Salvation belongs to God

Once stung, Ian was stranded on the beach at night, needing urgent medical help. Assuming he was a heroine addict, some taxi drivers laughed him off. That’s when ‘a voice’ spoke to him: ‘Beg for your life.’ He went down on his knees and started pleading, then eventually one of the taxi drivers gave him a lift to a hotel where a stranger scoffed at him, ‘Only God can save you now!’ What’s behind those words? God was bringing Ian to the end of himself. Ian had been his own savior for years, so God had to change his gears deep within. Not surprising that the same thing happened to Jonah.

Read Jonah 2:1-10.

The end of Chapter 1 saw Jonah thrown into the sea. He can’t swim. He sinks deep enough for seaweed to wrap around his head (v5). He’s drowning (v7). There is nothing he can do to save himself. But notice what he does. He calls out to the Lord (v1) for mercy. That’s the moment God steps in! God sends an underwater rescue vehicle in the form of a large fish that swallows him up (1:17), somehow providing a pocket of air, until he is delivered to the beach (v10). In the belly of the fish, Jonah articulates life’s greatest discovery: ‘Salvation belongs to the Lord’ (v9). God’s physical rescue of him as he calls for mercy depicts God’s spiritual rescue of us all as we call out for mercy.

As a young teen, Ian’s mother had taught him, ‘Learn one thing from my life. No matter what you have done, or how far away God seems, if you call on God from your heart He will forgive you.’ This was the best counsel anyone gave him. It’s counsel we need too. None of us are worthy of God’s acceptance and forgiveness. It’s not good people who get to God, or get into heaven for that matter. It’s forgiven people, people who have understood that salvation belongs to God alone. God saves those who know they cannot save themselves, who call on Him with the desperation of a drowning man.

Do you believe that there is nothing you can do to be made right with God? Have you ever called on God for salvation and mercy? If not, why not do that now?