We all need saving

We have been talking about Immanuel or Emmanuel, God is with us and God has become one of us. This week we will look at the other name for our Emmanuel, Jesus. Matthew 1:21 says, “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  

In the Greek, the name “Jesus” means “Jehovah is salvation”. Further, in the Greek, “save” is the word, “sṓzō” which means to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction, to save from injury or peril, to save a suffering one from perishing, i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health, to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to deliver from judgement and to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance.

That is a long definition and I have listed it all because at the end of the day, we all need saving. We all fit in somewhere in that list. But we limit what God can do for us sometimes. For example, when we look at the word “heal” in our definition we limit it to physical illness but it applies to mental issues, emotional trauma, heartache, whatever it may be God can heal it and restore it to what it is meant to be.

The definition for sṓzō reminds us that we all need Jesus. We all need saving. Christmas time is a reminder of the mercy and kindness of God. God looked at humanity, trapped in its brokenness and wallowing in its own filth called sin and decided to step in and help. He didn’t have to. Let’s face it, if any of us were God, humanity would all still be here stuck in sin because we “just cannot with these people!”

Yeah, we are messed up and messy and crazy and we get caught in the devil’s traps, sometimes more than once and God keeps on saving us. That doesn’t make sense to me logically. So it can only be love because there is no other reason why God, who is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, lacking nothing, can do and have anything He wants, would choose to spend His days rescuing us.  

Psalms 8:4 says, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” God’s mind is full of wonderful thoughts about you. Thoughts and plans on how to help and save you. So much so that He named His Son, Jesus. So that every time we call on Him, we remember that He saves, heals and delivers.

Psalms 3-6 (in a different translation) says, “Look at the splendor of Your skies, Your creative genius glowing in the heavens. When I gaze at Your moon and Your stars, mounted like jewels in their settings, I know You are the fascinating artist who fashioned it all! But I have to ask this question: Why would You bother with puny, mortal man or care about human beings? Yet what honor You have given to men, created only a little lower than Elohim, crowned with glory and magnificence. You have delegated to them rulership over all You have made, with everything under their authority, placing earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.”

Why does God continue to save, rescue us and deliver us even when the mess we are in is totally our fault? Because He places value on us. Yes, God thinks you are so valuable and worth Him dying for you. He loves us so much it is hard to comprehend with our human minds. He loves us without reservation. He loves us without limits or conditions. He loves us not because of anything we have ever done or could do because while we were wallowing in our filth, He still loved us (Romans 5:8).

God’s love for us is wider, deeper, greater, better than our best understanding of it. So on the days you want to give up on yourself (or give up on God) remember there is a God who loves you and who hasn’t given up on you. He is here to save, heal and deliver you. His Name is Jesus.

I’ll leave you with Luke 4:18 – 19 which says, and this is Jesus speaking, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me to be hope for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, and new eyes for the blind, and to preach to prisoners, ‘You are set free!’ I have come to share the message of Jubilee, for the time of God’s great acceptance has begun.”

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.