Saved from What?

It’s not often I read sermons (like most people, I usually listen to them), but I recently read one given this past Christmas Eve. It was contemplative, and gave much to consider in regards to the incarnation of Jesus, the coming of God in the flesh into our world. I appreciated the pastor’s thoughtfulness; she touched on aspects of Christ’s infancy that I’d not considered. (You can read the entire sermon here). But her sermon took an unexpected turn when she described the “salvation” that the Baby in the Manger had come to bring:

You see, we need the child to save us. We need the baby Jesus to transform the world, change us from a family that chooses violence, war, and suffering into a family that responds with peace, love and justice. From his swaddling clothes, resting in the crook of Mary’s arm, looking out at a confused world, we need this Jesus to save us…

Jesus, on this night, and throughout the rest of his life, asks for only one thing. Jesus asks us to love him and then share that same love with one another…

[God’s] love is the only thing that will save us. Tonight, you have gathered around the manger. Tonight, you have gathered up the infant Jesus into your arms. Tonight, you become part of the salvation of the world…

There is no denying the incredible power of the love of God, and its capacity to redeem us. But there is great spiritual danger in the pastor’s conclusion. She indicates that mankind’s problem is chiefly in our relationship towards one another. Her analysis is that our greatest need as human beings is to be saved from ourselves. Her solution to our problem is to adopt Jesus’ example of love and follow it. By doing so, we can save ourselves from ourselves. But this is a misdiagnosis.

While the pastor describes the brokenness of relationships among mankind, she says nothing about the brokenness of mankind’s relationship with God.  That vertical brokenness is a direct result of our sin. And therein lies our greatest need: to be saved from the just punishment of God for our sin against Him. That sin has earned us an eternal sentence of separation from God in Hell, frequently referred to in Scripture as the “wrath of God.” We justly deserve this punishment, in the same way that a criminal justly deserves the punishment for his crime.

Jesus entered the picture, not to improve mankind’s earthly condition (though He certainly did that), but to become our substitute, to take upon Himself as a truly perfect sacrifice all the just wrath of God for our sin. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:6-9)

For those who trust in what Christ has done, God no longer holds their sin against them. Instead, He accounts their sins as “paid in full” because of Christ’s sacrificial death and considers them righteous, no longer under impending, eternal judgment in Hell. This is the salvation of which the Scripture speaks.  And it has been done because of the great, great love of God for us.

Those who are saved from God’s wrath by faith in Christ are indeed transformed, and the love of Christ fills their heart. These people become a new kind of incarnation of Christ, the “hands and feet,” as it were, of the Savior. Through them, the world is bettered in innumerable ways. But the primary impact they bring is through the heralding of the Good News of salvation to those who have not yet heard it or believed it.

If those unbelievers among us only have their lives improved by the temporary benefits of Christian love and charity, then such “saving” is pointless because ultimately, the “saved” will spend an eternity in Hell. We do well to remember that every person who encountered Jesus at His first coming—those  He taught, those He loved, those He healed, even those He raised from the dead—eventually all died and faced eternity.  Their true salvation was conditional upon their response to Jesus’ exhortation to repent and believe. His call to this salvation continues on until He comes again.