Christmas Salvation
“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a
Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.” Luke
2:10
One of the most basic questions that we
need to ask when it comes to the Christmas story is, “Why did Christ need to
come in the first place?” People give different answers to this. He wanted to see what it was like to be a
human (there is truth in that…because He would identify with us). Others think that He wanted to show us how
life could be lived (it is also an important part of His incarnation). But the most important answer is, “It was the
only way that man could be saved from his sin.”
There are countless names that describe the Lord’s work in
our lives.
In fact, many books have been written to describe in detail how we are
the bene- factors of His grace. In the
OT, God is called by different names because of something that He worked in
lives. Jehovah Jirah (The God who
provides), Jehovah Tsidkanu
(The God who gives victory), Jehovah Rapha (The God who heals), and Jehovah
Shalom (The God who gives peace). In the
New Testament, while Jesus would provide all of those things, the angels
declared that Jesus would be the long awaited “Savior” giving a new dimension
of Jesus birth into the world.
In the
Bible’s NIV translation, it says, “But the angel said to them, “Do not be
afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He
is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10) Christ came for the salvation of every person. The name Savior
has natural implications that we can easily overlook. We often use words such
as save or salvation, which means “Savior.” It comes from the original word “Soter” or as
theologians would use the term, “Soteriology” (or the study of salvation). It can also mean deliverer (or someone caught
in prison or bondage). It can also mean
preserver or life preserver as if someone is drowning. However, one of the best words that comes
from Savior or salvation is the word “Salvage.”
Usually of referring to a wrecked car or item that a person takes and
turns into a classic. In other words,
God loves to take people and circumstances that are unsalvageable and make them
salvageable. While salvaging can
generally apply to things, God is the salvager or Savior of people’s lives. God takes great delight in salvaging the
worst lives and circumstances and not only bringing them back, but making them
even better than before.
John Gossip wrote, “The
wonderful thing about Christ is that as people looked at Him, followed Him, and
watched Him, it became apparent to them that this is what God must be like. They concluded that if there is a God at all,
then He must have Christ’s eyes, Christ’s ways, Christ’s ever helpful hands,
Christ’s character…Stand upon Calvary and
know that if today He loves like that, He always loves like that. Even when our hearts become hot and
suspicious of Him or soured and bad-tempered toward Him for His ordering of our
lives and crossing our wishes, He still loves us. To be God means always to stoop lower by far
than any man could stoop, to bear what never a human heart would dream of
bearing, to give Oneself with an abandon of unselfishness that leaves us
staring in slack-jawed wonder. His love
is a hugeness beyond all human reckoning.
It is an everlasting Calvary…”
Wing-walker Lee Oman slipped from his perch underneath a Waco biplane
and dangled from a safety line 1500 feet over the Hillsboro, Oregon airport
during an air show. At first, everyone in the crowd of 40,000 thought the fall
was part of Oman’s daring midair act.
But after the plane had circled the airport for 20 minutes, it was obvious something
had gone wrong. Oman had fallen and didn’t have the strength to pull himself
back up. When they saw what was happening, several men jumped into a pickup
truck and sped onto the runway. The pilot of the biplane saw the truck and
realized what the would be rescuers had in mind. He gently lowered his dangling human cargo
over the vehicle until Oman was within reach. While one man grabbed Oman and pulled him into the truck bed, another cut the
wing-walkers nylon safety harness. Oman was free of the plane’s deadly grasp
Paul writes in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners (or without
strength), Christ died for us.” The idea that
God would take our place and die for us is not a comfortable one for many
people. It runs counter to what every other world religion teaches. All other
world religions teach that WE must pay for our own sins. We must balance our
bad deeds with good.
C.S. Lewis once said,
“Christianity has no message for those that don’t realize that they are sinners or that
don’t realize they need salvation.” We
could paraphrase it to say, “Christmas has no message for those that don’t
realize they are sinners. That’s the
good news of Christmas. It’s what makes
Him such a wonderful Savior…and what makes you and me “salvageable.”
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Why do most faiths struggle
with the idea of needing salvation?
2) What keeps people from
receiving it?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
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