Christ: The Savior

Christ: The Savior

Christ the Savior
A native of interior China wanted to become a Christian but couldn't understand how Christianity was superior to Confucianism and Buddhism. One morning he came to the missionary in a happy mood saying, "I dreamed last night, and now I understand. I dreamed I had fallen into a deep pit where I lay helpless and despairing. Confucius came and said, 'Let me give you advice, my friend; if you get out of your trouble, never get in again.' Buddha came and said, 'If you can climb up to where I can reach you, I will help you.' Then Christ came. He climbed down into the pit and carried me out." It takes the Savior of man to do that. Only a Savior would stoop so low as to save a sinful soul like yours and mine.

Christ the Way
On a dark and stormy night, a child was lost in the streets of a large city. A policeman found him crying in distress, and gathering enough from his story to locate the home, gave him directions after this manner. "Just go down this street half a mile, turn and cross the big iron bridge, then turn to your right and follow the river down a little way, and you'll see where you are." The poor child, only half comprehending, chilled and bewildered by the storm, turned about blindly, when another voice spoke in a kindly tone, "Just come with me." The little hand was clasped in a stronger one, the corner of a warm coat was thrown over the shoulders of the shivering child, and the way home was made easy. The first man had told the way; the second man became the way. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has been for us. From eternity He has told us that He is the Way. He has to become our Light also, to lead us to the Way. The Cleansing Blood of Christ
A woman came to a minister one day carrying a container of wet sand. "Do you see what this is, sir?" she asked. "Yes," was the reply, "it is wet sand." "But do you know what it means?" "I do not know exactly what you mean by it, woman; what is it?" "Well, sir," she said, "that's me; and the multitude of the sins that constantly dirty my heart cannot be numbered." Then she exclaimed, "Oh, wretched creature that I am! How can such a wretch as I ever be saved and keep clean from the influences of the world?" "Where did you get the sand?" asked the minister. "At the beach." "Go back, then, to the beach. Take a spade with you; dig, dig, and raise a great mound; shovel it up as high as you can, then leave it there. Take your stand by the seashore, and watch the effect of the waves upon the heap of the sand." "Sir," she exclaimed, "I see what you mean-the blood, the blood, the blood of Christ, it would wash it all away and would keep washing any new dark stains away."

God Speaks to Man
Have you ever had difficulty in making yourself understood by a young child? Just try answering some of his questions: "What's the sky made of? Why did Grandma have to die? Where did God come from?" It can be quite a problem. The difference between your mental ability and the child's is not as great as that between the mental ability of God, the Creator, and you, His creature. What method did He use to communicate with man? Did He send a great cataclysm of nature to awe us into submission? No, He sent a little Baby to be born in Bethlehem. Of course, babies are born every day, but this was a very special Baby. He was God in the flesh.

Help for the Bankrupt!
"Deposit this in my name" means "deposit it in my account." Or "draw this in my name" means "draw this from my account." Isn't that what would happen if I were to write out a check for you? You would take it and present it to the bank. You would cash it. But the money would come out of my account because my name was signed on the check. You would have to believe that I had money in the bank and the money could become yours; otherwise you would never have presented the check to be cashed. Thus, through faith in my name, you would have made my account yours in the amount that I had made available to you.
That's exactly the transaction that takes place between God and man. He has the resources which we need. He is Life and Light. Especially do we need these, in a spiritual sense, for our spiritual existence. They are made available to us in the measure that we need them, because we ourselves are bankrupt. Our name isn't worth anything at the source of Life and Light, but the Lord Jesus Christ has available what we need.

Practical Help
A traveler passing by and seeing a man fallen into a deep pit began to wonder aloud how he fell in. The poor man in his utter misery shouted, "If you are a friend, stop asking how I fell in but help me out!" The Lord Jesus Christ wants to impart His life to us. We may in our foolishness want a full explanation from Him as to why He permitted us to fall in the first place, but John 3:16 tells us that the most important and urgent thing is our salvation from sin and death.

