THE REFORMED WITNESS
HOUR
"Knowing Whom We Believe:
Jesus"
Rev. Carl Haak
(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) |
Dear
radio friends,
The principal names of the
Savior revealed in the Bible are: Jesus,
Christ, and Lord. But, in all, there are
about a hundred fifty names given to Jesus in the Scriptures. For instance:
Morning Star, Sun of Righteousness, Lion of Judah’s Tribe, Lily of the Valley,
Redeemer, Master, Son of Man, Head of the Church, Firstborn of Every Creature, and we
could go on. Why so many names given to the
Savior, you ask? First of all, the names of
our Lord are not merely sounds or tags of identification, but they are revelation, that
is, His names speak to us of who He is and what He has done and is doing for us.
But there is another reason why
there are many names. It is because no single name can express His beauty. No single name can capture the excellence of His
person and the magnitude of His works. He has
a name above all names. He has many names to
reveal the dignity of His person and the glory of His work.
By faith, we want to know Him. We want to know Him as He speaks to us in His
name. Love always wants to know. So true faith wants to know about Him. The apostle Paul says in a very moving passage
(II Tim. 1:12),
“nevertheless I am not ashamed (that is, he is not ashamed of the gospel,
why?): for I know whom I have believed.” Paul knew the person Jesus Christ. He did not simply know a system or an external
knowledge, but he knew the person, Jesus Christ, as his Savior. Therefore he stood in assurance and confidence.
Do you know Him? Do you know the Savior? I am not asking if you know about Jesus. But, do you know Him by grace, in personal
dealings? Do you walk with Him daily? Do you love Him?
Then you will want to know Him more and more and more. And the way to know Him is to know Him in His
names.
We are going to begin today with
the name “Jesus,” which means Savior. This
was the name, you will recall, that God told both Mary and Joseph that they were to call
Mary’s son. It was the name that God
picked out. It was, therefore, His personal
name. This is who He is — He is Savior
or, literally, Jehovah Salvation. He is the
only Savior among men and there is absolutely no other.
Joseph and Mary were instructed to call Him Jesus. Listen, in
Matthew 1:21,
to these words of the angel to Joseph, “And she
(Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their
sins.”
Now we need to understand that
He does not bear the name Jesus in vain. Jesus
saves. He saves completely. And He saves surely. In distinction from those who would confess that
they believe in Jesus but also look to saints or to themselves to save; and in distinction
from those who confess faith in Jesus but say that Jesus can be the Savior only if man
first asks Him, according to his will; and in distinction from those who say that they
believe in Jesus but live in sin, to whom Jesus is but a name — in distinction from
all of that, we want to confess the name of Jesus. I
believe in Jesus, my Savior, who saves me and delivers me from my sin. He is Savior.
The angel’s wonderful
message to the shepherds on the evening of Jesus’ birth was, “Fear not, for unto
you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior.”
Jesus is the Savior. He was the One
for whom the Old Testament saints were waiting and hoping.
They were looking for God’s Son to come and to save them, to come and to do
for them what they could not do and what no one else could do — to save them from
their sin.
You know, we can say many things
about sin from the Bible, and we can say many things about sin in our life. We say, “Oh, how awful, how vile, how
destructive, how terrible” — especially when we think of other people, perhaps. But God gives His people to know especially one
thing about sin. Do you know what that is? It is this: I
cannot save myself from it. I cannot escape
it of myself. I cannot stop it of myself. I cannot run far enough from it. I need someone to save me from it, from its guilt,
from its power. Is there anyone who can
deliver me from my sins?
Now listen to
Matthew 1:21
again: “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their
sins.” Jesus is God’s Son, sent in
God’s love to do something for us, in our place, instead of us. His name, then, brings to remembrance the truth of
substitution. You ask me, “What does
that mean?” It means simply this: that there was something that needed to be done: Save. That
is, do for God’s people what they could not do for themselves. They could not endure the punishment that their
sin deserved, not could they love God perfectly from their hearts. We cannot do that.
Jesus came to do it in our place.
So, in the New Testament Bible
especially, but throughout the Bible, pay attention to the words “for us.” As, for instance,
Galatians 2:20,
“The Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Or, “He died for us,” He laid down His life for the sheep (
John 10).
