The 5 Ways of JESUS: 5 Days to Knowing Jesus BetterSample

THE WAY OF THE SAVIOR

1 John 4:14 says, “God sent his son to be the Savior of the world.” Jesus came to this Earth to save us. This is why he is the Savior. The reason he came to Earth is we all need salvation. The idea of a savior presupposes people need to be saved.

Maybe you think you don't need to be saved, you don't need to be rescued, you don't need any help. All of us need to be saved because all of us are lost. We can't find our way to peace, we can't find our way to purpose, we can't find our way to meaning.

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of God's glory.” This means there's no one whose life is acceptable to God, who is perfect like God is. All of us have a terminal illness called sin, and we need to be saved. Another way the word saved can be translated is healed. We are healed from our terminal illness.

You may be a good person, maybe a lot better than most people. The issue isn't better than or even good. The issue is perfect. There's no person with any degree of intellectual or moral integrity who can say, "I am perfect." No one can, so all of us have the same terminal disease of sinfulness.

We do things we shouldn't. We say things we shouldn't. We fail to do things we should. We fail to say things we should. In the end, all have sinned and fall short of God's standard of perfection, which is why everyone needs a savior.

Sin leads to separation from God, but God gave us the greatest gift - Jesus. God's gift is a Savior. God looks at this world, and his standard of perfection is not met. God's justice must be appeased, and Jesus is the one who provides it. He took the punishment for sin on the cross. He paid the price so we could be saved.

Jesus changes the relationship between a holy and perfect God and an unholy imperfect human race. The enmity that exists is replaced with friendship. Jesus is the Savior. He changes the nature of the relationship. It's not because of anything that we do. It is a gift called grace.

Christ makes us acceptable to God. Jesus offers his grace and forgiveness to any person who would simply accept it. We are saved when we accept Jesus Christ into our lives, when we confess Jesus as Lord, and we believe in our hearts that he rose from the dead.

And any person whether young or old, a woman or a man, of any race or ethnicity - anyone can be saved.