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THE NET THAT NEVER FAILS

One of the most wrenching images linked with the horrors of September 11, 2001 is the specter of people jumping out of the World Trade Center buildings. Many victims, realizing that they were doomed and that they were either going to die by suffocation or by burning in the flames, chose instead to leap to their deaths. Onlookers down at Ground Zero had to watch in heartsick anguish as one person after another plummeted from the skies above. As the flames grew more intense in the upper stories, some jumpers actually were getting a running start, and then leaping clear of the fire. What a sad, tragic, final few seconds of life . . . and friend, surely the Lord God in heaven has a record of it all, and will one day make things right.

Christians have often used the familiar metaphor of a person trapped by the fires — and the firemen have their safety net down below — as an effective object lesson regarding salvation. Tragically, in this crime of all crimes, everyone who jumped obviously perished. But visualize with me the scene where a woman, let’s say, is up on the third story of a burning building. The fire trucks have arrived. They get out that net, and six sturdy men with that wonderful logo on their helmets, “FDNY,” stand right below the window where she’s trembling in fear. “Go ahead and jump,” they call out. “Don’t worry; we’ll catch you.”

And she does. She leaps to safety, the six brave men from the Fire Department of New York City catch her, loved ones dust the ashes out of her hair, and all’s well that ends well. And then we ask: What saved her? And the answer is obvious: the net.

In the gospel story, then, what is the net? In Christian parlance, the net is the saving grace of Jesus. The cross of Christ. When someone is trapped by sin, but chooses to leap free from that burning building, it’s Calvary that catches them.

Now, what if they don’t jump? Maybe they’re too afraid to jump. Maybe they don’t trust the fire department. Maybe they’re so busy watching TV in a back bedroom, and don’t notice the flames until it’s too late. Maybe a fellow doubter who’s trapped in the building with them talks them out of jumping, suggesting that the fire isn’t going to reach them, or even that there even isn’t a fire at all. A lot of things could keep that person from jumping, and so we need to decide that the act of jumping is faith. It’s the point of connection between the desperate situation and the net down below.

In his book, Eternal Security, Pastor Charles Stanley borrows this commonly used picture of the trapped person and the fire and the net. And here’s his comment about it all:

“But what bridged the gap between her need and the provision waiting below? One desperate leap! However, leaping did not save her. Many have jumped from burning buildings only to end up dead on the pavement below.”

9/11 is probably the saddest and truest illustration the world will ever see of that heartbreaking reality. Jumping doesn’t always save — only if there is a net. Stanley continues:

“The net and the firemen saved her. So it is with faith. Faith does not save a person. Everybody has expressed faith at some point or another. Yet not everyone will spend eternity in heaven. God’s grace is what saves us. Our faith, however, is the thing that bridges the gap between our need and God’s provision; specifically, it is a point in time at which the expression of faith in Christ brings God’s provision together with our need.”

If you go right to the Bible with this, I think you’ll find an exact match in the book of Ephesians. Here’s probably our most-quoted two verses: chapter two, verses 8 and 9.

“For it is by GRACE you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — NOT by works, so that no one can boast.”

So the Word of God is plain: we’re saved by GRACE, by the net that God provides for us in the Person of His Son. Our accepting of Jesus is the leap, the decision of faith, the determination to trust in Jesus and ONLY Jesus for our eternal salvation.

And then we come to the crux of the matter. This grace, this net, is plainly and unequivocally described by the Apostle Paul as a gift. “It is the gift of God,” he writes. “NOT by works, so that no man can boast.” God’s choosing to save us is a gift. His choosing to love us is a gift. His choosing to adopt us is a gift. There’s no price tag; we can’t earn it; we can’t qualify for it. And — this is an important point — once we’ve received it, we can’t then move into a mode where we have to continue to qualify for it. Because even at that point, if we have to qualify for the gift, then it isn’t a gift but a trade or a contract.

We have several books here at the office which use this “burning building and a net” imagery; this same writer, Pastor Charles Stanley, has a “Think About It” observation a few pages later.

“I have discovered,” he writes, “that my faith is maintained and strengthened by activities such as the following: Prayer, Bible Study, Christian Fellowship, Church Attendance, and Evangelism.” I’m with him all the way on all five of those, by the way; they DO strengthen a person’s faith. No question. But he continues: “If these and similar activities are necessary to MAINTAIN my faith — and the maintenance of my faith is necessary for salvation — how can I avoid the conclusion that I am saved by my good works?”

Again we think of that desperate moment atop the burning apartment building. The leap is important; but it isn’t the leap that saves. It’s the net that saves. And the Bible teaches that once a person has cast his or her lot with Jesus, salvation is a permanent gift. You don’t have to keep leaping . . . and leaping . . . and leaping, and proving yourself over and over. You don’t have to keep getting adopted many, many times. Good parents don’t treat their kids that way, and neither does our loving heavenly Father.

As long as we’re quoting familiar Bible passages today, let’s return to the most well-known in all 66 books. Here’s a little verse known even to Super Bowl fans as John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

It’s sometimes suggested that the implication of this verse really is: “Whoever believes in Him — and KEEPS on believing in Him — will have eternal life.” But let’s carefully notice that the verse doesn’t say that. In Acts 16:31, another hallmark salvation verse, Paul and Silas don’t say to the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and maintain an attitude of continuous, unbroken faith, and you will be saved, along with your household.” Because none of us, friend, are in an attitude of perfect faith, of total surrender, of 24/7 trusting in the net. And to think that our salvation depends upon our “faithful faith,” so to speak, is to put our trust in the leap and not in the net.

We find a plain case of this in the case of Jesus’ own cousin, John the Baptist. John, of course, expressed full faith in Jesus as the Messiah, telling the crowds at the Jordan that Jesus was the Lamb of God, sent to “take away the sins of the world.” That’s an expression of faith in “the net” if there ever was one. And yet, later, when John was languishing in prison, he had a lapse of faith. He sent an e-mail to Jesus with this doubting, discouraged question:

“Are You the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Here John, with the rats around his feet, and the blade of the executioner gleaming in his future, loses his confidence. At that dark moment, if you had to ask whether John the Baptist was making a “leap” of faith, you’d have to say no. But praise the Lord, he had already made it! He had already entrusted his life to his cousin and Messiah and Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And now that rescue wasn’t going to be off, then on, then off, then on. We’re not saved by faith; we’re saved by GRACE . . . and once we do express faith in that grace, God promises us salvation full and free.

Just seven chapters after Jesus’ great John 3:16 promise, He makes another one. Here’s chapter 10, verse 28:

“I give them eternal life” — Jesus is talking about His sheep here — “and they shall never perish; NO ONE can snatch them out of my hand.”

So can a friend who comes along and expresses doubts pull you out of Jesus’ salvation grasp? The Bible says no. Can even Lucifer whisper discouraging thoughts in your ear and sever your relationship with your Savior? Right here, Jesus says no. Even the demons, Paul says, writing under inspiration, aren’t going to be able to separate us “from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”