Rescue the Lost | James 5:19-20
Thirteen Lives
Thirteen Lives is a movie that “recounts the incredible true story of the tremendous global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team who become trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm.”
Twelve boys, ages 11–16, and their coach entered the cave on June 23, 2018. After they entered, monsoon rains flooded the cave system, trapping them inside. They were missing for 9 days before divers located the team 2.5 miles inside the cave.
Locating the boys was relatively easy compared to the challenge of extracting them, and rescue efforts quickly garnered global attention. No matter who you are, news of human beings trapped underground—2.5 miles from the entrance and ½ a mile below the surface—grips your attention.
The rescue mission faced overwhelming, nearly impossible conditions. Several sections of the cave route were completely flooded. Some had strong currents and zero visibility. Only skilled divers with SCUBA equipment could pass, but the narrowest opening measured a mere 15 × 28 inches. The treacherous trek against the current was a grueling six hours. Traveling with the current was a slightly quicker five hours. To make matters worse, water levels continued to rise inside the cave. Efforts to mitigate the flooding included diversion dams and pumps. Over a billion liters of water were pumped from inside the cave into nearby farm fields, which were ruined in the effort.
Rescuers considered numerous options. They unsuccessfully attempted drilling holes through the mountain. They thought about waiting until the monsoon season ended months later. They started to build an oxygen supply line to the boys, but that was impractical. They considered teaching the boys to dive, but that was too risky.
Finally it was decided the only way to get the boys out safely was to use general anesthesia to render them fully unconscious. This was necessary to prevent the boys from panicking during the harrowing dive.
From Wikipedia:
“A cylinder with 80% oxygen was clipped to their front, a handle attached to their back and they were tethered to a diver in case they were lost in the poor visibility.”
“The anaesthetic lasted between 45 minutes and an hour, requiring divers … to administer ‘top-up’ ketamine injections during the three hour journey. The boys were maneuvered out by the swimming divers who held onto their back or chest; … in very narrow spots divers pushed the boys from behind. The divers navigated them through tight passages carefully to avoid dislodging their face masks against rocks. The divers kept their heads higher than the boys so that, in poor visibility, the divers would hit their head against the rocks first. The divers knew the boys were breathing from their exhaust bubbles, which they could see and feel.”
“After being delivered by the divers into the staging base in Chamber 3, the boys were passed along a ‘daisy chain’ by hundreds of rescuers stationed along the treacherous path out of the cave. The boys, wrapped in ‘sked’ stretchers, were alternately carried, slid and zip-lined over a complex network of pulleys installed by rock climbers. Many areas from Chamber 3 to the entrance of the cave were still partially submerged and rescuers described having to transport the boys over slippery rocks and through muddy water for hours.”
In the end, all thirteen lives were saved. Thirteen lives. Thirteen human beings, made in the image of God.
The most striking thing about the story to me is the extent to which the world will go to save a human life. All told, an estimated 10,000 people were involved in the Tham Luang cave rescue. That included over 100 divers, officials from 100 governmental agencies, 900 police officers and 2,000 soldiers. As far as equipment, ten police helicopters, seven ambulances, and more than 700 diving cylinders were employed. One rescue diver, a former Royal Thai Navy SEAL, died during the operation. When it comes to rescuing human beings, the response is simply whatever it takes.
You and I are surrounded by thousands and tens of thousands of lost people, trapped in darkness and imminent death. Only their predicament is even more dire than the boys in that cave because theirs is a spiritual lostness with eternal consequences. This final passage from the Letter of James is meant to open your eyes to the plight of the lost, generating hope and motivating you to rescue the lost.
James 5:19–20
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
Saving Lost Souls
James began this letter with a call to steadfast perseverance: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3). James ends his letter with a call to rescue those who stray from the faith.
Just like the world went to extraordinary lengths to rescue those thirteen lives, James calls Christians to go to great lengths to rescue sinners from death. And this call is motivated by the hope that God works through the diligent efforts of his people to rescue the wayward from eternal death. Here’s the concluding point: You can be the one God uses to save lost souls.
This truth moves you to action by stirring your heart with mercy toward the lost. It overcomes complacency and inaction by fueling hope and ambition for the task.
Who do you know who is far from God right now? It could be an unbelieving co-worker or neighbor. It might be a wayward child or sibling or friend. I’m praying God will use this text to burden our hearts for the lost and to engender hope in God’s power to save.
We’ll let this word go to work in our hearts by considering 1) the sinner who wanders, 2) the brother who rescues, and 3) the God who saves.
The Sinner Who Wanders
James begins the conclusion of his letter with his familiar address, “My brothers.”
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth” (v. 19).
James seems to have in mind wayward Christians, those who have professed faith in Christ and been baptized in his name, who go astray or fall away. This is someone who was “among you,” who wanders away from the truth, which implies departure, going astray.
James may have wayward Christians in mind, but everything he says here undoubtedly applies to those who are lost and have never heard the gospel or professed faith in Christ. However they got there, all of the lost are lost. James describes this person twice as wandering or wayward.
