light shines all the brighter when darkness seems deepest. This is because our future in the kingdom of unending light is ever beckoning us forward. This kingdom is in the NOW by an act of faith.

Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg observes that: “God's Kingdom does not lie in the distant future but is imminent [or with us]. Thus, the present is not independent of that future. Rather, the future has an imperative claim upon the present, alerting all men to the urgency and exclusiveness of seeking first the Kingdom of God. As this message is proclaimed and accepted, God's rule is present, and we can even now glimpse his future glory. In this way, we see the present as an effect of the future, in contrast to the conventional assumption that past and present are the cause of the future."[6] God is drawing us forward by the energy of faith and hope.

So we must let our light shine, that people may see our good works, and glorify our Father in heaven, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13-16). We live in the light of Christ’s wondrous rescue mission. So far, we have recognized our rescue from the dominion of darkness and our relocation into His kingdom of light. Now we see how this has been accomplished.

Redemption

We now come unto the third description of Christ’s rescue mission. This is known as redemption. Paul describes Jesus as the one “. . . in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14 NIV).

Here we see the twofold possession of the believer: redemption and the forgiveness of sins. It seems pretty clear we would not have one without the other. They go together. In Him we have redemption. The idea here is ransom from captivity. In the ancient world, during times of war, people were captured on the battlefield and made into slaves. They found themselves in a weaker position under the thrall or the power of an enemy who had overwhelmed them and disarmed them. They must undergo the humiliation of perhaps being worked to death in a foreign mine, or in the bowels of a galley ship rowing to the whips and drumbeats of cruel taskmasters.

If an enslaved person happened to be from a wealthy family, and if, further, this should be discovered by his or her captors, a letter would be sent. The family back home would get a fearsome letter, notifying them their loved one was currently a slave. But upon the payment of a steep price, in gold, silver, or gems, the loved one might be set free. This payment was known as a ransom price.

Ransom becomes in scripture a word picture for what Jesus has done for sinners, who find themselves bound in the chains of sin and guilt. The payment of a price, the exertion of a rescue mission at great risk and great danger to the rescuer, is the only way that freedom can be restored.

By paying the ransom price, the debt of our sin, on the cross at Calvary, Christ has taken all the risk and all the pain and suffering on Himself. It was not silver or gold, but rather His blood outpoured on the cross that rescued us by ransoming us (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Next, Paul indicates that we also become the possessors of another great benefit: the forgiveness of sins. Paul expands on the theme in Ephesians, which many scholars see as a companion letter to Colossians, perhaps written at about the same time in Paul’s imprisonment. He proclaims: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:7-8 NIV).

God’s grace is lavish riches. Lavish means overdone, overwhelming, superabundant. God’s grace and His forgiveness are lavish, and far more than we could need or want or even desire. Because Jesus offered His blood, the guilt of sin is washed away. The price and debt of sin are paid off. The powerful, heavy shackles of sin are broken. We are prisoners set free!

Redemption and forgiveness are therefore the present-tense possession, right now, of Christian believers. These words describe our new status before God, the citizenship papers, in a sense, to show we truly belong here in His glorious kingdom of light.

We live in the light of Christ’s wondrous rescue mission, the rescue first of all from the dominion of darkness, then the relocation into His kingdom of light, resulting from the redemption into the forgiveness of sins. There is a fourth description of this rescue mission. Though it is deeply rooted in who Jesus is, it might not seem clear to many at first. 

Restoration

We experience the restoration of the true Image of God in Christ. “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15 NIV).

The image of God in us is not completely lost in the fall, as some traditions seem to teach. Some think it is completely lost, but I am convinced the image endures, only because it was created by God to be durable, and sin is not created by God, thus sin will not last. After all, people long after Adam and Eve are still described in scripture as possessing the image of God (Gen. 9:5; 1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9).

Nonetheless, the image has been marred or damaged by humanity’s descent into the abyss of sin and guilt. Yet our gracious God sent His Son on a rescue mission to restore the image of God. In the news not long ago, some vandals defaced a famous work of art. Experts will be called in to try to restore the painting as close as possible to its original beauty. How much better would it be, however, if the original artist could be present to do the task of restoration?

In the arrival of Jesus, the artist Himself comes to restore what has been defaced. Though we cannot see the invisible God, through Jesus we get the clearest view of God we could ever have. Christ is the image of God. In a sense, Adam is the image of Christ, who is the image of God the Father (Romans 5:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 4:6). The reflection of true humanity that Adam was duty-bound to exhibit was delayed until the full revealing of the Image of God in Christ. When we see Jesus, we see what God always intended true humanity to be.

In one of Paul’s other letters, we get a sense of why people in the world have such a hard time grasping this. Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the true image, but listen to what Paul says is occurring that tends to blur and hinder the image from coming through to us. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV).

The little-g god of this age refers to Satan or the Devil. His will and his warfare have ever been bent on blinding the minds of unbelievers, to prevent them from seeing the light of the good news. What is that good news? The glory of Christ, who is the fullness of the image of God.

The longer I live, the more I observe what can only be described as an irrational opposition of the world to the message of Jesus. This is not just accidental. There is a malevolent spirit at work to blind the minds of those who do not believe. In their uncomprehending unbelief, they lash out, and tragically, that lashing out takes the form of murderous violence.

The challenge for the Lord’s church is not to respond in kind. So many believers simply want to lash out and punish perceived enemies with forms of violence. But if we are Christ’s followers, we must listen to Jesus Himself. We must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. If we react just as the world reacts, are we truly demonstrating that we are redeemed people, the people of the kingdom of light? We cannot fight darkness with more darkness. By the light of the face of Christ, reflected when we show them the true image of God, people can experience transformation by the good news of Jesus.

Conclusion:

We live in the light of Christ’s wondrous rescue mission. His rescue is from the dominion of darkness, in which we are relocated into His kingdom of light, by redemption, the forgiveness of sins, whereby we now experience the restoration of the image of God in Christ. He calls us to join Him as His Coast Guard, as His rescue team. As we recur to that wondrous hymn by Philip Bliss, we remind ourselves of the power of Christ’s amazing mission to rescue us.[7]

Dark the night of sin has settled,

Loud the angry billows roar;

Eager eyes are watching, longing,

For the lights along the shore.[8]