Mission: Rescue the Enemy
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)
The raw, violent, amazing World War II movie Saving Private Ryan ends with a devastating scene. Warning: In case you’ve never seen the film, I’m about to spoil it for you. Click away now if you’ve been avoiding hearing about it. . . . Still here? Good.
If you have seen it, you’ll remember that Tom Hanks and his team are sent on a D-Day mission to save Matt Damon, the remaining living son of a family hit hard by the war. One by one the soldiers assigned to save Ryan are killed off, but they ultimately succeed. Ryan lives. With his dying breaths, Hanks’ character says to Ryan, “Earn this.” In doing so, he urges Ryan not to waste the lives of the men who died for him, not to squander the gift of his life they paid for with their blood.
What an burden! How could you ever earn such a sacrifice? Did Ryan make good enough use of his days? Did he contribute enough to society to compensate for what those guys did for him? In the final frames, we see Ryan as an old man years later, and he seems still unsure. “Did I do enough? Would that even be possible?”
It makes sense that Hanks’ character would want Ryan to earn the gift of life he was given by the squad of men that saved him. It’s logical. It’s fair. We get that. And that’s what makes God’s gift of life to us so much more amazing, even, than what the guys in that film did.
First, Christ did not die to save us because, somehow, we were worth saving. He didn’t give his blood for the sake of our families. He didn’t do it because He knew we would be good soldiers or that we would try really hard. Verse 6 says we were ungodly. Verse 8 says we were “still sinners.” Verse 10 says we were still God’s enemies. When Jesus gave His life for us, we were fighting for the other side.
Imagine Saving Private Ryan if Hanks’ squad was sent to save a Nazi soldier that hated Americans and had done terrible things in the war. What kind of weird mission would that be? Why would anyone do that?
Even more amazing: God didn’t send His only son to die for us, then turn around and say, “Earn this!” He never tells us to earn it before He offers us salvation -- and He doesn’t even tell us to earn it after we’ve been saved as a condition of keeping our salvation. Instead, He says simply, “You could never earn this -- no matter how many lifetimes you lived. It’s a gift, and it’s available to all who trust in Jesus’ death in their places on that cross.” (Romans 3:23, 6:23)
Some of us can’t accept the gift. We’re too proud and stubborn. “I don’t care; I’m still going to earn some of it. I’ll do enough good to make the sacrifice for me worth it.” But we’re just lying to ourselves, and we’re making too little of what Jesus did on that cross. He paid for it all. Period. End of story. We were “powerless.” There’s nothing left to be done.
But why would God give the life of (and pain and separation from) His own Son for me when I was still against HIm, before I even knew to want such a thing? “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (verse 8)
Don’t try to “earn this.” Thank God for the gift and love Him back with everything you’ve got. It’s the only response that makes sense.
The raw, violent, amazing World War II movie Saving Private Ryan ends with a devastating scene. Warning: In case you’ve never seen the film, I’m about to spoil it for you. Click away now if you’ve been avoiding hearing about it. . . . Still here? Good.
If you have seen it, you’ll remember that Tom Hanks and his team are sent on a D-Day mission to save Matt Damon, the remaining living son of a family hit hard by the war. One by one the soldiers assigned to save Ryan are killed off, but they ultimately succeed. Ryan lives. With his dying breaths, Hanks’ character says to Ryan, “Earn this.” In doing so, he urges Ryan not to waste the lives of the men who died for him, not to squander the gift of his life they paid for with their blood.
What an burden! How could you ever earn such a sacrifice? Did Ryan make good enough use of his days? Did he contribute enough to society to compensate for what those guys did for him? In the final frames, we see Ryan as an old man years later, and he seems still unsure. “Did I do enough? Would that even be possible?”
It makes sense that Hanks’ character would want Ryan to earn the gift of life he was given by the squad of men that saved him. It’s logical. It’s fair. We get that. And that’s what makes God’s gift of life to us so much more amazing, even, than what the guys in that film did.
First, Christ did not die to save us because, somehow, we were worth saving. He didn’t give his blood for the sake of our families. He didn’t do it because He knew we would be good soldiers or that we would try really hard. Verse 6 says we were ungodly. Verse 8 says we were “still sinners.” Verse 10 says we were still God’s enemies. When Jesus gave His life for us, we were fighting for the other side.
Imagine Saving Private Ryan if Hanks’ squad was sent to save a Nazi soldier that hated Americans and had done terrible things in the war. What kind of weird mission would that be? Why would anyone do that?
Even more amazing: God didn’t send His only son to die for us, then turn around and say, “Earn this!” He never tells us to earn it before He offers us salvation -- and He doesn’t even tell us to earn it after we’ve been saved as a condition of keeping our salvation. Instead, He says simply, “You could never earn this -- no matter how many lifetimes you lived. It’s a gift, and it’s available to all who trust in Jesus’ death in their places on that cross.” (Romans 3:23, 6:23)
Some of us can’t accept the gift. We’re too proud and stubborn. “I don’t care; I’m still going to earn some of it. I’ll do enough good to make the sacrifice for me worth it.” But we’re just lying to ourselves, and we’re making too little of what Jesus did on that cross. He paid for it all. Period. End of story. We were “powerless.” There’s nothing left to be done.
But why would God give the life of (and pain and separation from) His own Son for me when I was still against HIm, before I even knew to want such a thing? “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (verse 8)
Don’t try to “earn this.” Thank God for the gift and love Him back with everything you’ve got. It’s the only response that makes sense.
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