"Obligated"
For those who saw Saving Private Ryan, you may remember the impactful punch line—a hard one to forget. For those who didn’t, let me briefly review the storyline.
Private Ryan was the last surviving son. The other three had died in WWII. The military honorably discharges the last remaining son so the family name can survive. The problem: Private Ryan’s company was part of the Normandy D-Day invasion and engaged in fierce fighting. The army sent a detachment of 8 men, led by Captain Miller, to find Private Ryan and return him to safety. In their search, the Germans killed five. Captain Miller was mortally wounded after he found Ryan, and in his dying breath, told him, “Earn it.” The movie closes with what the elderly Ryan said as he and his family visited Miller’s grave at the Normandy Cemetery: that he remembered Miller’s words every day, lived as best he could, and hopes he earned their sacrifices.
That’s what Jesus did. He died to save me. And He died to save you—yes, all of you—millions and
millions of people. Jesus had said,
We are neither righteous nor good, yet, as our expression of the Father’s immeasurable mercy, Jesus died for us, not because we were righteous. We weren’t. We weren’t even good. We were sinners, despicable, like filthy cockroaches infesting His glory; yet He died for us, paying the penalty for our sins and meeting the requirements of God’s justice.
The death that surely would have ended all life for us, that horrible and grueling death that placed Jesus in His tomb, could not confine Him. Jesus’ last breath returned. Life sprouted within Him, and He arose, casting away His shroud and bursting from the tomb. That victory over death was a victory for us, for Jesus shares the eternal life to which He rose with all those who follow Him.
We are like Private Ryan. We have been rescued with a superhuman effort that gives this life meaning. Some people, seeing the opportunities and pleasures of life, think little of the cost another paid. They chase their appetites, but some, realizing what another willingly paid, recognize their obligation.
Is life on earth an accident, the unlikely result of random events, or does life have purpose? The sacrificial death of Jesus to save us from sin and the captivity to the devil, as well as the eventual destruction sin brings, is a powerful witness that life has purpose. Life’s purpose is to find a way back to God, our Creator, and the eternal life that is in Him. Alma taught, “This life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state, which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead” (Alma 9:41). That path is not some secret hidden in the dusty relics of the past. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Jesus died saving us, but he rose from the dead to be our path to eternal life—the path into the presence of the Father, where all light, life, and glory spring. Jesus introduces all who follow Him to His Father. He said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
Have you found purpose in life? If you found it, do you feel obligated to the person who gave you that purpose? Apostle Paul felt obligated. He had been a self-righteous Pharisee who kept all 613 rules that tradition, man’s tradition at that, required. Those rules testified that he was an obedient and entitled citizen of God’s kingdom, but Jesus showed him differently. Saul, as he was called then, was zealously hunting Christians. He thought they were heretics, blaspheming the sacred name, but Jesus appeared to him while he traveled to persecute Christians in Damascus. Jesus asked, “Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). The event changed Paul, but left him blind. It made him a different person. Not only was he baptized, but he received the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost. God’s Spirit within him transformed him. Instead of hunting the disciples of Jesus, he hunted for converts through Greece, Asia Minor (Turkey), and, late in life, Rome, offering them the new life he had found in Jesus.
Because Jesus saved him and transformed him, Paul felt obligated to tell others about what Jesus did for him, testifying that He can do the same for anyone who believes his testimony. Paul had found his purpose for living. He told the church at Rome, “I am debtor” (Rom 1:14), not to Jesus for the death that satisfied God’s justice and freed him from eternal death, or for the new life that the Holy Ghost brought. Paul was a debtor, “both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise” (Rom1:14). He did not owe the Greeks and the barbarians, nor the wise and unwise. Had they done anything for him? He owed Jesus for the salvation he received. That obligation to Jesus meant he was obligated to preach the plan of salvation to others, to everyone he could, to the Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and unwise. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel but bold in testifying to all who would listen. He added, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16).
At one of the earlier Passion events, Kristian Stanfill sang Not Ashamed with the repetitive chorus, “I’m not ashamed of the one who saved of my soul,” declaring, “Sing it from the rooftops.” This was Apostle Paul’s mantra and the slogan of every born-again Christian.
Have you found purpose in life because Jesus saved you? Are you grateful for the transformation that the Holy Ghost is working in you? Do you feel obligated to those all around you to tell them about the purpose and joy Jesus gives you? Then share the gospel, the plan of salvation. Like Paul, boldly tell them that Jesus has saved you and is changing you from a sinner through the presence of the Holy Ghost. Invite them to do the same.