The Savior :: by Don McReynolds

How does a person really grasp the reality that Jesus is our Savior? How does the mind reason Jesus, actually equating Him to a real actual and specific Savior? If Jesus is the Savior it means He is saving us from something. The word savior defined expresses a person who saves a person or a group of people from some kind of danger or actual harm.

So the actual expression of saving a person means that without direct intervention, calamity and doom are the real end results. I think for clarification and a logical mental conclusion, examples of an earthly savior might help us grasp an actual observed savior to bridge the idea of Jesus as Savior.

My mind imagines a setting of actual war; two people groups in a setting firing weapons at each other, with one group having superior fire power and logistically more resources moving on a fixed enemy position with no ammo or hope.

The savior is depicted by helicopters landing and picking up the doomed soldiers and flying them to safety. The saved soldiers look in disbelief as their position is overrun and firebombed into oblivion—realizing had the helicopters not been there, death would have been unavoidable.

Another idea is this: A house catches on fire; its nighttime and smoke is so thick upon awakening that the person can’t breathe or contemplate a way of escape. The fire and smoke is overcoming his capacity to reach safety. He is crawling around in blackness choking for breath. A window breaks above him and some light is seen.

A firefighter scoops up the person and they both escape onto the ladder when immediately, a flashover occurs in the room and it is fully engulfed in flames. The saved person looks up in disbelief as flames are rolling out the window with intense heat realizing had the fireman been even one second later his life would have been doomed.

Now let’s together conclude how Jesus is our helicopter of salvation. Jesus decided in His infinite existence to create us in His image, so now we actually exist. By default, Man is not capable of holiness so in our unavoidable incapacity to be holy, we sinned. God by character demands judgment of lawlessness equaling doom for any lawbreaker.

Let’s skip forward here and be the person that God has allowed to be saved and is aware of sin and its implications. That person, before he was saved had never been tempted per se, as earthly laws can still allow sin to be lawful in a society. Yet in God’s eyes its capital murder.

So here you have, a created being touched by the Spirit of God who now has received the knowledge of the Truth. This person now perceives two worlds; one of worldly descent and the other of the Lord of life.

This person who is now saved and after the dust settles from the explosion of God’s initial born-again miracle, now begins to experience true temptation. This person is saved but not expedited directly to Jesus but commanded to live for a time in this fallen world.

This person may hold the capability to minimize the sin pattern, but as each day passes from week to month to year, the sins keep piling up. Temptation is actually realized and the tempter is actually revealed because the person, still in the flesh has to battle the sin nature.

The mind aware of God and His holiness and His actual hatred of sin allows the person to begin working their salvation out with fear and trembling. The sinner, although saved, finally contemplates his inability to not sin, moreover remove themselves above the danger of God’s justice towards sin as they finally realize they are stuck finitely as a sinner.

This person is overrun by the enemy; doomed to God’s wrath because of the sinner’s incapacity to neutralize the power of sin, death and hell. Therefore the sinner is absolutely helpless in his future capacity to be holy and sinless, while already saved waiting on Jesus’ actual return or death unfolding before His return.

If Jesus did not die on the cross for mankind, taking the place of the sinner and accepting death and God’s justice for the lost, they would live in actual horror and be doomed. The realization of this idea of sin and its implications of hell everlasting creates real horror in a saved soul’s heart.

Jesus is saving us because He is the actual real time literal Savior. Jesus saves us from God’s unavoidable justice toward sin. Man hides in the shadow of the cross of Christ because without the cross, his doom is realized.

No Christian can look the Lord Himself in the eye without awe and thanksgiving because the perfect blood of God releases us from wrath. The ultimate sacrifice of Jesus neutralizes the sinner’s debt, as Jesus flies in His helicopter of salvation releasing us from the flashover of fire.

We only exist because God wanted a family, nothing more. God has already made provision for our sins and believe me, Jesus wants to save you. In all of your sins and all of your fears of the sinner status, realize that Jesus is so very serious about saving you He was tortured, shamed, and then killed very painfully. So the cross was designed for the sinner and Jesus literally saves us from the literal hell.

In my comparison of the earthly savior and the Lord, our eternal Savior, we see one real difference. The earthly savior just saves in the worldly finite realm, while Jesus saves from actual infinite justice.

Jesus is the only and ultimate Savior! Jesus is literally saving you when He died on the cross years ago. We are sinners and just imagine the sinners who fly out with Jesus compared to those who don’t. They will be begging for the Savior and we will be in awe in realization of how He saved us because Jesus is the literal Savior.

McReynoldsdon@ymail.com

What Tomorrow May Bring :: by Andy Coticchio

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).

“…whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

I feel both of these verses are strong calls to faith, not advice to live an unplanned life with a “Don’t worry, be happy” attitude. The Bible doesn’t speak out against prudence, against proper stewardship or the using of gifts and talents in a God honoring way. To live your life day to day without any planning seems wrong: we have responsibilities to take care of ourselves and others in our care.

Spouses, children, parents, neighbors, others in our local Body (or in the Body around the world) who are in need. Without planning and stewardship we would never have the resources, the time, the talent and the treasure to meet those needs and fulfill those responsibilities because we would have wasted all three, leaving nothing left with which to provide.

The provision God makes in our lives we are to use prudently and obediently, following His will and showing the love of Christ to others, especially to family and our church family.

Those two verses are a strong call to faith because they are calls to not worry about the future. The Lord has it in hand, and the Lord provides for His children. As a faithful child of God, there is nothing to worry about. If you have read the book of Revelation, you know things gets very bad but that the Body of Christ is protected from the worst, and we win in the end because we will be standing by Christ and He wins.

But remember that the Lord has given us abundant provision today and He expects us to use it wisely. Planning for the future is not an unwise use of resources as long as you are not ignoring today. The advice of those two verses is not to worry about the future, not to obsess on it or paralyze yourself in the present.

In the total scheme of things, our lifespans on earth are an insignificant passage of time in regards to eternity, without Jesus to bring us into eternity in God’s presence we are nothing more than a wisp, a vapor or a mist passing quickly. It is an abiding faith in Jesus now that allows us to trust in Him and not worry about the future.

Plan to marry? Sure go ahead. Want to start and raise a family? Nothing wrong with that. Build a career that allows you to provide for that family? Okay by me. But what if you marry and your spouse and you do not have a relationship centered in Christ? Should you raise children without teaching them about Jesus so they one day they hopefully will seek a life following Him as well?

Why build a career if it is not done in a God honoring way so that what He does through you glorifies His name? Outside of Christ, all you do is reserved for fire and will burn up leaving nothing but smoke and ash, nothing precious and enduring in the eyes of the Lord. These things require some level of planning ahead but only make sense if you are a Christ follower and using what He has given you to glory the name of God.

And if that is what you are doing, the worry about the future fades into the background because your eyes, your heart, soul and mind are focused on Jesus. Loving Jesus and living for Him leaves no time for worry but plenty to serve and worship Him, using the gifts and provision He has placed into your life.

To a follower of Jesus, tomorrow is not a worry because it becomes the time when you are one day closer to spending eternity in the physical presence of God.

Andy Coticchio
Rafter Cross Ministries