Sermon Devotional: We Need a Savior

Scripture:  Malachi 1-5, 16-18, Isaiah 9:1-7 (ESV)

   
“Long lay the world in sin and error pining. . .” These familiar words from the first stanza of O Holy Night make the world’s condition clear: All of creation needs a Savior. And in creation, God has been revealing the world’s need to every generation since the Garden of Eden, and every generation, every individual, has been asked to be honest about the need for a savior.

Acknowledging our need of a savior is the difference between life and death. This isn’t hyperbole—Paul warns us, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Since the Garden, throughout history, humanity has been inclined to deny its need for a savior. Self-sufficiency (“I’m mostly good and can manage my shortcomings.”) and comparison (“We aren’t as wicked as they are.”) only deepen our denial and lure us into complacency. But God wants us to know the desperate need of the world, and to be wide awake to our propensity toward sin.

Remember—our Creator is a holy God whose ardent love for the world compels him to come to the world. When our first parents ate of the Garden’s forbidden fruit, their disobedience brought them separation from holy fellowship, shame over their rebellion, and the compulsion to hide from the divine Lover of their souls (Gen 3). Without the intimate fellowship of the Creator, the world was plunged into darkness. Our forefathers and mothers yearned for God’s atonement for their sin and rebellion as they offered daily sacrificial lambs and exhaustingly strove to keep God’s laws. For millennia this was the only pathway to the life and light of God. All along, the living God made clear that he alone would provide the one true Savior who could meet the world’s desperate need. Isaiah foretells the promise: “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. . . Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Is 49:13, 46).

When the time was fulfilled, “the people who walked in darkness” were shown “a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Is 9:2). The Answer to the world’s “deep darkness” and desperate need for a savior was announced by angels to watchful shepherds: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Lk 2:11). The angels did indeed “sing for joy”!

Christ has come and “the weary world rejoices”! The Savior has come and has provided the necessary sacrifice for the sin of the world. At Christmas we celebrate that God has accomplished through Christ the Son what we could not accomplish through sacrifice and law-keeping.

But there is more to know and embrace. “He, the Savior, knows our need” and those who walk in this dark and sin-stained world know they need a Savior who continually comes. Today and every day until Christ returns, still we need a Savior. Sin continues to separate us from holy fellowship, we continue in shame over our rebellion, and we continue to compulsively try to hide from the divine Lover of our souls. All of humanity, even those who fervently “confess that Jesus is Lord” (Ro 10:9) and are saved into eternal life with Christ, daily, hourly, need the Savior.  

We “Fall on our knees,” we “Behold our King” and before Him we “lowly bend.” Immanuel—God with us reminds us that we need the Savior.

Consider –
╬    Immanuel—God-with-us is a comfort to those who seek God, a gift to those who know their need of the Savior. But to those who are self-sufficient, to those who trust in themselves or prefer to hide from God their Creator, God-with-us can feel like a problem. The Lord knows our weakness, and he knows how desperately we need the Savior even if we try to deny that reality. Does God-with-us feel like a problem to be solved or ignored? Or does Immanuel—God-with-us bring you comfort, joy, and peace?

╬    Malachi 3 tells us that a holy God comes to refine, restore, and redeem. What would it look like for you to lay down all your defenses and self-justification before this life-giving love of God?

╬    Our Lord Immanuel, “Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow'r and glory evermore proclaim! His pow'r and glory evermore proclaim!” In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.