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ALMOST JESUS
There are a lot of ideas floating around about what the Lord Jesus accomplished while He was here on earth. Our ideas are not what is important. Let us consider what God said that Jesus would accomplish during His earthly ministry. The angel of the Lord told Joseph what to name the expected boy and the reason why. He said: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins,” (Matthew 1:21). What we have are specifics. (1) The child will be a boy. (2) You will give Him the name Jesus. (3) the reason you will name Him Jesus is because He will save His people from their sins. Simple enough, is it not? The name “Jesus” is the Greek way of saying the Old Testament name Joshua. Both names have the same meaning. That meaning is God saves or delivers. In telling Joseph to give the baby this name God was saying this is the Deliverer, the Messiah, the Christ – the one who will save His people from their sins. God's message to Joseph was not that Jesus would save some of His people. Nor was it that He would try to save His people. And it was not that He will make it possible for His people to save themselves. In order to be the Deliverer, Savior, Messiah, etc., it must be that He actually saves His people from their sins. Sadly a great many people today think that Jesus only made salvation possible: He is only an “almost Jesus” - almost a savior – but that He really did not save anyone. People must do this or that or the other in order to add their bit to what Jesus did. The Bible says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,” (Hebrews 10:14). The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus actually saved His people from their sins. He did it! They did nothing to complete His work. This is what salvation by grace is all about. It is “Not of works, lest any man should boast,” (Ephesians 2:9). That being the case, why do you think that you need to add your puny little works to what Christ has already accomplished? Christ is presented to us as the one “...that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” (Revelation 1:5). Why do so many insist that He is only “almost” a savior? That He did not do what the angel of the Lord said He would do? Was the angel mistaken? Did he get the message wrong? Was God who sent him with the message mistaken about what He was sending His Son to do? If you are unwilling to ascribe failure and error to God then you must conclude that the mistake is in the understanding of the people who just cannot believe Jesus actually saved His people – His elect spiritual “sheep” from their sins. |
