Saved From Sin

And you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

“Are you saved?” I suppose this question is asked thousands of times each day, and often both the questioner and the questioned don’t think about what it means. To be “saved” tells us there is some danger, some peril, to be rescued from. It doesn’t make sense to speak of being “saved” from nothing. If a lifeguard asks a struggling swimmer, “can I rescue you?” it makes sense. If a lifeguard asks a swimmer in no trouble if they want to be rescued, the question seems out of place.

When it comes to religious or spiritual salvation, what are people saved from? What endangers humanity so much that God would send His Son to rescue them?

One thing the Bible says God’s people are rescued from sin. When the angel Gabriel told Joseph that Mary was chosen of God to miraculously conceive and bear the Messiah, the angel gave him specific instructions concerning His name: And you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. 1 John 3:5 explains: you know He was manifested to take away our sins. Jesus came to rescue us from sin.

We need to be saved from our sins. Our sin puts us in great danger. It is our sin that separates us from God, distorting and defacing His image in us. It makes us guilty before His court of justice. Sin ruins our relationships among other people. In one sense, the very root of sin is selfishness. That self-seeking, self-willed desire infects every aspect of man’s being and world in one way or another.

Before his career in politics, Abraham Lincoln was a prominent citizen of Springfield, Illinois. One day, his neighbors heard Lincoln’s children screaming in the street. Alarmed, one of the neighbors rushed out of his house, and found Lincoln there with his two sons, both of whom were crying uncontrollably. “Whatever is the matter with those boys, Mr. Lincoln?” he asked. “Just what’s the matter with the whole world,” answered Lincoln, with a note of sorrow in his voice. “I’ve got three walnuts, and each boy wants two of them.”

Lincoln’s remark has the ring of truth about it. The source of almost every evil in the world is self-willed desire. God’s plan is to change our hearts from self-interest and to give us access to the power we need to defeat sin. Jesus came to rescue us from sin and the tyranny of self will by His plan of grace.

Have you received God’s grace today, to make you less of a self-willed person? Go to Jesus and ask for His grace. You don’t deserve it, but grace is given without looking to our deserving. Through Him we have received grace (Romans 1:5). He can save you from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and ultimately, from the presence of sin.

Click here for David’s commentary on Matthew 1