That is substitutionary. That is the sweetest and the most glorious word in
the religious vocabulary. Substitutionary. It means that Jesus came, of God, to take the
place of all those who were chosen of God, what Gabriel said to Joseph, “he shall
save his people from their sins,” to do for them what they could not do, what
no one else could do it for them, namely, to take our place and save us.
This is probably the most
important thing that you can ever know about Jesus. Let
us be sure that you understand it and that I understand it.
He came to do for us what we could not do, and what no one else can do for us: to save and deliver us from our sin. To do it for us so that it will be done. He shall save His people from their sins. The angel Gabriel did not say to Joseph, “He
is going to come to try to make it possible for you to be saved if now you add this or
that.” He did not put salvation within
your reach. Jesus did not leave after
suffering on the cross and rising from the dead and then say, “Now salvation is
attainable, if only you add just this — a work here and a work there, a will here and
a will there.” He did not say, “I
made a good start, I made the down payment on the house of salvation. Now you just need to make the mortgage payments. And I’ll help you make those mortgage
payments.” No! Jesus shall save His people from their sin. He is a complete Savior. It is finished.
That is what He said on the cross: “It
is finished.” He saved us.
I remember learning already in
kindergarten, maybe you do too, that salvation is deliverance from the greatest evil and
participation in the highest good. What is
the greatest evil? Maybe you think I am going
to say, sin. No, the greatest evil is
separation from God. That is what sin brings
— to live apart from God is death. The
greatest evil is not to suffer burns from a fire. It
is not even the agony of intestinal cancer or mental insanity. Oh, how grievous these are. These are all the results of sin. But the greatest evil is to be separated from God. The most tragic words in the Bible are those recorded in
Genesis 3:
Adam hid himself from
the Lord God. Adam, and we, were made
originally for God, and sin drives us away from God into darkness and torment and horror.
The highest good? It is God. So
the deepest evil is to be separated from God. The
highest good, then, has to be to know God, to have fellowship with God, to hear God say,
“You are My son and My daughter.” Now
Jesus came to do something for us — to save us, to take away our sins, to remove the
separation between us and God, and to bring us into the bosom of God. He did this by taking our place, by assuming the
guilt and the punishment which were due to the sins of God’s people. He suffered on the cross what our sin deserves and must receive.
Romans 8:3,
God, sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the
righteousness of God might be fulfilled in us. Jesus
took the penalty our sins deserved, and paid the price.
We could not. We cannot. He came to do it for us.
He is the Savior who has done a
perfect work. He saved us, He did for us what
we needed.
But that is not all. There is something that is just as necessary and
beautiful as Jesus the Savior for us. It
is that Jesus is also a Savior in us. You
say, “What do you mean?” Jesus for
us we understand — He has accomplished salvation complete and perfect and full, yes. But He must also be a Savior in you. That means that I must have that salvation. It must be made mine. Not only the guilt of my sin but also the power of
sin in my life must be broken so that I receive and embrace by faith that salvation. Jesus has to work it in me. He works His salvation in me also so that I know
it and believe it and become a saved person. Listen
to the words again: “He shall
save his people from their sins.” Not
just by paying the price, but by inwardly and personally bringing that salvation into
their souls.
Think of His birth. Here is the Savior, God’s Son, come to save. And there are only lowly shepherds who come to
worship Him. Even though His birth was
reported in Jerusalem by the shepherds, and even though many received the news that night
— interesting, curious news — people went back to their lives pursuing earthly
things in the emptiness of the present time. Why? Why did not the Scribes and Pharisees come to the
manger? They knew the Scriptures. But, you see, it was not in them. God must work salvation in you or you cannot
possess it. You can have your head packed
full of the Bible and never really know it in your heart unless God works it in you.
This is important. Do you understand this? Shall we say, “Yes, Jesus has done everything
for us, but we have to decide whether or not we are going to receive it. Therefore Christ waits for us to receive it. He is dependent now upon the will of the sinner
(all of itself — unchanged by grace), so that Jesus comes and says, ‘When you
believe, then, on that condition, I will save you.’” Is that the gospel?
We must ask Him first to come in of our own will, and He cannot come in unless we
allow Him to come in? He does not want to
force, shall we say, His way in and so He waits for us to ask? That is not the gospel! That is not the truth. That is not God’s Word. That is not how salvation works. That is the heresy called free will.
Let me make it as simple as I
can. Jesus comes in and then we believe. And not otherwise.
