Feeding time! Bruno and Brutus waited impatiently for the familiar sounds of dishes being filled and food brought out to them. Not yet a year old, the two Rottweiler’s roused up eagerly at a sound inside the house. No—not yet. They sank back to the ground, their eyes fixed on the door.
Finally the back door slowly opened and their owner stepped out, carrying their food. At last! Quivering with excitement, they leaped up to greet their familiar friend.
But what was this?
There was someone else, a stranger. A stranger in their yard—their territory. Their owner’s 13-year-old granddaughter, Melissa, ran out “to help Grandma” feed the dogs. “Go back! Go back! You aren’t supposed to be out here!” the grandmother cried.
It was too late. As Melissa turned to run back into the house, the two dogs threw themselves upon her and pulled her to the ground, biting and clawing.
The horrified grandmother tried to pull the dogs away, but she was no match for two ninety-pound dogs. Inside the house, 11-year-old T.J., Melissa’s younger brother, heard them and ran out. Seeing the two attacking his sister, he knew he had to help.
“I knew if I didn’t do something, she would have gotten really hurt,” he said. “I tackled one, and kept kicking the other” and the dogs turned their attention to him.
“They started biting me and pushed me against the fence,” he said, but he wasn’t thinking of what might happen to him. He said, “I was just scared for her.”
T.J. escaped when his shirt was ripped off and the dogs were momentarily diverted, giving him a chance to get away.
Melissa and the grandmother suffered bites and scratches, but T.J. had deep puncture wounds and slashes that had to be stitched up and would take months to heal. Faced with a whole summer “stuck” in the house, unable to swim or to ride his bike, he only said, “I’m glad that I got what I got and she didn’t.”
There is someone who has suffered far, far more to save others than T.J. did to save Melissa. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, suffering and dying for sins He did not commit, the people standing watching mocked Him and said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save....Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him” (Matt. 27:4242He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. (Matthew 27:42)).
Did Christ have the power to come down from the cross?
Of course He did.
But would He come down, stop the torture and go back to His Father in heaven—alone? Never! Never!
He came into the world to save sinners, and nothing could change His purpose. He came to offer salvation from sin to everyone who would receive it, and, as John the Apostle wrote, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
As T.J. knew that his sister would be hurt-perhaps killed-unless he helped, so the Lord Jesus knew there was no help for us, lost and sinful as we were, unless He, the sinless One, came and gave His life on the cross for us.
T.J. could say that he was “glad” that he suffered instead of Melissa. The Bible says of the Lord Jesus, after He “was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities,” that “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” He will “justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5-115But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:5‑11)).
Are you one who has been justified, whose sins have been pardoned, who has received the Lord Jesus Christ and become a child of God by receiving Him? You can-the offer of salvation is still open, but we cannot say for how long. The Bible says only that “now is the day of salvation”-it never says “tomorrow.”