In World War II, Allied soldiers stormed camps and battlefields to rescue prisoners who were utterly unable to save themselves. Stephen Ambrose recounts the courage and sacrifice required to liberate those trapped behind enemy lines. Yet even those rescues did not require the rescuers to die in place of the prisoners. Christ’s love goes further. He does not merely risk his life; he gives it entirely and freely. He steps into our captivity, absorbs the penalty of our rebellion, and secures our freedom through his death. His rescue is not a daring operation; it is a substitutionary sacrifice showing the love of the bridegroom for the bride (Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997], 427–35).
