Whatever It Takes

Anthony Capuano, a 29-year-old swim coach and lifeguard, became a local hero as he rescued a man from drowning in his car in Newark Bay, New Jersey. According to The Jersey Journal, an elderly man attempted to pull over to answer a phone call, but accidentally pressed on both the brake and accelerator which caused him to speed into the bay. A group of bystanders screamed in fright as the flashing tail lights swiftly sank. That’s when Capuano’s instincts took over. Abandoning his own safety, he dove into the frigid water, swam fifty feet to the man’s submerged vehicle, and pulled him to safety.

Capuano was an unexpected savior, however, because as he recalled, he had to remove his own leg before swimming—his prosthetic leg. When Capuano was a teenager, he was struck by a train that cost him his leg. A paramedic team saved his life and that’s likely what motivated him to pursue the profession of saving others as a lifeguard. Capuano relinquished his own security and safety to deliver a man from death. He did everything he could to get the man to safety, although he had obvious limitations. And he was compelled to come to the rescue because he himself had been saved by the selfless effort of someone else.

What Capuano did for a man in peril is what God wants you to do for those in spiritual peril. The unsaved are drowning in a sea of guilt and sin, and their souls are in eternal danger. Sin is driving them madly down the road of spiritual destruction and they are in jeopardy of fatally immersing themselves into “lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15). Only Jesus Christ the Lord can save and deliver them, but it is your Christian duty to swim out to them with the life-saving message of the gospel. You must do everything you can to win them to Christ, just like the four men who overcame every obstacle to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus (Mark 2:1-5).

As C. H. Spurgeon once preached, “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

Whatever it takes to get the unsaved to Jesus is worth it—even if you must sacrifice your comfort and security. You may have limitations, but God will use you when you give yourself to Him as a willing vessel. And remember—someone once swam out to you with the gospel. Therefore, let gratefulness for your own salvation compel you to swim out to unbelievers with the same gospel that saved you.

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Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.