Someone said to me, “I know plenty of people that say they are saved, but they are doing the same things I do, and some of them are even doing worse.” A lot of people can be turned away from salvation because of this. They might think to themselves, “What difference will it make if it doesn’t cause something miraculous to happen to me? If I’m going to do the same things and feel the same way I always have, why do I need to be saved?” The truth is that salvation does indeed cause a miraculous change in our lives. It is more miraculous than anything we have ever imagined or experienced because Jesus Christ rescues us from eternal death and transfers us to eternal life! This change is not based on how we feel, it is based on our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is accepting God’s forgiveness in our hearts, and this is only possible because Christ died on the cross for the remission of our sins. He sacrificed his life so we could be saved from hell and live free.
Our Rescue
Jesus Christ died on the cross and saved us because God chose and empowered him to accomplish this mission. God rescued us through His precious Son. Colossians 1:13-14(NLT) states, “13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” All we need to do is look around at the world and the condition of many people to see that we desperately needed to be rescued.
Many people today are hurting and feeling very sad. Some individuals, even close friends, are laughing and joking around with us, but they are hiding behind a smile. Deep down they feel lost and alone, and they are wondering how much longer they can keep up the charade. Problems are nothing like they used to be 30 or 40 years ago. The complexities are staggering, and the anything-goes attitude and mentality of society has heaped on tons of dysfunction. There are layers of confusion and chaos that appear to be so thick that many individuals don’t think anyone can understand what they’re facing. They may work through one thing, only to uncover two or three more issues lying underneath. It can feel as though it just never ends, and there’s no peace.
Jesus Christ offers us the privilege, honor, and gift of getting to know him, because he is a friend like no other. In John 15:13(NLT), He said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This is what he did for us. He did it because his love for us is so great, and he wanted us to know this. He said in John 10:18(NLT), “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” Jesus Christ sacrificed his life because there was no other way for human beings to be free from all the plagues of darkness and death like sadness, sickness, disease, and despair. If we could have rescued ourselves, Jesus Christ would not have had to die, but the reality is that there was no way for us to be able to save ourselves. We were caught up in a vicious cycle of sin and pain.
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has all power in his hands. Only he could save us from death and destruction. He did this thousands of years ago, and he will rescue us today from all our troubles. He tells us in Matthew 11:28-30(NIV), “28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is our Peace
Many people don’t know the trouble that sin causes, and that is why they keep on sinning. They don’t recognize the trap it sets for their lives and how it causes them to be burdened with problems on every hand. If we don’t come into consciousness about the sin issue, we will not understand and appreciate the overwhelming victory that the Lord Jesus Christ has won for us and the peace we can have through him. We have victory over sin! 1Corinthians 15:57(NLT) declares, “But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This means that you and I have spiritual help, the most powerful help there is, to live differently than we did before, but it is our choice to lean on God and have faith in the help He provides.
Sin is the choices and decisions that lead to wrong actions. It leads to doing things that Christ would never do, and this doesn’t please the Father. He doesn’t stop loving us when we make wrong choices and poor decisions, and when we behave badly, He helps us. The confusion and chaos that sin causes disrupts our peace, but Jesus Christ restores it. When we allow him to lead and guide us, we can have confidence that his peace will be with us. Philippians 4:7(NLT) tells us, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
He Is Our Redeemer
“He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” Ephesians 1:7(NLT)
We didn’t choose God first, He chose us first. Ephesians 1:4(NLT) teaches us that “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” Nothing about us is a surprise to Heavenly Father. He knows every nook and cranny of our existences. He knows the things about us that we don’t want anyone else to know—those deep, dark secrets of ours. And He still chose us. This reveals all we need to know about His great love and His willingness to forgive and bless us all!
Romans 3:23(NLT) says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Heavenly Father knows that we are not perfect, and that is why He redeemed us through the finished work of His Son, so that we can be clothed in His righteousness. You and I don’t have any righteousness of our own. All that we are and can ever hope to be is in Christ. He is our Redeemer and our hope, and through him, we get to offer ourselves to God completely and utterly so that He can do the inside-out work we all need. Because of Adam’s and Eve’s choice to go against the Word of God and disobey it, we were under a terrible curse. Because of their sin, satan gained dominion over the territory of earth and put the human race under a curse of his spiritual darkness, but Jesus Christ purchased us back with his life.
Galatians 3:13-14(NIV) teaches us, “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. He does it through His precious Holy Spirit that lives inside everyone that has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.”
The Holy Spirit is God’s seed, and he comes to live inside our human-spirits when we are born again. To be born-again is to receive spiritual life and to be made alive in Christ. Romans 10:9-10(NLT) declares, “9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” When any person declares verbally that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe with their hearts that he is God’s beloved and only begotten Son that God raised from the dead, this person receives salvation through Jesus Christ. They are saved from eternal darkness and they become alive to God through Christ!
He leads us through the Holy Spirit
We are born-again not through the flesh or body, but through the Spirit of the Living God. The Spirit of God is a person. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13-14(NLT), “13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.” The Holy Spirit helps us to live a successful Christian life, and we cannot live a successful Christian life without him. The Holy Spirit’s power is unlimited, and he guides, comforts, teaches, and helps us.
God commands us in Galatians 5:16(NLT), “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” Heavenly Father is talking about surrender and submission in this verse. Fulfilling His commandment to be guided by His Spirit will require that we totally surrender to God through His Spirit every moment of every day. We must allow the Spirit to take the lead in our lives. This is what it means to put Jesus Christ in the driver’s seat of our lives. Many people go as far as accepting the Lord Jesus into their hearts, but that is as far as they are willing to go. The reason they don’t witness a greater transformation in their lives is because they will not fully surrender to our Lord and allow him to direct their paths.
Following after the leadership of the Holy Spirit positions us to only do those things that please God, but it is our choice. This body that we live in every day will die, because it has the nature of sin, so why follow it? Why would we allow it to lead us into sin? The Holy Spirit brings life! 2Corinthians 3:8-9(NLT) says, “8 Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? 9 If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!” Because of Jesus Christ, we have been empowered by God to live for Him, and this is the greatest gift, privilege, and honor anyone could receive.
Jesus Christ is God’s original blueprint for humanity. Heavenly Father has made it possible for us to be a part of His family and become His sons and daughters through Christ. Contained within him is everything God wants for us. Getting to know Jesus is the purity of joy and delight. Knowing him is knowing ourselves and choosing him is choosing to live according to God’s divine plan for our individual lives. There is no greater way to live life! It is living through God’s love and this is the only way to take our rightful place of power and authority as God’s sons and daughters. When we make him the Lord of our lives, we can live for God and enjoy all the blessings He has given us through His powerful and precious Son!■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Getting to Know the Person of Jesus Christ” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!