Specifically, he has wandered away from the truth, and James has particular truth in mind. James 1:18 says, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” So the truth refers broadly to the Gospel, the word of truth, which is the power of God to save the lost.
Those who do not know and trust Jesus Christ are lost. It doesn’t matter how sincere the wandering one is in his rejection of the gospel or how heartfelt his deconversion is. The only alternative to the truth is error, falsehood, lies, deception, and darkness.
What’s more, the one who is lost is willfully rebellious. James says, “Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). James refers to the wayward as a sinner who is guilty of a multitude of sins. And since James speaks of saving the sinner’s soul from death, this is a morally culpable lostness, not like accidentally taking a wrong turn. The spiritually lost are morally guilty for rejecting God and violating his Law.
I want you to feel the distressing condition of the lost in their own words. These stories come from people who have attended the Bridge Course. They are describing their lives apart from Christ and the hope of the Gospel:
My name is Brian. I started by going back to the church I used to attend as a young boy. It was a grand church with fancy paintings, tall statues, big columns and stained glass windows. It felt good to get back into church but something was still not right. You see, I sat in a pew that was blocked at one end by a huge column. I sat there because when it was time to receive the sacraments, I would not have to stand aside or move out of the way to let others pass. I was not allowed to receive communion because I was divorced and I had not confessed my sins to a priest in many years. I would sit there in the pew and imagine Christ was looking down at me from the cross shaking his head in disgust and I couldn’t blame him. I was full of sin and I was ashamed of myself too.
My name is Christy. When I was a teenager I started to party and began to hang out with the wrong crowd. I got into a relationship when I was 18 that started to go bad. We had a child together and when the baby was 4 months old, my boyfriend ended up murdering our child. I was devastated and lost all faith in God. I rebelled against anything and everyone through medication, drugs and alcohol and ended up having another child out of wedlock to a drug dealer. But none of it would cover the pain and anger I had inside. I lived a life of hate, envy and resentment. I was in a very bad place and at one point I was shot. I’m embarrassed to tell you all that I have been through. My life was incredibly toxic and it was all brought on by myself.
My name is Carmen. I was born and raised in the country of Egypt. I grew up going to a Coptic Orthodox church but after I got married and had two children, there was no room in my life or my husband’s life for God. Our only concern was improving our own lives. We decided to move to the United States, but after the move, things got worse. After 19 years my marriage fell apart and my husband and I got a divorce. I was ashamed and felt that I was unworthy in the eyes of God - that he would never accept me. I got remarried but my life continued to go downhill. My husband was an alcoholic and all of our difficulties left me lonely, penniless and an emotional wreck. Despair and pain took hold of me. I looked to therapy, took medications and even tried fortune-tellers to help cope with my marriage. I was often sleepless and would cry continuously.
Right here in Sioux Falls, you are surrounded by tens of thousands of people just like Brian and Christy and Carmen.
And as distressing as their current suffering is, the situation of the lost is dead serious. Having wandered from the truth, he is on the road that leads to death (v. 20).
What does James mean by death? Back in 1:14–15 he said, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Those who sin, sin willfully. They do what they want and indulge their own desires. What they don’t realize is that it’s a trap. Desires lead to sin, and sin always leads to death.
James is talking about soul-death: “Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death” (v. 20). He is not talking about merely physical death, but eternal damnation, eternal conscious torment in hell. This is an uncomfortable, distressing topic to consider, but it is one reality James uses to kindle our concern for those who are lost.
So consider the vivid language Scripture uses to describe the eternal punishment of unrepentant sinners.
Jesus said, “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:47–48, citing Isa 66:24).
Several times, Jesus describes hell as “the outer darkness,” where the rebellious and unfaithful are cast. “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:12; six times in Matthew, once in Luke).
Hell is a place of destruction and righteous wrath, as Paul writes: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Romans 9:22).
John records in Revelation, “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast” (Revelation 14:11). And, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
Many try to make this more palatable (and ease their own consciences) by reminding us—in scholarly and condescending tones—that this language is metaphorical, not literal. Yes, but which is worse, the word picture that fails to adequately describe the thing, or the reality itself?
Does your heart break for the lost? If not—and we all grow complacent and unaffected from time to time—here is the remedy: you need only meditate on the realities revealed here, the lostness of the lost and the eternal destruction toward which they are heading. This is the awful condition of everyone without Christ, but the hope revealed in James is that you can be the one God uses to save the lost.
The Brother Who Rescues
Twice James speaks of the believer who “brings back” the wayward sinner. I love the King James translation, which uses convert instead of bring back. Convert, bring back, turn around, rescue.
The Greek word (ἐπιστρέφω) means “to cause a person to change belief or course of conduct” (BDAG)
The same word is often used to describe initial conversion, when a sinner turns from sin to God for the first time.
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).
“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
But the word is also used to describe the way a faithful witness causes sinners to turn around. The angel Gabriel said of John the Baptist, “He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16). And the Lord sent Paul to the Gentiles, saying, “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:17–18).
You may not be John the Baptist or the Apostle Paul, but James applies this to everyday Christians by using intentionally broad language: “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20).