Christ Lived among Men
A missionary visiting a poor hut in a refugee district was challenged by a suffering woman: "You tell us that you are interested in us and want to help us. But it's very easy for you to simply come to see us in our poverty-stricken home. The question is, are you ready to bring your family from the clean and comfortable home in which they live, in order to live in our district with all its poverty and suffering and sin? Would you do that in order to lift us up?" That is exactly what Christ did. "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:16).

Christ Abides With Us
When the first missionaries went to St. Thomas, they could not get near the suffering and degraded slaves until they took part in their bondage and asked the masters to make them slaves also. Then they were received with perfect confidence and were able to bring multitudes of the poor suffering ones to Christ. They trusted them when they saw that they had become identified with their very own lives and lot. "Praise be to the Lord the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people" (Luke 1:68).
But He comes closer. These missionaries could work by the side of the slave, but they could not come into their hearts.

Important Because Imported
The physician was going to operate on a very rich man who always wanted the best of everything. "I don't think there will be any problem," said the doctor, "This operation is routine. We can even use a local anesthetic."
"No," shouted the millionaire. "Don't use a local. Get something imported."
That's what Jesus is-"something imported"; or Someone imported. A hymn puts it like this: "There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate to heaven and let us in."
His birth was miraculous, the only one of its kind in history. It was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14, 700 years before it happened. But even more startling than that is John's declaration, "The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." That meant one thing-that Jesus was born to die.
The virgin birth of Jesus gave to us a divine Redeemer whose life became a ransom for sin. A Jesus born in sin or subsequently guilty of sin couldn't have atoned for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ will never be understood by those who don't see Him as the Savior. And Christmas is an empty thing unless the Christ of Christmas is your Savior. Why not receive Him as your Savior now?

It Makes All the Difference
On a crowded street of one of our large cities, a young man was snatched from the path of a speeding truck, his life saved by a venerable-looking man. Still breathless from fright, the youth thanked the one who saved his life and then was lost in the crowd.
Two weeks later in a crowded courtroom, an anxious young man stood in the prisoner's box to be sentenced for murder.
"Young man, have you anything to say before the sentence of death is passed upon you?" "Why! Yes! Yes, Judge," the youth responded, "you know me." A silence moved like a shock wave over the courtroom. "I'm sorry. I cannot place you."
"Yes. Surely you remember. Two weeks ago. At Main and Seventh Streets, you saved my life. Surely, Judge, you can do something to save me now." A silence pervaded the courtroom. "Young man, now I do remember you. But that day I was your savior. Today I am your judge."
Today the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be your Savior. If you refuse Him and His grace, one day He will be your Judge.

Beware! Satan Is Aboard! It Is a Hijack!
The human race is aboard a hijacked jet flying through time. God Himself directed its takeoff from the divine control tower. The initiator of all evil, whom we call Satan, managed to get a boarding pass. When cruising height was reached, he produced his weapons, threatened the pilot, and took control of the jumbo jet and all of its passengers. So it hopped on uncomfortably through history from airport to airport till it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem, an outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, where the Son of God offered Himself as sole hostage in exchange for passengers and crew. The further you push the parallel the more fanciful it seems. But the basic idea of the human race aboard a hijacked jumbo flying through time is sound enough. The passengers must keep a wary eye on the hijacker, induce the pilot to take his directions from God's control tower, and be ready to accept rescue through the sacrifice of the willing Hostage. That is their only escape route.

