Leave All Other Rescue Devices Behind and Cling to the Ultimate Life Guard!

I recently became a life guard.  In the early mornings I go and guard lives, watching and waiting for the individuals I am guarding to either, make a poor decision that would put their lives in jeopardy or waiting for something to happen to them that is beyond their control or capacity to reason.

Part of being a life guard entails creating scenarios in your mind as the individuals you are guarding are swimming... creepy I know but it doesn't bother me.  At times I imagine an elderly man having a heart attack in the deep end with a deep water workout belt on.  How will his body react in the water when he is unconscious, how will I respond?

A life guard's job is an important one and one must be on "guard" ready to respond and be present in the midst of an emergency within 20 seconds.

As I scan the pool, watching the morning swimmers, who have been coming to swim laps for over 30 years, I contemplate the necessity of the existence of the lap lines in the pool as these swimmers trudge through them during their morning routine.

Much like the law, these lines are in place to keep order in the pool and to act as a temporary rescue line if someone needs assistance in some way or another.

Interestingly enough children at times will cling to or hang on these lines as they are learning how to swim.

Galatians 3:19-20

Why then the law?  It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 

 Now an intermediary implies more than one, 

but God is one.  

I have to physically place the lap lines in the pool so that the patrons are safe.  Like the lap lines the law acts as a life saving opportunity but is it the ultimate way to rescue a life?  NO!

Galatians 3:21-22

Is the law contrary to the promises of God?  Certainly not!  

For if a law had been given that could give life, 

then righteousness would indeed be by the law.  

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, 

so that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given

 to those who believe.  

Before the life guard reaches the individual in distress the lap lines serve to buoy them up in the instance of an emergency where they may be conscious and aware enough to respond to their distress themselves.

Paul shows us that the law acted as a guardian of life until the ultimate guard rescued us!

Galatians 3:23-24

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  

So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came,

 in order that we might be justified by faith.  

Like a life guard responding to an emergency Christ Jesus had come by way of faith, rescuing us from certain death!  Praise be to God!

I Corinthians 15:57

Thanks be to God! 

 He gives us victory over sin and death 

through our Lord Jesus Christ!

But now that faith has come, 

we are no longer under a guardian, 

for in Christ Jesus you are

 all sons of God through faith.  

You see, what the law could not do Christ has done for us!  

Romans 8:3-5

For God has done what the law, 

weakened by the flesh, 

could not do.  

By sending his own Son

 in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, 

he condemned sin in the flesh, 

in order that the righteous requirement of the law 

might be fulfilled in us, 

who walk not according to the flesh 

but according to the Spirit.  

For those who live according to the flesh 

set their minds on things of the flesh, 

but those who live according to the Spirit 

set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

If you are looking for a device like the lap lines to rescue you think again!  That is a rescue plan for disaster.  The law served its purpose but now it is by no means a method of approaching God but God sent Jesus down from His life guard position to rescue us from certain death!

For the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, 

for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 

 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  

We cannot please God if we cling to a device other than Christ as we are overcome by the waves of life.  So often when people are being rescued they do not want release the "thing" that they perceive is keeping them safe and jump into the arms of the rescuer but it is necessary.

In order for our lives to be saved we must, but means of faith, jump into the arms of Christ, leaving the apparent safety of the law, in order that we might please God.