Jesus Saves
It’s odd the things that stick in your mind from childhood. One such thing for me is seeing big billboards as a kid – JESUS SAVES. Growing up as a little Catholic kid, I wondered why in the world anyone would put up such a billboard. It was only when I was 28 years old, and Jesus actually saved me that I began to comprehend the full weight of that simple message.
There are a lot of places to go to unpack this profound truth, but I know of no better than Matthew 1:21-23, so you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins…and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us).
God with us to save us from our sins!! The most stupendous message ever heard.
First, Jesus is God with us. One man called the incarnation the central miracle of Christianity. The incarnation is the first act of the gospel, and the rest of the gospel cascades down from that first act. In 1 John 4:2, John tells us that the fundamental test of any true or false teacher/spirit is that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Jesus coming in the flesh shows His preexistence.
He came from someplace, His eternal place as the second person of the Trinity. His coming shows His purpose and ability to save. He didn’t come just to show up and hang out, but to “seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) And as God come in the flesh, He is able to save because it was as both fully God (for only God can pay the atoning price for sin) and fully man (for only man ought to pay it) that He came. Finally, Paul tells us that His resurrection was the Father’s declaration that He was indeed “the Son of God.” (Romans 1:4)
The gospel is the story of what He did to save. His incarnation and sinless life qualified Him to be the perfect, sinless, substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21 captures this – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What one man called “the amazing exchange.”
He rose from the dead to validate the efficacy of that sacrifice and to be the source of new life for those who believe. And now He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, building His church and awaiting the day when He will return to consummate His saving work.
Jesus remains the Savior, but he is not physically present with us. How then does He save? The simple yet profound answer is that He continues to save as His people share this gospel good news that Jesus saves to lost sinners. And to that end, He has equipped His people in three ways.
1. He has given us the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit works directly by bringing spiritually dead sinners to life by His regenerating power. Apart from this work, our witness would be fruitless.
But He also works in believers as they share. Jesus put it this way – “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses.” (Acts 1:8) David Wells (God the Evangelist) perfectly captured this twin work of the Spirit this way - “The message proclaimed has the power to do its work not because of the evangelist’s personality or skills of persuasion (which is often what we look to) but because of the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, who alone is able to turn rebellious sinners into obedient followers of Christ.”
2. His word the gospel.
Paul was “not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.” (Romans 1:16) There is power in this simple message. There may be many methods of presenting the gospel, but there is only one message. Ultimately all we do has to result in the gospel being told because the gospel is the power of God for salvation. J.I. Packer put it this way - “In the last analysis, there is only one method of evangelism: namely, the faithful explanation and application of the gospel message. From which it follows…that the test for any proposed strategy, or technique, or style, of evangelistic action must be this: will it in fact serve the word? Is it calculated to be a means of explaining the gospel truly and fully and applying it deeply and exactly?”
3. His body the church.
We are the means through which God chooses to deliver the message that the Spirit will make effectual. Jesus saves, and He continues to save, but now he is working through his body, his representatives, the church. We serve a savior. We represent Him in his saving work. This is the great mission of the church. In Romans 10, Paul shows us the importance of this final aspect of Jesus’ ongoing saving work – “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they t preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.’”
CHARLES SPURGEON – “He is what he is called. He saves us from the punishment and the guilt of sin, and then from the ill effect and evil power of sin…It is his nature to do this, as we see in the fact that his very name is Jesus – Savior. We still call him by that name, for he still saves us in these latter days. Let us go and tell out his name among men; for he will save others.”