Delivered

Nobody to rescue me, Nobody would dare, I was going down for the last time, But by His Mercy I've been spared.
Not by works, But by faith in Him who called, 
For so long I've been hindered,
For so long I've been stalled. 

I've been saved, By the blood of the lamb.

Bob Dylan - Saved.

I saw some incredible video footage this week of parents saving children.

In one clip, a father saved his two boys from certain death as he ran in front of a careering vehicle to snatch them out of the way. In another, a father jumped a fence at least his height and swan dived into a swimming pool to rescue his daughter who had slipped on the edge and fallen in. Gripping moments that make you both shudder in horror and tremble with relief.

Moments like that, of course, happen everyday, and not just between family members. History is filled with examples of people who have given entirely and totally of themselves to rescue or save someone else - even perfect strangers. We often talk about such sacrifice as something that epitomises the greatest thing one person can do for another due to just how full, how complete,  such a giving can be, but we also need to be aware another kind of giving, just as entire as well, that endures hardships in a much deeper fashion.

This week I watched as a family member made a choice that may well cost them dearly, in respect to sacrifice for another, for the rest of their natural lives. It reminded me that everyday in our world, countless numbers of people are making those kind of costly sacrifices for one another, often without any recognition or support or abiding assistance.

Love like that is so precious.

When it comes to God's giving of Himself to and for us, what kind of love is it that we see there?

The answer is both. 

God plunged Himself into the very midst of our severance to hang on the cursed tree at Golgotha to free us, but He also lived a life here carrying the weight of our pain, so the Prophet speaks of Him as a 'man of sorrows, acquainted with grief' (Isa 53:3). One glimpse of that agony is expressed in the story of the death of a friend (see John chapter 11).

When we begin to unpack the nature of God's immersion into our trouble and need, we understand that it was by necessity total in respect to becoming entirely human - the act had to be entirely genuine. When the Lord gave us His Son, as one preacher put it, He gave us His all - nothing was held back. 

There's a flip side to that.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus saves all. That's what is shown in John 3:16 (even if Jesus goes on to show us why some are still beyond that rescue).

Note that.
The only things that are not redeemed are sin (that which twists what is good) and death (that which removes what is good). Everything else is rescued - the world is saved by our Father's love, in the giving of His Son.

When you see the rain fall or the sky brighten, when you encounter the silent radiance of the sun rising or setting, the song of the birds, the sweetness of the dew of the grass, when you know the warmth and goodness of family and friends enjoying a meal or at play and the love of a husband or wife, you are encountering something that is meant, continually, to be good.

If you want a notion of what creation regained is like, look at and encounter these things, because there you evidence what God loves and what Christ has come to restore.

We love, even when it costs, because we know it is worth so much to give and receive genuine affection - it's what makes everything worthwhile. In the new creation, everything will be defined by that love, and that will make its worth beyond rubies and emeralds. Love will have gained the treasure of making everything 'good' (holy) and thereby eternal.

There are, in conclusion, two key truths to see here.
God has completed His purposes for His handiwork in His beloved Son - the cross and the tomb speak to that - but God is, each moment, bringing more of that great truth home to His work in so many ways. We know that the new is soon to replace the old, but we also know that amidst our current living, God is seeking to convey the astonishing reality of that splendour to us, even amidst our most difficult times.

We have been saved.
We are being saved.
We will be saved.

From before the first words were spoken, The Lord has had in mind one outcome - a life defined entirely by this love. That is the rich splendour He has in store for us if we trust in His mercies.

Consider, then how this is worked out in the light of two extraordinary statements in the heart of the book of Hebrews.
Jesus is spoken of as having an unchanging, eternal priesthood (verse 24) and because of that, as the Amplified Bible puts it, "He is able to save to the uttermost - completely, perfectly, finally and forever - those who come to God through Him" (verse 25). Let the scope, the magnitude, the amazing wonder of that sink into every pour of your heart and mind and the marrow of your being. That is the love which has been made ours, which made the world, and will bring about its true beauty!