On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashed after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. The lone survivor was four-year-old Cecelia from Tempe, Arizona. Rescuers found her in such good condition that they wondered if she’d actually been on the flight. Perhaps she was riding in one of the cars into which the airplane crashed. But, no, her name was on the manifest.
While the exact nature of events may never be known, Cecelia’s survival may have been due to her mother’s quick response. Initial reports from the scene indicate that, as the plane was falling, her mother, Paula Cichan, unbuckled her own belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, and wrapped her arms and body around the girl. She separated her from the force of the fall . . . and the daughter survived. 15
God did the same for us. He wrapped himself around us and felt the full force of the fall. He took the unrelaxed punishment of the guilty. He died, not like a sinner, but as a sinner—in our place. “By a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s but ours.”16
15. Cited in Bryan Chapell, The Promises of Grace: Living in the Grip of God’s Love (1992; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 142. Note: This report was disputed by some authorities.
16. Martin Luther, quoted in Donald G. Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978), 1:148.
Also see: AP article on New York Times
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