Saving Lives

“I knew him before he was saved.” That’s what someone said to me this week about a friend of theirs. It continues to intrigue me how we have come to assume that the word saved is the word we should use when we want to refer to a person’s conversion.

Today we are looking at 27:1–28:10. These verses tell us about Paul's journey to Rome. And what a journey it was! Yes, Paul made it to Rome, but not without difficulty. This trip was anything but a smooth ride. What we find in this travel log are three distinct challenges that Paul faces along the way: a sea storm, a shipwreck, and a snake.[1] From each of these Paul is saved, but of course this salvation is not a reference to his conversion.

For Paul and his traveling companions, this is a harrowing tale. For us who read the account, we are meant to feel the intensity of the whole ordeal, as though we were watching or reading a modern-day thriller. Luke has told the story with great detail; he was there and experienced this journey himself. And surely, he also wants us his readers to not just enjoy the story, but also to be impacted by it in some way.

One way it might impact us is by helping us think through our soteriology, our doctrine of salvation. This theme of salvation runs throughout this passage. It emphasizes the scope of what salvation is all about. It’s about saving lives, not just saving souls. It’s about reviving hope when all hope seems lost. What we can learn from this account is that because God is a savior, there is always hope whenever we confront the challenges of life.

We can see in this account how it is that God thinks of us human beings. What is God's disposition toward us, toward all of us? Here we see God's love, God's will, and God's cure—all offered toward us human beings because God cares about saving lives.

God’s Love for Humanity

First, as Paul and his travelling companions deal with a sea storm, we are told about God’s love for humanity.

Civility

The first six verses have the journey starting out smoothly enough. Luke tells us that Paul and other prisoners are on board a ship that departed from Caesarea and sailed along the coast of Asia, modern day Turkey. A Roman centurion named Julius was responsible for the prisoners, and he treated Paul kindly. The Greek verb here is literally “lover of humans” and it describes basic civility, what it means to be a human in relation to other humans. A form of the word occurs later in our passage (Acts 28:2), where it describes the kindness of the native people to Paul and his companions following their shipwreck.

But the word is also used in Titus 3:4, and there it refers to God’s own “loving kindness” toward humanity seen in the fact that he “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.” God acts with civility toward humanity.

We know how we are to treat our fellow humans by how we have been treated by God himself. And in our story today, we see this kind of basic civility exhibited by non-Christians. Yes, and of course, non-Christians can and should treat their fellow humans with civility. The scandal is when Christians do not do so.

Desperation

So far so good, but the trip takes a turn when there is a ship change at the port of Myra. The trip became more difficult. Slow sailing for a number of days. It was only with difficulty, we are told twice, that the passengers arrived at a port called Fair Havens on the island of Crete.

The new boat was a ship of Alexandria, which had Italy as its destination. At this point in history, passenger boats did not exist. One had to travel on board commercial boats. A ship from Alexandria in Egypt was no doubt heading to Italy with a load of grain, and it must have been a larger grain boat to head out into the open Mediterranean Sea, as well as to carry 276 persons. Still, even for this large grain boat, the journey was getting difficult. An ominous sign for a ship that still had a way to go to reach its destination.

We can imagine Paul thinking about this since he was a seasoned sea traveler himself. It would now not just be difficult, but downright dangerous to continue on. Verse nine tells us that the fast was over, a reference to the Day of Atonement. In other words, it was now around the beginning of October. And at this point, the weather could change very quickly. Ancient sources tell us that no one ventured out after mid-November. Paul advises them to stay there for the winter. But he was overruled. The majority wanted to continue on to a different harbor of Crete which would be a more preferably place to spend the winter.

So, off they went. But verse 14 tells us that “a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land.” The word tempestuoustranslates the Greek word Tuphon who was the Greek God of wind, with a fearsome and deadly serpentine form. The following verses describe the terrifying scene, the sailors doing everything they could to survive the sea storm. Ancient pagans believed that if they died at sea their souls would wander aimlessly forever over the waters in which they had perished.[2]One commentator says, “When a pagan feared for his life, the last place he wanted to be was on a foundering boat.”[3]You can sense the growing desperation as they began “to jettison the cargo” (v. 18), throw “the ship’s tackle overboard” (v. 19). When the storm did not relent, and clear skies did not come, the final thing that went overboard was any hope of being saved (v. 20).

