“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  Luke 19:10

If a man unable to swim fell into deep water and was crying out for help, what would you do?  Throw him a book on five Easy Swimming Lessons?  Shout encouragement?  How about jumping into the water and crying out, “Just look at me, brother!  Follow my example!  I’ll teach you how to swim and save yourself!”  You would do no such thing!  This drowning man doesn’t need swimming lessons.  It’s too late for that! What he needs is a savior, one who will come to him in his desperate state, reach down, lift him up, and deliver him from the clutches of death.

It’s the same way with man’s spiritual condition.  The Bible says that “all have sinned” and that the “wages of sin is death.”  Everyone born into this world has fallen into sin, and in its clammy embrace is doomed to destruction.  The only means of escape must be through a “Savior,” one who stoops down in grace and delivers the needy soul from judgment.  It is impossible for a man to learn to “save himself.”  Trying his best won’t do, and following the example of others is of no avail.  What he needs is a Savior. 

How thankful we should be then that “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10.  He delivers all who trust Him for their salvation.  Even as a drowning person must relax and and cease his struggling in the arms of his rescuer, we must do the same with this Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.