He Saved Others....

 "His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins"  (cf. Matt. 1:21).


When Jesus was crucified the crowds taunted and mocked Him, admitting He saved others and wondered why He didn't save Himself!  If Jesus had saved Himself, He couldn't have saved us!  He loved us more than Himself and His life and paid the penalty we deserved.  The crowds were convinced that He performed miracles and healed people, and even that He saved others; so why couldn't He save Himself?  He deliberately chose to be Savior first, then King and His saviorhood was on His mind not His own well-being. 

The crowds actually condemned themselves by admitting they knew He was the Savior and could save, because they never were saved themselves and applied what He taught--on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, they hailed Him as the King, and shouted "Hosanna!' or Lord, "save us now!" Perchance they had become disillusioned and thought He was not going to deliver them from the Roman rule after all.

We all can be guilty of the sin of vicarious faith.  We can hear someone's testimony and see a miracle at work in their life and actually believe they are saved and have been transformed by the blood of Jesus, but not apply it to oneself.  Believing Jesus saves isn't enough; we must believe He saved us!  We must personalize our faith and not let it be second-hand knowledge.  We must individually experience Christ and then authenticate it by sharing it and spreading the word by faith.  The only way to keep our faith is to give it away!  We may have family and friends with whom we are familiar and have personally witnessed them morph into new creatures in God's eyes, but that isn't enough to save us--we must personally receive Christ into our heart as its Lord and surrender ownership of our life to Him to even get to first base in the game of following Christ.

Jesus never encouraged the curious or the half-hearted trifler who wasn't ready for full commitment.  He was honest enough to warn us of the trials and tribulations and adversities we'd face, to test our faith.  Salvation is free but not cheap; it costs something to be saved (our ownership of our life), but it costs infinitely more not to be saved.  Some people will never apply the equation to themselves and live their whole life vicariously admiring how God worked in other people's lives, but not witness personal transformation.

The Jews weren't interested in being saved from their sins! But that is precisely why Christ was born!  The Jews wanted deliverance from Roman rule!  When the geopolitical dreams vanished, so did the enthusiasm and false disciples. Jesus had no trouble gathering crowds, for His reputation preceded Him, and He even had to keep a low profile later on and stay out of the limelight, for the leaders often tried to kill Him.  He wasn't going to die before His time and before completing His work and purpose to glorify the Father.   In the final analysis, it's not whether He can save Himself, or whether you believe He saved others, but whether He saved you and you believe this! 

In sum, Jesus wasn't the Messiah of conventional wisdom, but He was born to be a man on a mission extraordinaire to save His people from their sins ( cf. Matt. 1:21).        Soli Deo Gloria!

A Bona Fide Savior

We don't worship a martyr for a good cause, or a good teacher of moral principles, nor even a great example or role model of how to live life to the full, but a risen Savior who gives us a real hope of heaven and even a more abundant and fulfilling life in the here and now, which we learn to live in light of eternity as God's will is revealed to us through Scripture.

We must realize we are lost before Jesus can find us, for He came to seek and to save those who are lost (cf. Matt. 18:10; Luke 19:10).  That's why a good rule of thumb for evangelistic outreach is to get them lost first!  We are not to reach out with an easy-believism that downplays the importance of taking up our cross and following Him, as we learn to deny ourselves.  It's also called cheap grace that doesn't point out the cross to bear only justifies the sin, not the sinner.  Salvation is not cheap at all, but costs us everything--it's free, but paradoxically it's at the cost of ownership of our lives as we follow Him as Lord of our life.

It has been said wisely that, the more we realize what a sinner we are, the more real of a Savior Christ becomes.  Also, the closer you get to Christ, the more aware and convicted you become of your own shortcomings, failures, and sins.  William Jay of Bath said that he is a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior!

The gospels are not bios of Christ and do not attempt to describe Him, but to make Him known.  That's the difference:  We can know our God personally--a facet of God denied by Islam and Eastern faiths.  In other words, God gets personal with us and is a personality to get to know through His residence in our hearts.  The purpose of Jesus becoming manifest to the world was to save us, because that was our problem, and we were lost in sin and needed forgiveness and justification.  Jesus didn't come to educate us or enlighten us, but to open our spiritual eyes, and not to tell us what creed to believe, but to change our lives by residing in our hearts in personal union and fellowship.

