Jesus saves

Colossian 1:16 Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen. He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him.

Now from this we learn several things. First God owns you. Even if you are a child, who is yet to come to know Jesus, God owns you, and it is your duty to worship him because He made you. He made you and the very breadth that is in your body is what God gave to you. Therefore you owe Him. What do you owe him? All your praise; all your obedience.

For some of us, not only God owns us because of creation, He owns us because He purchased us.

Galatians 3:13 Christ bought us with His blood and made us free from curse of the Law for breaking it. In that way, the Law could not punish us. Christ did this by carrying our sins and by being punished for it instead of us. It is written, “Anyone who hangs on a cross is hated and punished”

Jesus bought us. To buy something or someone means to pay a price. What was the price Jesus paid? The price he paid was his blood; the price he paid was his life. Why did he buy? To set us free from the punishment for breaking God’s law. To set us free from being caught to the power of sin. That is what God has done. He did this through Jesus Christ. Now because of Jesus, you should have a love in your heart for God.

 

Think about this for a moment. Every law we have ever studied, shows us something very important. Not only God is good, it also shows us that we have broken every law. We have created other gods. In our hearts, there are things that are more important to us than God. Many times, we take the name of the Lord our God in vain; we do not honor him or worship him, or think about him in the way we ought. Because of that, the Bible says we have all sinned.

Now sin is not something we laugh about, because it is not something that God laughs about. All the pain, all the sorrow, all the problems you see in this world is because men have broken God’s law. That fact that people die today is because of the effects of sin. That fact that you will feel down, and hurt yourselves or there will be sadness in your life; everything that happens in this planet that’s bad is because of disobedience.

Romans 5:12 This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all men sinned or broke the God’s law.

Sin spread because of Adam’s disobedience; because of your great great grandfather’s disobedience; father’s disobedience, and because of your disobedience. Sin is the one great dark monster. It’s the life eater. It’s the killer of people. Whoever serves Mr. Sin will only get one kind of wages. The Bible says that the wages of working for Mr. Sin is death (Rom 6:23).

But Jesus came. Jesus came. Think about that. He didn’t have to come. If God would have stayed in heaven throughout eternity and allowed us to die, He would still be a good God because if we had died, it would have been exactly what we deserve. But the fact is that the Bible says that God loved the world, so much, he loved the people so much that He sent his only Son to die the death that you should die.

This is very important: Many times when you think about the death of Jesus you think about the pain of the cross; the pain of the crown of thorns, and the nails in his hands, and feet. The pain of that spear that was in his side; all that is important. But here is something you must understand; that is not the great pain of the cross. That’s not the greatest thing that Jesus most dreaded. Jesus was perfect. He never sinned one time, but on that tree your sin was placed on him: “And the Lord has put on him the sin of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

“It was the crushing weight of the sin of the world, a sense of separation from His Father’s love. This was what broke the Saviour’s heart, and brought His death so soon”. (The Story of Jesus, p145)

 

And He was treated by God in the way that we should be treated and I should be treated. How should we be treated? We should be turned away from God. We should be turned away from his presence. We should be send into eternal darkness. That’s what the bible says about us because of our sin. The treatment that God should have given us was on his son. Jesus suffered in our place. Father turned away from his son. All the judgment that you should experience, Christ experienced on that tree. But you know what is marvelous. Right before He died, he said something absolutely wonderful. He said it is finished.

 

What is finished? He made the payment for our punishment for breaking God’s law in full. Because of your sins, your crimes, you owed God a debt you could not pay, but Jesus paid it. He paid it for all. For every one of your sins that you have ever committed. You are forgiven, if you truly repent and are trusting in Jesus, who not only died for your sins, but rose again on the third day, is seated at the right hand of God as our High priest; He is able to save you from every horrible thing you have ever done, and could ever do (Hebrew 7:25).

[What really happens when Jesus took our sins on Him, and when we truly repent of our sins? The Bible says "God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthian​s 5:21). How did Jesus become sin for us? He did not become sin by becoming a sinner by his deeds for He did not sin. He became sin for us the same way we become righteousness of God. God places Christ righteousness on us when we truly repent of our sins, and turn to God. When Christ places His righteousness on the truly repentant, it is not legal fiction because when Christ took all our sins, it was real. When He placed his righteousness on account of our heart surrender led by the Spirit, that righteousness is also very real. So, Jesus takes our sins on Himself, and we take His righteousness on ourselves upon repentance, and by faith; and His righteousness also becomes within ourselves as well]. 

If you look to yourself to be saved, you are wrong. If you try to go to heaven because your parents go to church, you are wrong. If you think you are going to heaven because you think you are good, and because of all sorts of things like that, you are wrong. Your goodness is not good before God. My best works and efforts apart from Christ’s works in us are nothing more than filthy rags before God. My only hope of getting to heaven is that 2000 years ago, the Son of God died for me. That must be our hope.

We have no hope apart from one person, and his name is Jesus Christ. And everything that we do, we do because of Jesus.     

Why should you want to be a good man, or a good woman? Because Jesus died for you. If it is any other reason, it is idolatry, and idolatry is a sin. You do it for him. Everything you do, you do for him. He is everything. He is not only our only Savior; He is not only our only Lord; He is also the only life. Outside of him, there is nothing. If Jesus is everything, that also means His word and teachings are also everything to us. You can’t make Jesus your everything without making him Lord and Savior of your life.

Now to conclude do you know him? Yes, one time I prayed a prayer and invited him to my heart. But that doesn’t mean you know him. Millions of Christians in the world have prayed prayers and asked Jesus into their hearts. But their life hasn’t changed.

The evidence that you repented of your sins and were saved is that you are still repenting of your sins. The evidence that you believed Jesus a few years ago is that you still believe him today and you believe him more than before. And evidence that you truly have been saved by grace is that you keep walking and following Jesus, and His word, and He continues to change you to His image.

Just because your parents are Christians you are not a Christian. Just because you come to church on Sabbath doesn’t make you a Christian. The evidence that you are Christian is that Jesus has done something in your life. And the something that he has done is the thing that motivates you to follow him and you want to be like him and you continue on and on till you are full-grown and complete as Jesus is Himself (Ephesians 4:13).

So it’s all about Jesus isn’t it? Does that mean Jesus is the only thing and not his teachings? No! If we have Jesus, we have everything God commanded us to live by (Matthew 4:4). How do we do live by God's every word? We do that when our hearts are devoted and surrendered to one person, and that person is Jesus Christ.