One Man Offers His Life To Save Others

One Man Offers His Life to Save Others

The book of Jonah begins with “The LORD gave this message to Jonah . . .” But then Jonah ran from obeying God’s mission for him and stole away on a ship heading in the direction opposite of Nineveh. Then “the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart” (Jonah 1:4).

Jonah knew that God had sent the storm that threatened the lives of everyone on the ship. He also knew that he was the real object of God’s displeasure. So he calmly offered himself up, saying to his shipmates, “Throw me into the sea, . . . and it will become calm again” (1:12).

In Jonah’s offering of himself up to die so that others might live, we see a picture of Jesus offering himself up to die so that we might live. Yet a glaring contrast reveals why Jesus is “greater than Jonah” (Matthew 12:41). Jonah had to offer himself because he had been disobedient in refusing to submit to God’s will. Jesus, the obedient prophet, did what Jonah had been unwilling to do. Jesus didn’t run from preaching repentance and announcing judgment. He didn’t refuse to invite people outside the boundaries of Israel into God’s Kingdom. He welcomed them. Jesus didn’t avoid God’s will; his greatest joy was in accomplishing God’s will, saying to God, “I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matthew 26:39).

When the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, the storm stopped at once. The Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Likewise, when Jesus gave up his spirit and died, the storm of God’s judgment for sin was stilled. God’s justice was satisfied with Christ’s substitutionary death on our behalf. And Jesus was inside the earth for three days and three nights.

What does this mean for us? It means that even though we run from God, refuse to give out God’s Word to others, and like Jonah, are filled with bigotry, self-centeredness, and self-pity, God is satisfied with us—not because of who we are or what we’ve done, but because of who Christ is and what he has done. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18, NIV).

One who died so I might live, you offered yourself to die in my place. You, the righteous One, for me, the unrighteous one. I don’t understand this mysterious and glorious exchange, but I accept it and receive it by faith.