Rescue me!

Rescue me! Oh take me in your arms
Rescue me! I want your tender charms
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too

Come on and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
'Coz I need you, by my side
Can't you see that I'm lonely
Rescue me

Come on and take my heart
Take your love and conquer every part
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too

Come on and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
'Coz I need you by my side
Can't you see that I'm lonely

Rescue me! Oh take me in your arms
Rescue me! I want your tender charms
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me

 Now that I've planted that song in your mind, imagine Aretha Franklin (or Fontella Bass, if you're a bit older) singing this as a gospel song.  It's easy, really.  Take out the word "baby" and insert "Jesus", and you get the idea.  Go ahead.  Look back at the lyrics.  I'll wait.

This idea hearkens back to the original meaning of the term Salvation.  We are Saved by God's grace to good works (Ephesians 2:10).  Yet more recently, Christians seem to have lost sense of the term.  They are more apt to think of themselves as "saved" as in set apart, like pennies in a jar, for redemption at a future date.  We should all instead act as if we have been redeemed, and get out in circulation in the world.  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! (Psalm 107:2).  Like Job, we can all say with assurance, "I know my Redeemer lives." (Job 19:25).

The two terms, Saved and Redeemed, really go hand in hand.  If you think about the two terms together, it really opens up the Word.  First, we are saved by grace.  This is a true statement.  God desired fellowship with us, so He graciously provided a way for it to happen.  But the mechanism of His grace was rather messy and very violent--it cost His Son his life.  So we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus.  Paul wrote to the Galatian church that Jesus Christ "gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." (Galatians 1:4)

Second, we have salvation from sin and hell.  The sacrifice of God's Son is the key to our deliverance.  But it is by  redemption that we do not have to follow the letter of the law to escape punishment.  "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." (Galatians 3:13-14).  We were rescued from the curse of the law.

Third, we are saved to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.  What joy heaven will be!  We want to keep ourselves holy, so that we are rewarded in heaven, and we can lay our crowns at Jesus' feet.

"And a highway will be there: it will be called the Way of Holiness.  The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there and the ransomed of the Lord will return.  They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."  --Isaiah 35:8-10.

Colossians 1:13-14 says, "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." By the act of redemption he rescues us from sin and its consequences--the blood of Jesus (the Sinless One) covers us by grace--not only to avoid eternal damnation, but to enter into the presence of God for all of eternity. And all God's people said--"Amen!"

Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am. 

Redeemed, redeemed,Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;Redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.

Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence
With me doth continually dwell. (refrain)

I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long;
I sing, for I cannot be silent;
His love is the theme of my song. (refrain)

I know I shall see in His beauty
The King in whose way I delight;
Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps,
And giveth me songs in the night. (refrain)

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