Our salvation differs from Eastern tradition because it's not just learning a code of conduct, rules to live by, good advice, nor a collection of wise sayings to ponder, but is a restoration of our relationship with God.  The religions of the world believe in a creed, Christians believe in a person!  We don't need another to-do list, list of taboos, or prohibitions to refrain from legalistically.  God teaches us right from wrong and writes His law in our hearts so that we need no one to order us to do the right thing.  Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to anoint and teach us so that we can go directly to the Bible and read God's Word for us and speaking to us.

The reason Jesus is a Savior is because He is in the business of changing and transforming lives.  We learn an exchanged life in Christ with Jesus living through us!  If all you want to do is to improve your behavior, or kick a habit, or reform your vices, any religion will do, but if you want to know God, Christianity is the only one the foots the bill and can satisfy; merely acknowledging Him for who He is doesn't satisfy, we must surrender to Him and trust Him implicitly and unconditionally.  Yes, it might cost something to follow Jesus, but it costs more not to!  The whole beauty of our faith is that it rests in the power of God and not our own wisdom (cf. 1 Thess. 1:5; 1 Cor. 2:4-5)!

One pertinent promise to believers is that God promises that they will not be dissatisfied or disappointed in Christ (cf. Isa. 28:16; Rom. 10:11)--it's the way to the more abundant life Christ promised in John 10:10.  Walking in the Spirit, or with the Lord is a joy to transform and once you've experienced it, you want to pass it on!   One thing about the real McCoy of a genuine follower of Christ is that you can discern they have been with Jesus because it's apparent and cannot be denied because the Spirit will be irresistible and noticeable.  The Christian soon finds out that if he has Christ, he has all he needs and all that is necessary for a fulfilled life that has purpose and meaning.

All religions will tell you some moral principles and virtues, but everyone falls short because the real problem is man's sin, and only Christ gives us the power to overcome it and defeat it victoriously--we are not all on our own to find our own enlightenment or to reform ourselves by our own efforts and strength.  Christ is the threefold Savior:  As Prophet, He saves us from the ignorance of sin; as Priest from the guilt of sin; as King from the dominion of sin!  Yes, Jesus saved us--He did; He keeps us--He does; He's coming for us--He will!  Jesus was more than just another teacher or prophet--the Law did come through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus (cf. John 1:17).   He is the very personification of truth itself (cf. John 14:6), and all who are of the truth hear His voice (cf. John 18:37).

There is a world of difference between putting a new suit on the man, and putting a new man in the suit!  This is shown just as Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:17 (NLT):  "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"  A point in fact:  Jesus isn't looking for sidekicks, admirers, groupies, fans, nor buddies, but worshipers, lovers, and devoted servants who trust Him to take the pilgrimage with Him as their Pilot or Captain, going wherever He leads, following in His steps.

We must reverence Him for who He is, not just patronize Him with human respect or homage as a great leader, teacher, or example.  We must not only believe that He lived and died on a cross, but did so for us and is alive today!  The whole summation of Christian ethics is summed up in following Him, and this means a surrender to His lordship and ownership of our lives, there's no accepting Him part way or conditionally--He demands unconditional surrender, as it were; in the final analysis, obedience is the only measure of faith!  Genuine believers walk the walk and talk the talk, their profession is not bogus, but is demonstrated by a life of good works as proof (cf. Titus 1:16).

Of all the major world religions, you can remove its founder and still have the religion remain intact; i.e., Islam doesn't need Muhammad, nor Buddhism need Buddha--it's merely a collection of teachings and philosophy.  However, if you remove Christ from Christianity you disembowel it and there is nothing left--Christianity is Christ, and all else is circumference, it's been described by John Stott.  That's because Christianity is not a creed nor a code, but a relationship--this is not just a cliche, but a deeper truth to be recognized personally.   In short, salvation is but the establishment of a personal and family relationship with the person of God; while the only proof of salvation is fruit (cf. Matt. 7:16, 20)! We are saved to become a blessing (cf. Zech. 8:13).

We need to be set free!  "People are slaves to whatever has mastered them"  (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19).  Paul says in Romans 6:16 (NLT):  "Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?  You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living."  We are meant to stand fast in our liberty and not become slaves again (cf. Gal. 5:1).   Acts 13:39 (NIV):  "Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses."

The only way to be set free is in Christ:  "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"  (John 8:36, NIV).  We no longer live in bondage to our old sin nature nor the yoke of the Law.  We do not have the freedom to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit!  We are no longer subject to the power of the Law:  "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace"  (Romans 6:14, NIV).  Soli Deo Gloria!