Living In Light of Jesus’ Sacrifice

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  

In 1948, the United States Department of Defense enacted a regulative practice which is commonly known today as the “Sole Survivor Policy”. The “Sole Survivor Policy” (or even more accurately, the ‘United States Department of Defense Directive 1315.15 Special Separation Policy for Survivorship’) is a set of directives that were put into place in order to protect the loved ones of a family from having to serve in combat, if that family had already lost other relatives while serving in military service.

The creation of this policy was developed after World War II, in response to an event that transpired involving five U.S. Navy sailors (known as the Sullivan brothers) who served on the U.S. Naval Cruiser USS Juneau. These five brothers, along with 687 other men, were killed during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13th, 1942 by Japanese torpedo bombers. And this policy (the“Sole Survivor Policy”) may sound familiar to you, as it was of course the central focus of the 1998 Academy Award winning film, “Saving Private Ryan”.

In that film, we are introduced to the Ryan family. The Ryan family is led by their mother, who, in the first few moments of the motion picture, receives word that three of her four sons have been killed on active duty at Normandy Beach. Next, she is given word that only one of her sons remains alive (whose name is Private James Francis Ryan), and yet, this tragedy is of course compounded by the fact that he has been pronounced “missing in action” somewhere in or around Normandy.

Now, as you may remember, the rest of this almost three-hour epic follows the mission of Captain John H. Miller, as he and a group of men set out both to find and to rescue the missing private Ryan, and to bring him home safely to his grieving mother. And in an intense and emotional turn of events, the movie ends with the majority of this six-man company, as well as Captain Miller himself, valiantly sacrificing their own lives in order to secure the freedom and safety of Private Ryan.

Finally, in the most emotionally charged scene of the film, an aged and elderly Private Ryan stands with his wife at a cemetery looking out over the tombstones of the men who sacrificed absolutely everything that they had, in order that he might live. And at the terminal point of the movie, Ryan soberly turns to his wife, with tears welling up within his eyes, as he pleads with her saying, “Tell me I've lived a good life. Tell me I'm a good man...”.

In other words, in that very moment, Private Ryan experientially understood the ultimate depth of the sacrifice that had been graciously paid by those soldiers to secure his freedom. And so, with a heart full of gratitude and appreciation, James Francis Ryan publicly declares to his wife and to his family, that he was in fact ardently committed to living his life in light of that sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul, in his famed epistle to the Romans, writes of something very similar when he declares in Romans 12:1 that, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—[for] this is your true and proper worship”. Or, as the New King James Version translates the end of verse 1, “this is your reasonable service.”

The truth is, that Jesus has done so much for us. In fact, the Bible tells us that Christ sacrificed so much more for us in His sinless life and atoning death, than we could ever hope for or imagine. And so, what Paul is actually telling us here in Romans 12:1, is that because Christ has done so much for us, ultimately, our only reasonable response, is simply to live lives of gratitude and obedience to Him in response to God’s amazing grace.

In fact, upon closer inspection, this theological formula of gratitude following grace, or the doctrinal framework of human gratitude that flows out of God’s grace, is essentially the very outline of the book of Romans itself. Because ultimately, the whole of Paul’s Apostolic letter to these 1st century believers begins by telling us first what it is that we need to believe (about God’s love, sacrifice, compassion and grace)…and only then it goes on to tell us what it is that we need to do in response.

Now, the reality is, that unfortunately it is far too easy for us to get this biblical order reversed. In fact, many people wrongly assume that the Christian life begins with our doing something. We wrongly assume that we need to live our lives in such a way that we might merit or earn a right relationship with God. And yet, upon closer analysis, that is not what the Bible teaches. No instead, what the Scriptures actually declare, is that the only way for us to be “justified" (or ‘to be made right with God’) is not by doing anything... but instead by simply believing in the person and work of Jesus and what He has already done for us.

In other words, it is only when we place our faith in Jesus that He will “impute” (or ‘transfer') His perfect record to our account. Which means that the Christian life doesn’t begin with doing. No, instead, the Christian life begins with believing. And only after that, only after we’ve placed our faith and our trust in Jesus, do we proceed to live lives of obedience to Him. Why do we do that? Why do we do good works? We do good works as an act of gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us. We are called to live in light of the sacrifice that Christ has already paid on our behalf.