Because of Jesus, I am Saved
When
I was in seminary, our neighborhood was a regular target for Mormon
missionaries. We lived across the street from a Mormon family, so whenever we
would have block parties, they would invite the Mormon Elders over. One thing I
realized in talking to these young men was that we could talk for hours without
really understanding what the other one was saying. The problem was that we
talked right past one another. We used the same words, but they had different
meanings.
There
are words we sometimes find in church that are unclear or just don’t carry the
same meanings in our culture as they did when they were written. For example, I
remember being rather confused that my church would sing “How Great Thou Aren’t” and that we would pray, “Our
Father, who aren’t in heaven…” Or how
about the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm which declare that “The
Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”
There
are other words we tend to overuse to the extent that the word loses its
meaning. This is true of a lot of church words. “Save” and “salvation” are such
words. As Christians, we often talk about salvation without being really clear
what salvation means.
When
we look at the term “salvation” through the Old Testament, we find a context
that seems completely different than ours. Salvation terminology often has to
do with national identity and security. When the Lord saved Moses and the
Israelites from the Egyptians, Moses sang a song to the Lord including this
lyric: The Lord is my strength and my
song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my
father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)
When
the Lord delivered David from Saul, he said, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock,
in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my
stronghold, my refuge and my savior – from violent men you save me.” (2
Samuel 22:2-3)
Salvation
in Old Testament times was something real, and everyone knew what it meant. It
meant being delivered from one’s enemies, being brought out of slavery,
returning home from exile. In the face of life-threatening circumstances or in
the midst of the bondage of slavery, salvation was the hope and dream of every
Israelite. It meant freedom.
The
Israelites recognized the domination of their enemies as God’s direct
punishment. They were exiled as punishment. So salvation also meant restoration
of their relationship with God. Before
John the Baptist came, preaching, “Prepare the way for the Lord” and “All
people will see God’s salvation,” his father, Zechariah, prophesied (Luke
1:68-75):
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of
Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation
from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy
to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore
to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and
to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
On
Christmas morning, we focus on the baby in the manger, which is right – Christ
is the reason for the season. But there is a reason for the reason for the
season, and salvation is that reason. Let’s look at salvation through
Zechariah’s prophesy. He begins by praising God. Why is God worthy of praise?
Because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
Jesus
birth is the beginning of redemption, which can be defined as the act of
recovering ownership by paying a specified sum. The covenant God made with
Abraham was a covenant in blood, and Abraham and his descendants became God’s
covenant people, set aside for God. There were specific rules, lots of them,
defining God’s people, and for each specific sin there was a payment required. Every
time there was a sin, there was a payment required, again and again. But in
sending His Son, Jesus Christ, God has redeemed us. No longer are we required
to pay sacrifices again and again, because our debt has been paid in advance.
The
Apostle Paul writes to Titus, saying: For
the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It
teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for
the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify
for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus
2:11-14) Jesus came to redeem us, to pay the required payment for our sin, and
to purify us so we can be eager to do what is good.
God’s
salvation is always two-fold. It means rescue from our enemies, but it also
means empowerment. Remember what salvation is for Zechariah? To rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before
him all our days. (Luke 1:74-75)
Because
of Jesus, we are saved. But what does salvation mean to us who live in a free
country, a land of plenty, a land of opportunity? Often we live in bondage,
even in a free country. A couple of weeks ago, I preached a message called
“Because of Jesus… I am Free” – it is important for everyone to understand that
we can be easily enslaved by almost anything. But freedom in Christ is not just
freedom from… it is also freedom for.
Because
of Jesus, we are enabled to serve God without fear. Fear is paralyzing.
Once Tara and I went hiking in Zion National Park, and there’s a rugged hike
called Angel’s Landing, and at one point you have to climb along a sheer
drop-off. I got to the drop-off and my intellect told me I would make it but my
legs and my stomach told me was going to fall to my death. I started to get
vertigo and the path started to move. I just couldn’t continue. Unfortunately I
see Christians who are afraid. Afraid to share their faith. Afraid to invite
someone to church. Afraid to confront sin. Afraid to trust God fully.
This
is not the kind of life God has called us to. Because of Jesus, I am saved from
fear to live a fearless life. If God is
for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b)
It
can be daunting to face our fears, but God never does the miraculous when we
complacently sit on our hands. It is always when we fearlessly follow Him that
God honors us with amazing results.
Because
of Jesus, we are enabled to serve God in holiness. Holiness means being set
apart by God for God. We have no claim to holiness on our own; we can’t set
ourselves apart for anything greater than ourselves. We do not get there on our
own; it is only because of what Jesus did for us that we are saved from our
sinful existence and made holy. God isn’t fooled; he doesn’t just say, “boys
will be boys” or “humans will be sinful” and pretend we’re set apart. That
would be like me putting on a Buckeyes jersey, thinking that would allow me to
suit up for the Gator Bowl. No, God actually makes us holy, and that only happens through the action of Jesus
Christ. Because of Jesus, I am saved from unholiness to serve God in holiness.
Because
of Jesus, we are enabled to serve God in righteousness. Righteousness is
another church-word that has often lost its impact. It simply means “in right
relationship with God.” In our sin, our relationship with God was non-existent,
and there was no way for us to restore it.
Titus
3:4-7 But when the kindness and love of
God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had
done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and
renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through
Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might
become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Because
of Jesus, we are saved from unrighteousness so we can serve God in
righteousness! We are saved from sin so we can have the hope of eternal life!
This
is the joy of Christmas – not simply the joy of a baby born, as babies are born
every day. But the joy is that the baby who was born is Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the world. For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
These
past couple of weeks have been difficult in the life of the church. Though
we’ve been doing a lot of celebrating, truth is there has been a lot of loss.
We’ve had three funerals in two weeks, and I’ve been at the hospital more these
past couple of weeks than I had in months. Even in the Christmas season, when
we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are reminded of the brevity of life. We
are not promised tomorrow. But the great thing is that if you haven’t yet
surrendered to God through Jesus Christ, you don’t have to wait.
As
we read in 2 Corinthians 6:2b, I tell
you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
Many,
if not most, of us have accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation, but some of us
stopped there. If that’s you, Peter tells the church to grow up. In 1 Peter
2:2-3, he writes: Like newborn babies,
crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now
that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
We
celebrate today that Jesus was born. But Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and
he calls us to do the same, to bring the most glory to God.
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