When a soldier goes into combat, he knows certain things. He knows he could die or be wounded, perhaps severely. He probably thinks about it more than he wants to, but tries to repress it so that it doesn't take over his mind and create a terrible atmosphere of fear. This fear factor is there and effects every part of your mind and body. The soldier cannot hide it or run from it, only face it. A few go temporarily insane with it. Most find inner resources to face it and learn to live with it. Once bullets start flying, other primitive reactions take over and fear often takes a back seat.

One of the unwritten rules in the military is that you won't be left behind. If it is at all humanly possible, we will come and get you, alive or dead. We won't leave your body on the battlefield. This is one thing you can count on as a soldier. If you are shot down in enemy territory, or somehow get separated from your squad while in enemy territory, there will be a rescue mission. Your friends and comrades will come looking for you.

This is how I feel about God. No matter what, He will come looking for me. Things can be so bad, that a whole army couldn't get to me, but Jesus Himself will gear up and make His way through the worst conditions to rescue me. As I read Romans, the early chapters, I find myself thinking that this world is in terrible shape. As Paul says, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." He goes through a list of conditions that we humans are caught up in and I think the evil of it all is so great, that no one can fix it or rescue us from it.

But Jesus has an unwritten rule as well, none of us will be left behind. We can choose of course to jump off the rescue ship, but He will go to the ends of the earth to make sure we have a seat to safety.

Maybe that's why Paul lays out such a stark picture in the early part of Romans. He uses the darkness to show off the searchlights of God's rescue plan. He takes us into the depths of despair to show us how far God's arm can reach. Sometimes we call this the Gospel, sometimes Grace, sometimes Salvation. I tend to think that Grace is just the way He is. It is His character, He can't be anything and any other way than Graceful. His actions toward us are all born of Grace. And the Gospel is the story that illuminates His Grace. His Son tells this story so well, in His living and dieing and living again. And Salvation comes to us as the result of this story and our acceptance of it. Salvation is the state we find ourselves in as a result of His Grace and compelling Story, working it's way into our hearts.

We may struggle mightily on this earth with the conditions being what they are. I am still reeling with the grief of losing several church members to cancer this Spring. But one thing is sure, He will leave no one behind. He will make all things right. I don't mean the universalist view that he will change us all and save us all against our wills. But in a far greater sense, when God is done with all the rescue missions, we will understand why He did all He could divinely do to make sure that no one was left behind, and we will be glad we were a part of it all.