God Saves

There is no shortage in this world of things that claim they will save you. Refinancing companies, the latest gadgets, new medications, off-label usages, even "natural" remedies for things you didn't even know you had. It seems that everywhere you turn, there is someone or something offering you some solution for some trouble, real or perceived, something intended to make your life better. 

And, as we know, most of these things amount to nothing more than snake oil. 

They may have the intended effect, but they don't address the deep-down issues that come along with our brokenness. They might restore the body or the bank account or the circumstance, but they do little to touch the soul. They might put out the fire, but you definitely still got burned. 

Then, there's God. 

It's one of the most well-known stories in the Bible. Three faithful men of God - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - are thrown into a fiery furnace, a furnace so hot that it killed the men who were responsible for throwing them in there in the first place. And yet, they are seen just walking around in the fire, no longer bound by the ropes that were once tied around their hands, not even a hair on their head was singed. And there was an extra Man in the fire with them. 

After he orders them to come out of the fire, Nebuchadnezzar issues a decree that everyone should worship the God of these men, the Lord. "For there is no other god who can save like this" (Daniel 3:29). 

Only the Lord lets you walk in the fire and not get burned. Only the Lord uses the fire to burn away the chains of the world. Only the Lord uses a death sentence to set you free. 

I'm not sure if this is what the world is still seeing about our Lord, by our witness, but it's what they need to see. 

This world needs to see our God saving us in this way. They need to see Him walking around in our troubles with us. They need to see our chains broken and our ropes burned. They need to see not a hair on our head is singed. They need to see that we don't even smell like smoke. 

That doesn't mean we can't smell the smoke; of course, we can. It means it doesn't get on us and sully us. It doesn't soil us. It doesn't leave the kind of mark that the world thinks it ought to leave. And certainly, it doesn't kill us. 

The world needs to see our God who uses a death sentence - the crucifixion of Christ - to set us free. 

For if the world was seeing this, if this was the witness that we were living, if our lives somehow found a way, in God, to rise above the roar and the fire and the flame and the rage...what other conclusion could there be but the one Nebuchadnezzar came to thousands of years ago? 

We must worship this God, for there is no other god who can save like this.