The mindset of a rescuer is vastly different from that of a combatant. The combatant fights against, but the rescuer fights for. The combatant sees an enemy to defeat; the rescuer sees a soul in peril. Jesus is the sinner’s rescuer.
Galatians 1:3-5 ESV
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Christ Himself was the ultimate rescuer, plunging into the depths of our lostness, taking on flesh, and enduring the cross to bring salvation.
John Harper, the Scottish Baptist pastor aboard the Titanic, embodied this spirit of rescue. As the great ship descended into icy darkness, he spent his final moments pleading with souls to turn to Christ. He did not fight for his own survival—he fought for the eternal salvation of others. He swam through the frigid waters, offering not only words of hope but even his own life vest, placing another’s life before his own. His last recorded act was an urgent appeal for a man to believe in Jesus. Moments later, Harper slipped beneath the waves, yet his legacy endures as a testimony of selfless, gospel-driven urgency.
Fanny Crosby’s hymn Rescue the Perishing captures this same calling:
“Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.”
The heart of Christ beats within every true rescuer. Jude exhorts believers with this solemn charge: “Save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” (Jude 1:23, NASB). This is not a passive calling. It is an urgent, unrelenting mission. It means stepping into the flames, standing in the gap, and pleading with sinners to turn to Christ before it is too late.
Harper’s final moments mirror the love of Christ, who “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10, NASB). Do we have this same urgency? Do we see the peril of souls drowning in sin? Do we, like Harper, run toward the fire rather than away from it?
Lord, may I be a rescuer. Let me never shrink back in fear or complacency, but give me boldness to proclaim Your saving grace. Let me see the perishing, care for the dying, and tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Amen.
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