THURSDAY October 31st
Today I am going to continue with the devotions by quoting another of the verses from the hymn, ‘Jesus the very thought of thee’ and it is verse 2
Nor voice can sing,
Nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter name than thy blest name,
O Saviour of mankind.
I have already in these devotions considered something concerning the name of Jesus, in particular the name Jesus which the angel instructed Mary and Joseph to call him when he was born. I have mentioned some of the other names and titles which he holds, and you may recall I quoted some hymns that are based on the name of Jesus.
As we move forward I will consider some more of his names or titles which help us to understand more of who he is and of what he has done and what he has become to each one of us who know him as Saviour and this is the first we will look at ‘Saviour’. You will recall that he was to be called Jesus because ‘he will save his people from their sins’, Matthew 1:21.
It would be correct to say that mankind needed a Saviour more than anything else. For myself, one of the number of reasons why I would say that I love the name of Jesus is because he has done for me exactly what I needed. He has done for you exactly what you needed, and if you do not know Jesus he has done for you exactly what you need.
He came into this world as we read in 1 Timothy 1:15 ‘to save sinners’, he came into this world to do all that God would require of him on our behalf, and in our place, he came as a substitute and as the substitute to be the sacrifice that would bring about our eternal salvation.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the ‘wages of sin is death’, we are all born sinners and are headlong towards death, not just physical death but spiritual death, but Jesus came from God to become our Saviour, and to offer us the free gift of eternal life and in obedience he went to Calvary, and there as he hung on the cross, he took our sins and our sorrows and he made them his very own. And God accepted this incredible sacrifice and as we have come to believe in him we have received eternal life.
As our Saviour, he has taken from us the punishment we deserved, he has taken off us the wrath of God that we deserved, he has granted us forgiveness and he has given or imputed to us his own righteousness and as a result we stand before God justified.
No one else has done this, because no one else has been sent from God to be the Saviour of the world, therefore there is no sweeter name than his blest name, the Saviour of mankind.
O what a Saviour that he died for me!
From condemnation he has made me free;
He that believeth on the Son, saith he,
Hath everlasting life.