Hope

That’s when we hear Paul’s voice again. He can’t resist the urge to utter an “I told you so!” before assuring them “to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you” (v. 22). An angel of God had appeared to him and told him to not be afraid. He would make it to Rome and stand before Caesar. But notice also what Paul was told, in verse 24. “And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.” Even when we have acted foolishly, and are receiving the consequences of our actions, God’s steadfast love endures, and that is why there is hope. Psalm 107 celebrates God’s rescue of people who were suffering affliction because of their sinful ways, but when “they cried to the LORD in their trouble” he “delivered them from their distress” (Psa 107:17-22).

That Psalm goes on to speak of God’s rescue from a sea storm, and comes to mind when I read this story in Acts 27. I also am reminded of the story of Jonah, except for there it was the presence of Jonah on the boat that put the lives of the other sailors in jeopardy. Here it is the presence of Paul on the boat that kept hope alive.

Isn’t this what the presence of the people of God ought to bring to their communities? That growing sense of desperation that can cause any of us to cry out, “Does anyone care?” ought to be answered by the non-anxious presence of God’s people who know that yes, God does care. We are to offer this hope to the world: the hope of God’s love for humanity that is so real, so strong, so compelling that God gave his one and only Son, that he has gone into action to save lives. It is who God is. Where are you in need of salvation? How does the community around us need to have hope restored?

God’s Will for Humanity

The good news, Paul announces, is that “there will be no loss of life” from the sea storm. The bad news is that they will have to survive a shipwreck. This challenge is what we are told about next in verses 27-44. And here we see demonstrated God’s will for humanity.

The Salvation of All

What is God’s will for humanity? In a word: salvation. The scriptures tell us that it is not God's will that any should perish (2 Pet 3:9). God's will is not the salvation of some, but rather the salvation of all. God does not delight in the death of anyone, including the wicked (Ezek 18:23; 33:11). Whatever your theology of salvation, God should never be portrayed as someone who takes pleasure in death. No! The God of the Bible takes pleasure in life. He weeps when he visits a cemetery (Jn 11:35).

The Greek word for salvation occurs four more times in these verses about the shipwreck, and appropriately so. When ancient pagans talked about salvation, they were not thinking about what happens after they died. They were concerned with surviving the difficulties they faced in the present life.

You will be hard-pressed to find in the Old Testament any emphasis or even concern about what happens to a person when they die. Salvation in the Old Testament is about seeing God come through in “the land of the living.” The Christian doctrine of salvation is similar. It, too, is about surviving life’s challenges, and being delivered from all that threatens the flourishing of human life. It’s just that, with Christianity’s hope of salvation, you get more than you bargained for.  

Salvation at its very core has to do with God's gracious act of forgiving sins through Jesus, which causes the moral, mental, emotional, spiritual, and sometimes even physical transformation of an individual.[4]

The forgiveness of sins does mean we have comfort and hope at the moment of our death, but don’t you see that it also means we have hope in the most difficult moments of our lives as well?  

Think of it this way: Christianity’s stiffest competition was the “inaugurated eschatology” of the Roman Empire, the Pax Romana, the gospel that “Lord Caesar” had delivered a better life for all who were under his dominion by killing off all who would oppose him. The Christian gospel was that “Lord Jesus” was the true Savior, offering hope and a better life through the one who conquered by laying down his life.

The Means of Salvation

Back to our story. Two weeks into being storm tossed at sea, the ship had been travelling at the will of the North Easter and had drifted nearly five hundred miles. Around midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. Verse 28 describes the process of sounding to determine the depth of the water the boat was in. The first sounding showed the water depth to be one hundred and twenty feet. The second sounding, ninety feet. The water was getting shallow quickly. They were afraid of crashing on land rocks, so they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

Verse 30 gives a detail that adds to the thrill of the narrative. While waiting and praying for day to come, the sailors tried to escape on the ship's dinghy. Think of a pilot of an airplane grabbing a parachute and jumping from a doomed aircraft, leaving the passengers helplessly on board. Paul caught wind (pun intended), of this and informed the centurion. It is Army vs. Navy in verse 32. The soldiers cut the ropes of the dinghy and let it drift away so that the sailors could not escape.

