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Aug 27, 2023 06:00am

Who Would You Take a Bullet For?

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Recently, I have heard people use the phrase, “I would take a bullet for you” as a strong statement of their love or loyalty to another person.

The use of this phrase as an act of love is one of being willing to sacrifice your own life for the life of another because you value them that much. And the use of this phrase as an act of loyalty can be a recognition of someone whose demise would have a greater impact than your own as in the case of a security guard taking a bullet to protect a president. Sometimes, it is the willingness to take the consequences for another person in order to spare them pain or suffering.

As we ponder the question, “who would you take a bullet for?”, I’m guessing the number of names that come to our minds is pretty small. My own personal list would likely begin with members of my family and from there the list is much slower to form in my mind. This is a very common human experience, but as I read Scripture I realize the stark difference between our nature and God’s character.

God, in one perfect moment in time, was able to demonstrate both love and loyalty but it wasn’t for people who were worthy or more of an asset than He or close to Him already. It was quite the opposite!

In Romans 5:7-8, Paul talks about this contrast. He says, “Rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone would possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners (or His enemy) Christ died for us.”

As I ponder this, it is quite stunning. The analogy for me, would be sacrificing my own life or to take the penalty for a murderer, or a person who hurt one of those family members for whom I would have gladly given my life. But God sent His only Son, who mankind, as a whole, rejected, devalued, tortured, and crucified. He endured all this to pay the consequences for our sins and He became the One who ‘took the bullet’ for His enemies.

Maybe you are wondering, if Jesus took the punishment for all our sins, and “took the bullet” for us and for our enemies, what more is there to be concerned about?

The concern for us is twofold: The first is that Jesus’ sacrifice was a gift and like most gifts it must be received to be beneficial. Jesus’ gift of giving His life for us was an act of love and showing us that He values us, but it was also His willingness to take the penalty for our sins. Romans 3 talks extensively of how all humans are sinful and no one can be justified or made righteous by their works because we are incapable of being sinless. But because Jesus was sinless, He was able to be our substitutionary sacrifice, not having His own sin to atone for, and so He took our consequence, which Romans 6:23 says is death. Romans 3 also says the way to receive this gift of salvation is trusting that the sacrifice of Jesus is enough to pay for our sin and accepting it as a free gift.

The second concern we have in response to Jesus ‘taking the bullet’ for us is that if we choose to receive this gift, it is a covenant that we enter into, calling us to live according to His commands and as an ambassador of His mercy and grace. If you are reading this and you are not a follower of Christ, you may be wondering why you would want to accept a gift that comes with responsibilities. Truthfully, it’s no different than any other healthy relationship: when you are the recipient of love and kindness, you want to respond with gratitude and give that love and kindness back to that person. It makes that relationship mutually satisfying.

The difference between a relationship with Jesus and a relationship with others is that He is God and He never sins, He always keeps His Word, and He initiated this relationship by ‘taking the bullet’ for you because He loves you. Romans 12 begins with an encouragement to those who put their trust in Jesus and accept this free gift to respond to His mercy toward us with a daily commitment to living a life that is pleasing to God and to look for opportunities to extend that gift to others.

2 Corinthians 5 tells us that Jesus’ purpose on Earth was a ministry of reconciling us to God. When we accept His free gift, we become unified in purpose with Jesus and therefore, we also are seeking to be reconciled to God and to reconcile others to God. This requires that we also must be willing to ‘take a bullet’ for our enemies. Fortunately, it doesn’t require another sacrifice because Jesus’ sacrifice was enough, but it does require us to have the same attitude toward them that Jesus had. II Corinthians 5 says that He “didn’t hold our sins against us”. We, too, must extend this same mercy that has been given to us, to others. So…. “who would you take a bullet for?”