Christ, a Threat to Man's Religion
When Bishop Hurst was in Poona, India, he went out to the great temple of Parvati, and there watched the worshipers. He asked the ancient Brahman priest, who for many years had received the offerings there, "Are there as many people coming here to pray as formerly?"
"No, there are fewer every year." "How long will this worship last?" was the next query. "God knows," he sadly replied. "What will bring it to an end?" "Jesus Christ," the Brahman answered.
Those who promote human religions are indeed afraid of Christ because He puts an end to human religion by introducing the promise of heaven. Could Anyone Fill Jesus' Sandals
Some years ago, a college student took a psychology course in which another student tried to argue that Jesus was not greater than other men. The student stated that he could probably do everything Jesus had done. As a public service to those who have such lofty aspirations, we are publishing a partial list of things which you MUST do if you think that you can do everything that Jesus did.
Feed five thousand unexpected guests, and then have your amount of garbage exceed the amount of food with which you began.
Have a raging storm stilled at your command, and the wind and the waves stop simultaneously.
Become such a threat to a significant portion of the religious establishment that they demand that you be executed. (You must do this by what you say. You are not allowed to use demonstrations, riots, card-burnings, or picket signs, or any form of violence.)
Rise from the dead after you have been executed and pronounced dead.
That is enough of the easy things. Now let's look at some requirements which are more exacting. (By the way, you need not accept the Bible in order to KNOW that Jesus accomplished these things.) By 1900 years after your death (from which you rose), you must have accomplished the following:
Every week, millions of people must gather in thousands of places for the sole purpose of telling about what a good person you were.
Thousands of hospitals and schools must have been built and be operating in your name.
The calendar, used in most of the world, must be dated from the time of your birth.
Men must still consider it worth their time to prove that you were a fake. (If you really were a fake, you would have been forgotten long before now.)
Your life must be considered to be the standard and ultimate goodness for a large portion of the world, and even for those who claim no association with the entity you founded to honor and serve you.
MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, YOU MUST HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ALL THIS IN 3 1/2 YEARS. The Hands of Christ
When our Lord was here on earth, He frequently ministered to man's needs with His hands. He broke the loaves and the fishes to feed a hungry multitude. He made clay and rubbed it on the eyes of a blind man to give him sight. He touched an unclean leper in the act of cleansing him. He said to Thomas, "Behold My hands." One day we, too, shall behold them.
The story is told of a young girl whose mother was very beautiful-all except her hands, which were shriveled and scarred and hideous. Although the child was long reluctant to speak about them, the time came when she asked her mother how her hands became so marred.
The mother told her how their house caught fire when the girl was very little. The mother rushed upstairs to the room where the girl was sleeping in her crib, and with the help of the Lord was able to carry the babe downstairs and outside without being harmed. But in doing so, the mother's hands were terribly burned.
This brought sobs to the child as she said, "O Mother, you know I've always loved you-especially your face, your smile, your eyes. But better than all, now I love your hands."
The One who left heaven's glory and became flesh for us bears in His compassionate hands the scars of His sacrifice on our behalf. His hands will be an eternal reminder of His love. When He Waited the Longest
When Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on the wall in Milan, Italy convent dining room, the monks began to have many questions about his ability, and his integrity. The picture was merely a copy of the dining area in which it was being painted. The table, the linen, even the dishes used by the monks, were all identical to those in the picture.
Some of the monks thought da Vinci was taking advantage of his contract to paint this picture. They were resentful of his long periods of inactivity, when da Vinci would stand for hours without touching his brush to the wall in front of him.
When they asked da Vinci about this apparent inactivity, he replied, "When I pause the longest, I make my most telling strokes with my brush."
No other event in the life of our Lord has been painted more often, but none can match the one painted by da Vinci nearly 500 years ago.
In like manner, God paused, the world waited, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son...." (Galatians 4:4).

What the Artist Cannot Paint
An artist can paint the physical hands and feet of our Lord, but he cannot paint the healing power of those hands and the godly walk of those feet. He can paint the outward suffering, but not the inward cause; the cursed tree, but not the curse of the law; the bearing of the cross, but not the bearing of the sins of His people; the cup of vinegar, but not the cup of wrath-the derision of His enemies and the forsaking of the Father.
Where is the artist who can paint one hand of Christ nailed to the cross and the other hand claiming an inheritance of believers?
Or who can paint our Lord bruising the serpent's head, conquering sin, death and the grave?
The artist can only portray blood and water flowing from Christ's side, but he cannot paint what the eye of faith sees in that blood: salvation and pardon.