If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.
Daniel 3:17
These were the words uttered by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before King Nebuchadnezzar had them hurled into a furnace so hot it incinerated the servants who threw them in. Amazingly the trio did not meet their deaths within the inferno. Instead witnesses describe seeing them walking around inside the furnace accompanied by a fourth man who some scholars and theologians believe was Jesus. Jesus saved them just as he promises to do for you and me!
As Christians we believe in a merciful God. God the Father desires an individual relationship with each of us, and wants us to come to him and ask personally for our salvation.
Jesus embodies God the Son who lived among us as a man and made ultimate and final sacrifice for our sins. In being raised from the dead, he proved that God's love will conquer sin and death. So can we earn God's grace? No. The Bible makes it clear that no amount of good deeds or clean living can earn his forgiveness. Instead, we can only receive his grace by believing in him, acknowledging ourselves to be sinners, and accepting that Jesus his son was sacrificed for our sins.
Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved from Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, if you and I are able to surrender ourselves and enter into a personal relationship with God, we too can be saved from the hellish fires.
David West