Paul’s warning was not about spotlighting the sailor’s selfishness, but about spotlighting their skill. “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved,” he said. The only way to survive the shipwreck would be by the skillful controlled crash that the sailors would be best equipped to pull off.

In order for lives to be saved, the sailors would need to stay on board and do their jobs. In the saving of lives, we all have a role to play. Paul is a spiritual leader and pastor. The sailors are the skilled hands; the soldiers, the authorities who maintain order. What about you? What is the role you play? God is not interested in only your salvation. He wants you to play your part in the salvation of others.

Strength for the Task

We find Paul giving directions again as day was about to dawn in verses 33-38. He tells them all to eat. They need strength for what is about to come.

Salvation is not an easy task. God is our Savior, and he saves us by his mercy, by his grace. But grace is not opposed to effort, only to earning.[5] We don’t earn our salvation. It is a gift. But in the saving of lives, God uses means. And to experience God’s salvation, we need to take action. We need to get help, get strength, get counsel, get prayer. Or, we need to give help, give strength, counsel, or prayer. By the grace of God, we have a roll to play in the saving of lives. So, use God’s means of grace to be strengthened for the work of salvation.

As day dawned, the desperate attempt at salvation began. Casting off the anchors and loosening the ropes, they hoisted the foresail and made for the beach. They struck a reef and ran the ship aground. The ship was now being torn apart, and the soldiers though about killing all the prisoners, but the centurion stopped them. “He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brough safely to land.”

All were saved, a demonstration of God’s will for humanity.

God’s Cure for Humanity

When we come to chapter 28, we take a deep breath, relieved that that ordeal is finally over. But there’s one more challenge awaiting Paul. Having survived the sea storm and a shipwreck, he now has to deal with a snake bite. Snakes. Why does it have to be snakes? On the island of Malta, we see a demonstration of God’s cure for humanity.

Justice and Justification

Part of what it means to be human is to crave for justice to be done. We do not want sins to go on being unaccounted for. We do not want sinners to get away with their injustices forever. So,

When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” (Acts 28:3-4)

Christianity is no different on this score. It’s just that, in addition to justice, we also hope for there to be justification. Yes, of course, Paul was a sinner. He knew this to be true more than anyone else, calling himself “the foremost” of sinners (1 Tim 1:15).

But “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like Paul (1 Tim 1:15). The Christian hope for justice comes with the good news that there is also justification for sinners like Paul, like you, like me. And this is well illustrated by the fact that Paul suffered no harm from the snake bite. The pagans changed their minds and said that, instead of being a murderer, Paul must be a god who cannot be harmed by a snake bite (Acts 28:6). But we who know the larger biblical story know better what is going on. The “snake bite” of sin that has plagued us all in Genesis 3 has been dealt with decisively in the cross of Christ. God is both “just” as well as “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26).

Visit, Pray, Heal

The final four verses in our passage have Paul and his companions on what we might call the first medical missions trip. The father of “the chief man of the island” was sick, and Paul ministers to him. What does Paul do? He visits, he prays, and he heals.

When word gets around, “the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured” (v. 9). But in the midst of this final miracle story in Acts, we should not miss the message. Here we see a signal of all that God wants to do in his world, and how he wants to involve us in that mission. God’s cure for humanity—the good news of what he has achieved for us in Jesus, the Savior of the world—is the message we carry with us as we go about all of our various vocations day by day. And that three-fold ministry is how we might think about how we are all to do our work: visit, pray, heal. We visit those who need good news. We pray for them, because it is God, not us, who has the power to bring that good news to fruition. But we should not be afraid then to do what we are equipped to do to bring healing and flourishing into reality.

Our Lord is a great Savior, indeed. And in this business of his, this business of saving lives, we are privileged to play our part in seeing God’s salvation come into those places where it is needed most.

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[1] G. Schneider, cited in Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Robert Yarbrough and Robert H. Stein (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 727.

[2] Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, digital ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), n.p.

[3] Ben Witherington, III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 772, note 86.

[4] Witherington, Acts of the Apostles, 837.

[5] Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (New York: HarperOne), 61.