We believe when Christ comes in, when Jesus comes into us by His grace. Faith, believing in Jesus, is not something that
we produce of ourselves, but it is a divine gift of Jesus.
Philippians 1:29,
“For unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”
We must remember the scriptural truth of total depravity. What is total depravity? It is the truth that the sinner is dead in sin.
Ephesians 2:1:
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
Romans 3:12:
“There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” We are depraved, we are born dead in sin.
But Jesus has a name. His name is Savior, and He does not bear that name
in vain. He comes by His own power and grace,
and He opens our hearts. He is not a Savior
who stands at the door of the dead sinner’s heart frustrated, unable to enter,
dependent upon a dead sinner. Oh, no! He is a mighty Savior. He shall save His people from their sins. He has done everything for them. He also does it in them.
And, you see, if He did not work
it in us, it would be impossible. By nature
we will not ask Jesus to come into our hearts.
Luke 19:14:
“But his citizens hated him, and
sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.” Jesus must come in by the power of His own love and grace.
John 1:12, 13:
“As many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Your faith, your desire, your embracing of Jesus was born in you by the power of
God. It did not arise from you. It is a gift from heaven. It is the gift of the Savior who surely saves. He comes in and He causes you to seek Him.
He works that in you. You see, Jesus is a perfect Savior, He is a
complete Savior, He is a Savior in every sense. He
comes in and works the salvation within you. The
dynamo, the power of His salvation, cannot be thwarted.
It comes by mighty grace into the hearts of dead sinners. He says
(Eph. 5:14),
“Awake thou that
sleepest.” Seek Me with your heart. And we seek Him with all our hearts. Jesus is the Savior for us. Jesus is the Savior in us.
But there is one more thing in
that name Jesus. He is a Savior through
us. I mean to say that Jesus works in His
children so that they live as saved people. He
shall save His people from their sins. Not,
“He shall save His people in their sins.”
Jesus is not a Savior who simply takes away the punishment of sin for His people,
who live then in their sin. No! He saves from their sins. He works through us. That is, He works in our will, in our desires, and
in our hearts. He creates a new desire, a new
will, a new heart, a new ambition, so that we want to walk in holiness of life. This means that Jesus gives the experience of
repentance, a change of mind, and a change of heart — a radical change towards sin
and towards God and towards myself. I now
hate sin. I see it as God sees it. I see God as lovely and good and I see myself as
saved only by His mercy. He works in us the
desire to be pleasing to Him. Jesus brings
forth this fruit in our life. He works
through us, so that now we want to serve Him in our homes, in our marriages, in our
church.
This does not mean that God
becomes beholden to us, that now the good works that Jesus is working through us somehow
add to our salvation and merit, perhaps, a higher place in heaven for us. Oh, no! All
these works are motivated only by thankfulness to Jesus who has saved us. What did the shepherds do on Christmas Day? They returned and glorified and praised God for
all the things that they had seen and heard. It
was important to them. It was important to
glorify and praise God. Why? Because they thought that, perhaps, God would
reward them? No! Their hearts had been full with the salvation of
the Lord. Now their hearts had to burst,
burst with joy and thanksgiving because Jesus was working through them. They were not ashamed of Him.
So He makes you a saved mother,
a saved girl, a saved young man. You see, a
saved person is not someone who has death insurance.
A saved person is someone who has a new life in Jesus Christ. We live a saved life.
That Jesus is a Savior through
us means that we, His children, will want to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, from
drunkenness, from swearing, from fornication, from partying, from materialism, from
arrogant pride, from disrespect. In our mind
and in our lives and in our affections we shall be directed to be pleasing to Jesus. We will want Jesus to be seen in us. We will want to walk as Jesus walked. We will find in Him our comfort, our purpose, and
our ambitions. And we will say, “You can
have all the world. Give me Jesus, for there
is none so dear, so faithful, so loving as my Savior Jesus.”
Is He your Savior, this Jesus? Do you confess Jesus for me, Jesus in
me, Jesus through me; for me to live is Jesus Christ? Then hear His words spoken originally to Peter,
and now to you: “Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you but my Father which is in
heaven.” And then, what peace and
comfort rolls over our lives, for He surely is the Savior.
All those given to Him will be saved because He will save them. Believe in Jesus and you shall be saved.
Let us pray.