There is a story about a man and his dog that goes like this: A man wanted to get rid of his dog. He took him to a lake, rowed to the middle and threw him overboard; hoping he would drown. He didn’t drown, but instead paddled back to the boat and to his master. The man tried rowing away, but the dog kept on following. Finally, the man decided he would have to hit the dog over the head with an oar to drown it. As he stood in the boat to raise his oar, the boat rocked and he fell into the water. The man, who didn’t know how to swim, desperately needed someone to save Him. His dog, which was right there, took hold of him and saved his life by dragging him to shore.
This man is like someone who is trying to get away from God; who has rejected Him. He treats God shamefully and pushes Him away. He doesn’t want His presence in his life, or even the conviction of his own sin and need. Finally, the circumstances in his life become so bad that he really needs help – he is ready to drown spiritually- eternally; Yet God provides the way of rescue; despite the way He has been treated. Ultimately all of mankind will have to choose to accept it or reject it.
The character of God does not desire that any should perish, so He came up with a plan to save us, the ones who have rejected Him. This way of salvation is through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the mediator between God and man and makes it possible for man to have a relationship with God, despite how he has treated Him—despite how man has rejected Him. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Think of Christ’s love for us who in the past, not only wanted to get rid of Him, but also have rejected Him in our daily lives; Yet even today most continue to reject Him; and along with Him, rejecting their only hope of salvation with God; thus sealing their choice of eternal damnation. (Just like supposing the man in the story would have kept pushing away the dog who was trying to save Him.)
One could ask how the man in the story could reject a relationship with such a loving, faithful, unselfish, self-sacrificing companion. Then one needs to ask how any of us could continue to reject a relationship with such an infinitely more faithful, loving, unselfish, and self-sacrificing God. How could we continue to reject the only true God who made us, to reject the only true God who has suffered much over our selfishness, and to reject the only true God who was willing to die to bring man back to a loving relationship with Him! The answer is, “Man” is selfish; (all individuals apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.) The root of all sin is living for self. But the Lord Jesus came to do the will of the Father and to seek and to save us lost sinners through giving us the gift of His grace through faith in Him: to save us drowning sinners from our sin, from our selves, from all the wickedness around us, and from the eternal lake of fire.
Dear Reader, the question is – do you and I want to be saved? If you are have still been rejecting His saving grace; then at this moment; don’t continue to – Repent and Believe in Him, believe in His power to save you from your sin: seek His grace, find his grace, and receive His grace. Among all the wicked people in Noah’s day, among all the evil thinking people, among all the God grieving people who were destroyed by the flood in Noah’s day. Among all them – Only Noah & his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Dear Reader have you found Him & His saving grace, are you seeking Him & His saving grace. Is their true evidence that you have received Him & His saving grace: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Can we hear Jesus speaking to our hearts today saying – “I am your salvation”, “I can deliver you from Satan, Sin, The World, and Self”– “If you only believe (In Me) you will see (experience) the glory of God (to raise you from spiritual eternal death to now new life- His eternal life. Jesus said that you and I must be born again by the life-giving seed of the all consuming love of Jesus, to be given a new mind and new heart filled with the all consuming love of God with the resultant fruit of an all consuming love for God and the sacrificial love of Jesus for others. Please today, if you haven’t already –Through His Grace, Repent (from unbelief to belief in Jesus) and be converted (from a prideful, self-seeking, self-in-control life to a humble, God-pleasing, God-in-control life) that your sins may be blotted out. God can only give His saving grace to the Humble. Right now Ask God to give you a humble, broken heart with godly sorrow over how your sins and the hidden lusts of your own goals have hurt and grieved Him as you let His self-sacrificing love and blood put to death your self- life. By His mercies alone, believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God to save you by His undeserved grace to now do the Father’s work His way. Now by faith – Rely solely on the hope of the power of His blood alone, cheerfully given on the cross, to redeem you(forgive and set you free) from the guilt and bondage to sin and make you alive by this same righteous blood by with which you can now have His righteousness living in and out of you. Now by faith, Relying solely on the hope of His resurrection power live by His undeserved grace! Jesus Christ’s Might can release us from the bondage of Satan’s Kingdom – prisoners of Satan’s lie- to now have King Jesus reign within us -with His Truth, His Life, and His Holy Spirit of Love living in Us.