One of the things I do to relax is to watch documentaries on real life situations. A favorite involves fishing in the Bering Sea. Usually, it is just following the lives of these fisherman and the challenges they face, but occasionally, it covers the extreme worst circumstances, like when a boat is in danger or the life of one or more crew members is in peril. Then the show takes on a different tone. The bickering, the jealousy, the competition, even the fishing takes a back seat to the hero of those episodes… the coast guard.
The coast guard regularly trains and has mock exercises for the most extreme situations, preparing for real life scenarios they hope they will never have to face, but are prepared for just in case. Their training is so rigorous, so dangerous, that there is a greater chance of accident or death in the training accidents, than there is in actual emergencies themselves. You see, in the Bering Sea, if danger comes, those sailors have one option to save them, only one. There is no back up for the Coast Guard, if they don’t save you no one else is able to. When you are loaded aboard the boat or helicopter of the coast guard, your danger is over, it’s all in their capable hands.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:16-17 KJV
Here in Romans 1, Paul sheds a bright light to these Romans who still struggled and questioned salvation through the law and works and that the Gospel is the only way of salvation to any who would just have faith in it. God’s righteousness, His Holiness, His power to declare others righteous, is revealed through faith in the Gospel. It starts in faith, and it ends in faith, nothing in between, by no other means. Faith in absolutely anything else will never be the way of salvation, it will never provide the answers to life.
God Himself, has done all the work, all the preparation on our behalf, so that at that moment we put our full faith in Him, salvation is immediately provided, and that same faith continues to carry us through our lives. He Himself reaches down with His strong grip and holds onto us and He never lets us go. He will continue to carry us to safety through the storms of life, because though our eternal fate is sealed, the storms of life continue. Don’t for a moment let go of those strong hands, no other hands will carry us through the storm.
Dr. Ronald J. Barnes, Jr.
President / CEO
August 23, 2022
