Salvation Is Somebody

There is nothing, absolutely nothing so hopelessly still as a corpse. Nothing quite so dead, so hopelessly still as a corpse. No doctor, no scientist has yet been able to breathe life into a dead body.

But hear me today, just as hopeless is the sinner without Christ. The sinner is dead in trespasses and sins. Without Christ he is spiritually dead, nor has he any prospect of doing better.

For as Paul says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Our Lord Jesus emphasized this truth when he said, It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

And again he said, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. Or in other words, shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life. Salvation is the miracle of receiving life.

Indeed, a miracle happened to you when you were saved, and it's just like that. The Lord Jesus Christ touched your life with his own nail-scarred hand and gave to you new life with a new nature. His life and his nature.

That's exactly what we mean when we talk about being born again. Salvation is not something you do. Please understand this very definitely.

Salvation is not something you do, but it's something that Christ does when you receive him. He is the one who does it. I give you the scripture.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. That's it. Salvation is something that Christ does when you receive him.

It is not something that you do. Of course, you come to him. There must first of all be active faith on your part.

You come. You must be willing. You accept.

But from there on out, he does the rest. It's something that Christ does when you receive him. He is the one who gives you life.

I can prove that. Watch. Listen to Andrew talking to Simon Peter.

And this is what he said. We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. Listen to Philip as he speaks to Nathanael regarding his conversion.

We have found him, a person. We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

And then listen to the words of the woman of Samaria. Come, she says. Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? And then is there anything more thrilling than Paul when he stands before Agrippa? Oh, to me this is marvelous. And these are his words, and I can see the glory on his face as he speaks and says, At midday, O King, I saw a light, and I heard a voice. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.

But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee. At the heart of your faith, this moment, is a person. It is a person who gives you eternal life, his life.

Salvation is not something, it's somebody. When you are saved, you meet a person. When you are born again, you meet a person with a very definite personality.

You opened your life to him, and you are now living under his control. Paul said, I know whom, not something, but a somebody. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.

Not something, but unto him, a definite person, somebody, which I have committed unto a person against that day. This is what happened to you. You experienced a miracle.

You met a person. And you became part of an eternal transaction. And from here on out, God is your adventure.

Doesn't that do something to you? You belong. Oh, just to be able to look up and know that you belong to a person. We see now that God could not show us himself, except through another self.

A self that would be in human surroundings, and would speak the language we speak, our human language. And Jesus was God speaking the language of the man in the street. Interpreting God in understandable terms.

Just as when you take hold of my words, you get hold of my thought. So when you take hold of the word, Jesus, you get hold of the thought, God. They do not rival, nor push out each other.

The word is the thought become available. Near at hand, intimate, human. God is in nature.

But the nature of God I find in Christ. And oh, what a glorious nature. If I were to try to think out the kind of God I'd like to see in the universe, I could think of nothing higher than that he should be Christ-like.

For Jesus stands erect amid the fallen. Clean amid the defiled. Living among the dying.

The savior of men. Said the blind George Matheson, and I love his words, Son of man, whenever I doubt of life, I think thee. Nothing is so impossible as that thou shouldest be dead.

I can imagine the hills to dissolve into vapor. Or the stars to melt in smoke. And the rivers to empty themselves in sheer exhaustion.

But I feel no limit in thee, surely. Here in Jesus is one spot in my universe that will not let me down. Something that is utterly trustable.

Here, if anywhere, I can commit my life and confess my sins. For this one spot is not only trustable, it is sympathetic. It loves, it cares, it understands.

He understands. He loves. He hears my prayer confession.

I talk to him, not to something, but to a person. And life with Christ is the only life to live. For with him, a person, there is assurance.

There is God, a person, underneath all the uncertainties of human existence. And so, I rest in God. Living or dying, I am his.

And with that confidence, I know no fear. He's a Savior. He's a mighty God.