“If someone brings him back ….” That could be you!
“Whoever brings back a sinner ….” That could be you!
As my friend Jim Donohue would say, “You’re not much, but you’re all we’ve got.” This is the way God works. All it takes is a Christian like you, equipped with the gospel and empowered by the Spirit of God.
This text engenders the conviction you need. Those who wander from the truth have willfully rejected the truth. The very thing they need to hear is the truth they have rejected. That’s intimidating because it exposes you to rejection and ridicule. What you need is the firm conviction that God’s Word is true and right and good. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have the truth. That doesn’t puff you up with any sinful arrogance or a sense of superiority. Rather it emboldens you to speak and to act with conviction and authority from God.
This text also increases your faith and hope for the lost. Look at it again:
“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him [the one who rescues the wayward] know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20).
Question: Why should you even bother attempting to rescue the lost? Answer: You should attempt to rescue the lost because your efforts can have glorious eternal consequences: souls saved from eternal death and damnation.
“Let him know ….” Scripture reveals realities we would not otherwise know. To physical eyes, this rescue operation does not garner global media attention like the Tham Luang cave rescue. It just looks like a conversation, an explanation, an illustration. James says you need to know that your actions here and now impact the eternal destiny of eternal souls.
We need this motivation because bringing back a sinner from his wandering (v. 20) requires pursuing the wayward one, going after him to bring him back. Jesus likened the task to a shepherd with a lost sheep: “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray” (Matthew 18:12–13). The shepherd goes in search. That takes intentionality and effort to move toward those who are far from God.
Bringing the wandering to the truth also requires speaking—speaking the truth in love. It may take pleading, sometimes rebuking. Sometimes we explain, other times we warn. Sometimes we reason and argue, other times we encourage. When someone is far from the truth, what they need is to hear the truth, and that requires the ministry of the Word.
So who do you know who is wandering far from God? God has strategically and sovereignly positioned you geographically, vocationally, and relationally. You have neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family members. Ask God to put people on your heart and to give you eyes to see those who are lost. Start with those closest to you.
Moms and dads, don’t overlook your very first mission field: your own children. Memorize James 5:19–20 and cling to it in faith when you are disciplining, correcting, and instructing your children. Proverbs 23:13–14 applies the same hope directly to parents: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.” Parents, you are the God-appointed means of grace to turn your children from the folly of their sin to Christ through the gospel.
When Scripture speaks this way—“you will save his soul”—obviously God is the one who saves sinners. But God works through means. John Calvin explains: “We must therefore take heed lest souls perish through our sloth, whose salvation God puts in a manner in our hands. Not that we can bestow salvation on them; but that God by our ministry delivers and saves those who seem otherwise to be nigh destruction.”
The God Who Saves
Behind this text is the glorious reality that God is merciful toward sinners in Christ. “Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20). Souls can be saved from damnation. Sins—a multitude of sins—can be covered. This is only possible because God saves sinners.
It is tempting to look at a lost person and think, “He’s too hard-hearted. She’s too far gone.” In order to be used by God as a means of grace to lead others to faith, you must be in faith yourself. We tend to think the biggest problem is the lost person’s unbelief, but our first problem is our own unbelief that God can and will save the lost.
When James speaks of covering a multitude of sins, he is alluding to Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” It is one thing to overlook a personal offense out of love, but James is talking about something far more serious than that. For the sinner’s soul to be saved from death, his sin must be covered by God.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid because they were naked. They tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, but God covered them with garments made from animal skins, which required the shed blood of an innocent substitute. In Psalm 31, David speaks of salvation in this way: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity” (Psalm 32:1–2).
To have your sin covered means to have your sins forgiven. It means God no longer counts your sin against you. Though you would be guilty as charged, all the charges are dropped. This is the blessing of justification, the blessing enjoyed by those to whom God credits the righteousness of Christ apart from your own works (Rom 4:6).
Unbelievers (and many believers) object to the doctrine of hell: How could a good and loving God send anyone to hell? But hell is no problem for God’s justice. Hell is God’s justice. What poses a problem for the justice of God is this line in James about covering a multitude of sins. If God is just, how could he allow sins to be covered? How could he leave sin unpunished? “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15).
The answer is found in the cross of Christ, where the sinless Son of God took your place. God does not sweep sin under the rug; he covers it with the blood of a sinless substitute. Jesus suffered the punishment your sins deserve so that you can be covered by him.
And God’s saving, justifying, atoning grace is not stingy, but lavish and abundant. Notice how James speaks of “a multitude of sins.” Ezra’s prayer of repentance expresses this so well: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6).
What hope is there for sinners who have committed a multitude of sins? Only the forgiving grace of God! Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). No matter how high your sin has piled up, the grace of God in Christ abounds. God’s grace is always more than your sin. Whoever you are, whatever you have done, wherever you have wandered, the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your soul from hell is freely and fully available in Jesus Christ.
So, “let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).
It is impressive the lengths to which an unbelieving world will go to rescue thirteen lives trapped in a cave. May we as a church be zealous to do what it takes to save eternal souls from death.