| Jesus, the Only Saviour - by Peter Jeffery | |
| Click Here for a Printable Version |
I want to tell you about Jesus.
Why Jesus?
Because He is the most unique person who ever lived. Beyond doubt there has never been anyone like Jesus. Jesus is the one and only Son of God.
All Christians became sons and daughters of God from the time they came to Him in repentance for their sin and God forgave them, saved them and adopted them into His family. Jesus did not come to God in this sense because He was always with Him. Jesus had no sin to repent of and therefore did not need forgiveness. Jesus was not adopted into God's family because He always was God's eternal Son.
This was the amazing person that God sent to save us from the guilt and consequence of our sin.
THE WAY
In order to be the sinner's saviour, Jesus first had to provide a way by which guilty sinners could be acceptable to the Holy God. He did not come to show us the way or teach us about it, but He Himself was that way. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
In this verse Jesus is not saying that He is one of many ways to God, but that He is the only way. There is a uniqueness and exclusiveness about Jesus when it comes to the matter of our salvation. To some this may sound bigoted, but it would only be so if it were not true. There is no alternative to Jesus as the way to God because He alone can deal with the sinner's guilt. The way to God must be one that meets with God's full approval and satisfies the demands of God's law.
GOD'S REMEDY
In John 3:16 we have a perfect statement of God's glorious remedy for sin, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
In His divine love, God prepares a remedy which deals justly with the punishment that sin deserves, and yet at the same time provides pardon for the sinner. God has said that the penalty for sin is death - spiritual and physical death. Nothing can change that because it is the judgment of the holy God. As such, it is perfect and correct. God will not turn a blind eye to our sin. Justice must be done. The demands of God's law and the penalties for breaking that law must be satisfied.
In love and mercy God declares that He will accept a substitute to die in the sinner's place. But God's law demands that the substitute must be free from the guilt of sin and, therefore, not deserving of death himself. There was no man to meet these requirements. So God sent His own Son into the world to become man, to keep His law fully and perfectly. This the Man Jesus did and thus became the only acceptable sacrifice to God for human sin.
This is why Jesus is the only way to God.
God's remedy for sin is all of grace. This means that we can do nothing to deserve it . Salvation is by faith through grace alone. God gives us no other alternative to Jesus. But with such a Saviour as Jesus we need no alternative. His track record is impeccable. He never fails. He receives all who come to Him in repentance and faith. The vilest sinner or the most respectable sinner, all are welcomed by Jesus. He promised, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).