The second verse of the Christmas carol Silent Night ends with the words "Christ the Savior is born. Jesus was indeed born for the mission of saving His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The gifts and parties, the decorations and food of the Christmas season are all very nice, but they are not the real reason that Christ came to earth. He came to be the Savior of His people.
What difference should it make to you that Christ came as Savior? First, you should respond to Christ's mission by accepting Him as your Savior from sin. Christ's sacrifice on the cross of His righteous life bore the penalty of sin that you deserved to pay. That sacrifice only becomes effective to you by way of faith in the work of Christ on your behalf. Receive Christ as your Savior by faith and receive the forgiveness He acquired for you.
Second, we should respond to Christ as our Savior by worshiping Him for His act that procured our salvation. We should not grow tired of praising Christ for the cross. Instead, we should be like the one healed leper in Luke 17 who returned to give glory to God. Jesus commended this leper and wondered why the other nine did not do the same thing. Clearly Jesus expects us to worship Him for saving us from our sins.
A third response to being saved by Christ should be to tell others what Christ has done for us. This is what Jesus told the man that he cast a demon out of in Mark 5. That man wanted to travel with Jesus. Instead, Jesus told him to go back to his town and tell people what God had done for him. If Jesus has saved us, then it becomes our job to tell other people what we have experienced and how they can experience the same thing.
Finally, if Jesus has saved us from our sins, then we should respond by living free from continued sin. Romans 6 makes this conclusion quite convincingly. Jesus didn't just pay the penalty for our sin. He also changed our allegiance. We used to be devoted to sin. Now we should be devoted to living out God's righteousness in our lives. We will not always live perfectly, but we can live in a way that is consistent with having a Savior.
Is Jesus your Savior? If not, why not receive Him today? If He is, then live like it by worshiping Him, telling others about Him, and living free of the sin from which He saved you.
Hey Dave, my name is John. I read a lot of blogs on religion and prayer and I've i feel like I've ended up here once before. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this prayer exchange website PrayerMarket.com I thought it was an interesting idea and would be curious to hear what you (or other Christians) think about it
ReplyDeleteI'll check back here in the next day or two, thanks & God bless
John W.
John,
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of thoughts about your idea. You can see them in this post- http://davepeterssays.blogspot.com/2010/12/prayer-for-price-youve-got-to-be.html
I strongly encourage you to do shut down your web-site. I hope that you opened it because you truly want more people to pray. Unfortunately, your format encourages people to trust in their money instead of in the God who provides them with all that they need.