French President Emmanuel Macron hailed him as a hero. Laying his weapon down on Friday, March 23, 2018, Colonel Arnaud Beltrame entered a supermarket in Trèbes, France, not long after a terrorist had gone in with a handgun and knife.
The criminal shot and killed a customer and a supermarket employee, and then took a female cashier as his hostage. Colonel Beltrame negotiated the woman’s release, telling the attacker to take him instead.
This brave officer suffered stabbing and gunshot wounds before a rescue effort could be completed. He later died from his injuries, his fiancé by his side. Colonel Arnaud Beltrame literally gave his life so another could live.
The Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Colonel Beltrame laid down his life, and it is doubtful he even knew the woman he saved.
We celebrate such acts of selfless courage because they are rare. In Scripture we read, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die” (Romans 5:7). President Macron stated, “To accept to die so the innocent can live, that is the essence of what it means to be a soldier.”
Colonel Beltrame’s substitutionary death for someone else reflects how Jesus “gave His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus’ love for us was so great that even “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The sacrifice of Colonel Beltrame in the face of evil was honored by the nation of France and others around the world. A person dying so another could go free is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus laid down His life and died on a cross that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Do you believe this truth, that Jesus died so you can go free?
