We Need a Savior

Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31-33; 2:11 We need a Savior, and God provides for us the Savior. Every person born into the world needs not just a savior, but all are in need of the savior that God provides. This means that we need to be saved from something or someone. You might ask: “What or who do I need to be saved from?” You say, “I have a good life and I am happy, so I don’t need to be saved from anything or anyone.” You might say: My life is going as it was meant to be, so I cannot be saved.” I can tell you that you are absolutely wrong. Regardless of how good your life is, or how bleak your life is, you need to be saved and God has provides a savior for everyone. In this article I want to give a Christian perspective of our need to be saved. I will briefly review the biblical record of the Savior that God provides. What do we need to be saved from? The bible records in Genesis 1-3 that God creates the world. The crown of His creation is a man and a woman. God creates them in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26) and they have the life of God in them (2:7). Unfortunately, the man and the women listen to the deceptive lies of the serpent (devil, Satan) and disobey God. As a result the man and the woman become disconnected to God, thus loosing the unique life of the Spirit that God breathes into them. God drives them from the garden (3:24), and He places a barrier to the entrance into the garden that they and all of their descendants cannot penetrate. Without the Spirit of God in them the man and the woman respond to their carnal nature, including their base desires and passions. This disconnection to God is sin. The actions and behaviors that people do that violate God’s nature are called sins. Thus, we live in a state of sin, and the things that we do are called sins. It is sin and the resulting sins that we all need to be saved from. Regardless to how we live we are all born in a state of sin. In Romans 1-2 the apostle Paul writes that people without the knowledge of God’s Law, and the people with the knowledge of God’s Law sin. He says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). When Paul writes this letter the Jews have access to the Law but they fail to keep it. The Gentiles do not have access to the Law and have no knowledge of what the Law requires of them. This state of existence continues down through the years to the present time. Whether or not a person is aware of what God requires, they are under condemnation because of their sins. A second point that Paul makes is that there is a way for all people to be saved from their sins. No religion can save anyone. No lifestyle can save anyone. There is no power and authority in the earth that can save us from our sins. Why is this so? It is because all people are disconnected to God. They are under the controls of their sinful nature, the influence of the devil’s lies, and the influence of the ways of the world. There must be some way for us to be reconnected to God. The Christmas story is that God provides us with the Savior that unites us to God. In order to understand who this Savior is we need to go back to Genesis 12. God calls a man named Abram. His name later is changed to Abraham. God tells Abram to leave his home and go to a land that God will show him. God promises Abram that He will bless him in the land that he is going to. God will bless the whole world through the seed that comes through him. In Galatians 3:16 Paul explains that this seed is Christ. God declares that Abraham is righteous because he believes God. “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Gal. 3:6, NASB; see Gen. 15:6). In the same manner, all who have the faith of Abraham are justified without knowledge of the Law. The lack of space for this article will not allow us to fully cover all that Paul writes about our salvation in the book of Galatians. I suggest that all people read it. We have said that all people are born separated from God. All people need to be reunited to God. Now, we briefly turn to the Savior that God provides. The Gospel of Matthew is written to a Jewish audience. These are the people that God chooses to identify with Himself. In Exodus they are delivered from bondage in Egypt that is ruled by the Pharaoh. Moses is the agent by which God delivers His people. After crossing the sea out of Egypt God gives them His Law at Mount Sinai so that they will know how they are to live in the land that God promises to give to them. However, the people are unable to obey the Law fully so they are taken from the land by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. God sends His prophets (Isaiah and others) to tell the people that He is going to send a deliverer, the Messiah. Throughout the years the Israelites are waiting for their deliverance through the “Messiah” which means the anointed one of God. In God’s own time, He sends an angel to a town called Nazareth. The angel appears to a young woman named Mary. He tells her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will give birth to a son. She is to name Him “Jesus” because He will save His people from their sins. How does Jesus save us? Jesus dies on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13). Those who believe in Christ receive salvation from their sins. They receive by faith the promise of the Spirit which reunites them to God (Gal. 3:14). When Jesus is born in the town of Bethlehem angels appear to shepherds who are watching over their flock. The angels announce to the shepherds the birth of a child. They say: ‘“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”’ (Luke 2:11, NASB). The angels appear to shepherds. Shepherds are people who are at the bottom of the human social chain. They are poor, disrespected, and stuck in their condition. These shepherds represent all of humanity in their relationship to God. Yet, God sends this good news to these shepherds. God offers to save all people from their sins. Why? The psalmist declares, “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Ps. 100.3, NASB). Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11, NASB). We are to notice that shepherds though of low estate have the responsibility to watch over sheep. Sheep are week animals unable to defend themselves from the wolf that seeks to destroy them. It is the job of the shepherd to feed them and protect them. They are the saviors of the sheep. Jesus too is born into a world that despises Him. Yet, He carries out the will of the Father to care for His people, feeding them and protecting them from the enemy. When the shepherd finds the lost sheep He takes the sheep in His arms and carries him to safety providing food, shelter, and protection. Jesus is our shepherd who lies down His life on the cross to atone for our sins, thus making it possible to be reconciled to God. In conclusion, all people need to be saved and God provides for us the savior who is His Son Jesus Christ.