Many are not aware that the words translated “save” and “savior” in the Bible can refer to more than ultimate salvation in the spiritual sense. The original Hebrew and Greek terms (and their variations) also have connotations of “rescue” and “deliver”—to save in an immediate sense, to rescue from dangerous or hopeless circumstances or situations.

Both God the Father and Jesus Christ are called our Savior in the Bible, and rightly so. We cannot receive God’s gift of salvation by grace without Them. But we should also consider that They are our Rescuers and Deliverers from hopeless situations during this life. 

Sometimes we must be rescued and delivered from desperate situations before we can move forward on the path toward God’s spiritual salvation. We encounter a number of such individuals in the Bible.

A woman in desperate need of rescue

Miriam, a Jewish woman living in the first century, was one such person. Better known to us today as Mary Magdalene, she lived in the small fishing village of Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee about a five-mile walk from Capernaum, where Jesus Christ lived after relocating from Nazareth.

We know little about her background. We don’t know her age, we don’t know whether she was married or single, we don’t know if she had children, we don’t know what ultimately happened to her. But we do know that she desperately needed to be rescued.

Mary, you see, was possessed by seven demons (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2).

Today in our supposedly enlightened age it’s easy to dismiss demonic influence and possession as some kind of superstition or misunderstanding of mental illness rooted in myths. But the Bible is firm on the existence of a very real spirit world paralleling and overlapping our own and inhabited by evil, fallen rebellious angels—the chief of these being Satan the devil.

At times, as Scripture shows, demons may inhabit human beings—leading to bizarre, unpredictable, dangerous and often self-destructive behavior. What was Mary’s life like in this condition? We aren’t given the details, but under the best of circumstances it must’ve been a kind of living hell. We sometimes speak of the lives of generally unstable people today with such phrases as “a train wreck,” “off the rails” or “a disaster waiting to happen.” And no doubt this was her life.

Demon possession makes a person dangerous, delusional and difficult in ways the average person can’t begin to comprehend. This is evident in biblical examples where individuals possessed by demons mutilated themselves, threw themselves into fire, tore off their clothing, randomly shrieked and screamed, and lived in tombs among dead, decaying bodies. The picture is understandably bleak, because such people are no longer in control of their lives and actions. More than anything, they need to be rescued!

A powerful rescue and the grateful response

The Bible doesn’t tell us when, where or how, but Mary was rescued. Jesus taught and healed in the towns and synagogues all around Galilee, including casting out demons. No doubt He visited Magdala, and no doubt people from Magdala made the short walk to Capernaum to hear Him teach and to be healed. Somewhere during that time Mary the demoniac became “Mary . . . out of whom He had cast seven demons” (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2).

Jesus was a living example of grace in action, and in that grace He first became Mary’s Rescuer and then her Savior in the ultimate sense. In her grateful devotion she became one of His most dedicated and loyal followers. Notice what the Gospels tell us about her:

• She was part of the group that followed Jesus from place to place, which included her and several other women who “were helping to support them out of their own means” (Luke 8:3, NIV).

• Faithful to the end, she was a witness to Jesus’ crucifixion and burial after most of Jesus’ male disciples had abandoned Him and fled (Matthew 27:55-61).

• After Jesus’ body was entombed, she was one of the women who bought and prepared spices to anoint His body (Mark 16:1).

• She and some other women were the first to come to the tomb, where they saw the stone rolled away and an angel told them to go tell the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead (Mark 16:2-7).

• She told the others this dramatic news, but they didn’t believe her (Luke 24:9-11).

• She was the first of Jesus’ followers to whom He appeared after His resurrection from the dead (Mark 16:9; John 20:11-17).

Of the many individuals we encounter in the Gospels, Mary is one of the very few of whom nothing negative is written—other than the fact that at one time Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. But even that is simply stated as a way of differentiating her from the several other women named Mary in the Gospel accounts. In no way is that meant to impugn her character.

In the story of Mary we see a wonderful example of the working of grace. Through circumstances beyond her control, she was in a dire and desperate place. Jesus recognized that and delivered her from that demonic possession and influence in a loving act of mercy and grace.

In her gratitude (a word rooted in grace, in the sense of returning benevolence for benevolence received), she became a devoted follower of her Rescuer whom she came to know as her spiritual Savior, Master and Lord. As a result, the Gospel writers hold her up as a role model for all others who have been recipients of God’s gift of grace. We, too, should be devoted followers, dedicating our lives to serving the Giver of so much good to us—just as Mary did!