A fun day at Long Beach, Washington, took a sudden turn for the worse when Peter Doumit, watching his son and his nephew, both about ten years old, saw them get farther from shore than they should have gone and then begin to panic. So he ran through the surf that was pounding the beach and waded out through ever-deepening water forty or fifty yards to where the boys were having trouble. His nephew, the stronger swimmer of the two, seemed to be holding his own, but he saw that his son was flailing his arms and gasping for breath. He reached his boy and held him up above the shoulder-high water.
The run through the water had tired him and the water was bitter cold, but the important thing was that his son, whom he loved more than anything else, was safe. Because of his love, he was willing to put himself in harm’s way to protect his son. He never stopped to consider the danger to himself. It is the way love works.
He was holding on to his boy when he discovered his feet were trapped in the sand. Evidently he had stood for a few minutes in a patch of soft, shifting sand, that some locals call a “crab hole.” He couldn’t break his feet free from the suction of the sand, and the more he struggled the lower he sank. Soon the waves were crashing over him and he was no longer able to catch his breath. He held on to his boy, holding him safe until at last, unable to breathe, he lost consciousness and let the boy go. A rescue team arrived in time to pull his badly shaken-up son out of the water. The nephew was able to swim to safety on his own, but they searched for the father for forty fruitless minutes, even calling in a helicopter to help. At last they found him, but it was too late. He had drowned saving his son. A member of the rescue team told a reporter, “The dad died a hero, saving his son.”
Peter Doumit loved his boy and died trying to protect him. Love is the earnest desire for the good of another. It is stronger than the desire of good for oneself. Solomon felt the power of love when he wrote the following passage in the Song of Solomon: “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death....Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” Peter Doumit loved his son with a love that was stronger than death, and he gave more than the substance of his house for it; he gave his life that the boy might live.
I would like to tell you about another whose love was far stronger than death, which many waters couldn’t quench, neither the floods drown. It was the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for a perishing world. Even though we are all sinners, He loved us so that He left heaven above to live as a man among men. In the first four books of the New Testament you can trace His life on earth and see how truth and love shine out in all He did and said.
You can read of many wonderful incidents that reveal how He showed God’s love to those who were in need. Take, for instance, the time He was walking on a road to a town called Nain. Near the city gate He passed a funeral procession. A widow’s only son had died, and many people from the town were carrying him out to bury him. When Jesus saw the poor, heart-broken widow, we read that He had “compassion” on her, and with the words, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise,” raised her boy back to life. You can find this story in Luke 7.
Truly His is love like no other! At another time He passed by a man that was born blind and could only live by begging. Jesus anointed his eyes with clay and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. “He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” The story doesn’t end there. The religious leaders of that day were so infuriated that such a miracle undoubtedly took place that they examined both this man and his parents. The man’s honest answers so enraged them that they reviled him and cast him out. But Jesus found him, talked to him and led him to a real faith in the Son of God. These are just two incidents. There are many, many others also that you can read. As you read, you will begin to understand more about His great love.
Reading these stories of how He loved others, you can begin to get a picture of His love, but the picture can never be complete until you read of the cross and how He died a willing sacrifice for others, for sinners, for US.
The Lord Jesus knew that God is holy and must punish evil; He knew that every member of the human race sinned and would end up collecting the wages of sin: death. Death—not only physical death where the spirit is separated from the body, but spiritual death also where the soul is banished from the presence of God forever. Knowing the wages of sin and at the same time loving us with a love stronger than death, He went to the cross and willingly died in the sinner’s place. It was not the nails that held Him to the cross, but His love for sinners that bound Him there.
The Apostle Paul later wrote (being inspired by the Holy Spirit), “Christ died for our sins.” The waters of death and judgment, in wave after wave, passed over His soul. He sank beneath those waves so we might be brought to safety. It is only by His death and suffering on the cross that any of us will ever escape the punishment our sins deserve. Jesus Christ came to earth, became a man, and died that we might live through Him. Because of His death, God is able to offer the gift of a free salvation to all who believe on the name of His Son. “The wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Peter Doumit, in an act of courage and devotion, gave up his life to save his son from drowning. A far greater than Peter Doumit came to this world, and in love He gave up His life for you. Will you let His love go unanswered and never come to Him as the Savior of sinners? Or will you bow your heart to Him in recognition of what He has done and believe on Him? It is a choice only you can make. Oh, be wise, and, like the blind man who received his sight, believe on the Son of God.