Savior

December 23, 2019 Jfuglerwriter Comments Off on Jesus Their Savior

Jesus Their Savior

With Christmas two days away, pray that those who don’t know Christ will meet him this year.

You and I know many people who we long to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Family members, friends, co-workers. You’ve been praying for some of them for years. Yet, their hearts are still cold to Christ.

In Luke 13, Jesus told people to “strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24 ESV)

Jewish people in that day were wound up in their traditions. The Scribes and Pharisees amplified that and taught that tradition (rule-following) was the path to heaven. Their legalism was adopted by the common Jew.

Before we scoff at the Scribes and Pharisees, consider that society today isn’t that far off. While the average person doesn’t keep a written laundry list of cleansing behaviors, there’s one thing that most people feel will get them into heaven: good works.

That’s where your unsaved friends live today. They live with the false belief that they are doing enough good things that God will accept them into heaven. It has nothing to do with faith but everything to do with keeping the “law.”

In reality, they are not bound for heaven. Jesus describes their destination: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Luke 13:28 ESV)

How agonizing. Complete absence of God is a horrifying eternal destiny for your friends who do not know Jesus.

Jesus is their Savior . . . when they accept his gift of eternal life. However, it must be on his terms, not theirs. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.” (Matthew 7:13 NIV)

The gate is narrow, but Jesus opens it.

Are you agonizing over the salvation of your lost friends and family? The thought of their eternal destiny in hell should drive you to heart-wrenching prayer. For me, I don’t pray enough like that. However, as I read Luke 13, the Lord moves my heart and soul.

Will you pause right now and pray through that mental list of needy people? Pray that God will soften their hearts. Pray that they will see that doing good does not give them entry into heaven. Pray that they will surrender to Jesus, who has opened the narrow door.

(From my devotional Your Life With God: 30 Days With Jesus, available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback).

December 16, 2019 Jfuglerwriter Comments Off on Jesus My Savior

Jesus My Savior

With Christmas upon us, let’s place our focus on the One to whom we owe our lives.

It was my junior year in high school. I came to a small church that cold winter night to hear a college football coach speak. His name was Rock Royer. My football coach had encouraged me to attend. I was the kid in the back row. 

I thought he was going to talk about football, but he spoke on how to be “born again,” using John chapter 3 as his backdrop. I had never heard the Gospel before. That night, I walked from the back row to the altar to give my life to Jesus. 

I came home and told my parents that I had been born again, not knowing anything else. 

It took me more than a year to understand what I had actually done that night. 

Or, more importantly, what Jesus had done for me. He had become my Savior that night and I didn’t even know it!

Fast forward a year and a half later. Another believer took me under his wing and discipled me in my faith. That’s when it all came into view.

Jesus my Savior.

Jesus your Savior.

We throw that word around casually. “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” is a term we hear and use often, to the point that it becomes ho-hum. It has lost its significance.

Without Jesus, you’d be separated from God forever. No connection. No relationship. Spiritual death. Eternity in darkness. In Satan’s kingdom and under his rule. Hell is very real and that would be your destiny.

In the here and now, you’d have no hope for significance beyond this life. You’d be defined by the physical world. You might search for connection with God through all sorts of false alternatives, but you’d never attain a relationship. Your meaning and purpose would come to an end with your last breath. 

That’s what Jesus has saved you from. All of that and more. Quite frankly, he has saved you from eternal destruction. 

Does the word “Savior” carry more significance now?

And how about what it cost Jesus to become your Savior? The enormity of it all. He left his glorious home in heaven to walk this earth for 33 years, endured persecution to the point of death, took all your sins and the sins of humankind on his shoulders, suffered the torture of total separation from God the Father on the cross – and did all of this willingly because he loves you.

Jesus your Savior. 

May we never again hear or use this word casually. Becoming Savior cost Jesus so much.

(From my 30-day devotional Your Life With God: 30 Days With Jesus. Available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback).

Scroll to top