Rescue   (Don Moen)

You are the source of life; I can’t be left behind

No one else will do; I will take hold of you

I need you Jesus to come to my rescue; Where else can I go?

There’s no other name by which I am saved; capture me with grace—I will follow you 

I love this song because it vividly portrays the predicament of the Christian who is dealing with the essential problem of sin. The problem isn’t simply that we need forgiveness and salvation; the worst thing seems to be that, even after we come to Christ, our hearts still so often pull us away from God. Moen’s line, “Capture me with grace” is especially telling. The word “capture” implies the act of overtaking by force or outmaneuvering. For a great many of us, this is the picture of how we came to call Christ Lord and Savior. For the hard case, it also describes the process of sanctification. 

For my part, once I comprehended the calling of the Gospel, I was reluctant to respond even though I knew I must. I knew Scripture’s insistence on forsaking sin, and that sounded like death to me, worse for the fact that it is a living death, prolonged over many years. I like C.S. Lewis, who described coming into God’s kingdom “kicking and screaming.” There were innumerable intellectual, emotional and volitional barriers to be overcome, and God did most of the work. Since I accepted Christ as Savior, the unbelief and willful sin in my life have proven God’s patience many times over. 

The sinner’s heart is indestructible. Though the sober-minded Christian fasts, prays and weeps in repentance, the self-will lives on, pummeled though it may be by God’s chastening. But God’s love is relentless. He will never stop coming until the day we die. His grace is greater than our sin.