Deliverer

artwork by Krista Hamrick

It is so energizing and exciting to participate in #Write31days, an online writing challenge where writers pick one topic and write a post on that topic every day in the month of October. Within the #Write31days category ofInspiration & Faith, I chose to focus on the topic of the Name Above All Names every day for 31 days. You can view each of my daily posts at this landing page.

Krista Hamrick’s beautiful original art print, Name Above All Names Alphabet, has so inspired me. Each of the 26 individual Names she has identified are so special, as Krista has intricately painted, almost like stained glass windows, each one with its Scripture reference.

My heart has been drawn to do a word study for each of the names included in her art print. Krista and I felt led to publish our... Name Above All Names Devotional: Focusing on 26 Alphabetical Names of Christ …available on Amazon at this link. Listening to the anointed Matt Maher hymn, Deliverer, while studying Colossians 1:13...

NASB: For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

Amplified: [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

Lightfoot: Yes, by a strong arm he rescued us from the lawless tyranny of darkness, removed us from the land of our bondage, and settled us as free citizens in our new and glorious home, where his Son, the offspring and the representative of his love, is King;

NLT: For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

Phillips: For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness, and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in the kingdom of light.

Weymouth:  It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son,

Wuest:  who delivered us out of the tyrannical rule of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we are having our liberation, procured by the payment of ransom.

Young's Literal: who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate us into the reign of the Son of His love,

Delivered is the Greek word, rhuomai which means to draw or snatch to oneself and invariably refers to a snatching from danger, evil or an enemy. This basic idea is that of bringing someone out of severe and acute danger, and so to save, rescue, deliver, preserve. Rhuomai emphasizes greatness of peril from which deliverance is given by a mighty act of power. In the NewTestament rhuomai is always associated with God as the Deliverer and with a person as the object of His deliverance.

Rhuomai  means to rescue, deliver, as when we first became believers and the Lord...delivered (rhuomai) us from the domain of darkness and transferred (removed us from. one place to another, causing a change in someone's official position) us to the kingdom (denoting sovereignty, royal power, dominion) of His beloved Son. Since rhuomai means to draw to oneself, here we see the great picture that God drew us out of Satan’s kingdom to Himself. That event was the new birth. We are not gradually, progressively delivered from Satan’s power. When we placed our faith in Christ, we were instantly delivered.

A great example is wading in a rushing river and suddenly being caught in the current utterly helpless. As you cry out someone hears you and holds out their hand as you go rushing by. As you lie there beside the river, safe in the presence of the one who pulled you out, you still are in the presence of the dangerous rushing current...you can hear it...you can see it...but you've been delivered from danger you are now safe. How foolish to walk right back into that current and let it sweep you away!

Jesus, when asked by his disciples how they should pray, gave as part of his answer that they should ask...”And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver (rhuomai - in the form of a command) us from evil.”

Rhuomai is in the present tense indicating that is our Savior continually delivers us. The  middle voice is reflexive ("He Himself rescues us") and emphasize His personal involvement in the rescue. He initiates and participates in the carrying out of the rescue.

Rhuomai is in the aorist tense (past completed act) and the middle voice which conveys the great truth that God initiated the "rescue operation" and participated in the carrying out of the operation!  One could paraphrase this verse as "God Himself rescued us" or the Amplified Version's "[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself.” This deliverance points to the moment of salvation for every believer—He "rescued" us from sin and death when He died in our place, and that "credit" was placed on our account the moment we first believed this Good News. The truth to depraved men and women is that we did not (and could not) rescue ourselves from the jaws of eternal destruction. God did only what He could do…truly all is grace.

Wing-walker Lee Oman slipped from his perch underneath a Waco biplane and dangled from a safety line 1500 feet over the Hillsboro, Oregon, airport during an air show. At first, everyone in the crowd of 40,000 thought the fall was part of Oman’s daring midair act. But after the plane had circled the airport for 20 minutes, it was obvious something had gone wrong. Oman had fallen and didn’t have the strength to pull himself back up. When they saw what was happening, several men jumped into a pickup truck and sped onto the runway. The pilot of the biplane saw the truck and realized what the would-be rescuers had in mind. He gently lowered his dangling human cargo over the vehicle until Oman was within reach. While one man grabbed Oman and pulled him into the truck bed, another cut the wing-walker’s nylon safety harness. Oman was free of the plane’s deadly grasp.

Captain Scott O’Grady knows better than most what rescue means. In June 1995 his plane was shot down over Bosnia. The Air Force pilot survived on insects, plants, and rain water and was only able to use his radio transmitter late at night. On the sixth night of his ordeal, his faint radio signal was picked up by another U.S. pilot. A daring rescue mission eventually brought the helpless pilot to safety. As amazing as this rescue was, every believer has experienced one even more miraculous.

We humans just naturally tend to be self-absorbed, so it is easy to get things all turned around and think that the Christian life is all about me—all about my disciplines and my effort, all about my problems and what I can do to solve them. But this scripture is one that pulls us back to the center, back to the truth: it’s all about what God has done--Christ's finished work on the cross--our Deliverer!

Heavenly Father, my Deliverer, I don’t know what is going to happen in the next twenty-four hours, but I know that You will give me the strength I need to handle it and to deal with whatever challenges I may face. I bless You, Lord! Give me Your peace as I look to You for everything I need. I rejoice in my relationship with You, Father—all because of what Jesus Christ has done for me. Having an intimate relationship with Jesus, the friend of sinners, allows me to have an eternal perspective about everything else that happens to me today. I praise You for the joy such a friendship brings. In Jesus’ mighty Name Above All Names—Deliverer we pray, amen.


Look Up—meditate on Colossians 1:13

Look In—as you meditate on Colossians 1:13 pray to see how you might apply it to your life.

Look Out—as you meditate on Colossians 1:13 pray to see how you might apply it to your relationships with others.


* If you liked this post, you'll love this page -- 31 days focusing on the Name Above All Names


* If you liked this post you’ll love this book – Name Above All Names Devotional: Focusing on 26 Alphabetical Names of Christ

Weekly LinkUps…