CHRIST'S SAVIOURHOOD

A.B.Parker

Acts 4: 8-12; Hebrews 7: 23-25; 9: 24-28

Is there anyone here who needs a Saviour? You may think that is an unnecessary question, but I am not so sure about that. I would ask again, Is there anyone here who needs a Saviour? This man, of whom Peter speaks, had need of a Saviour. He had been brought daily to the gate of the temple: he may have heard the Lord teaching in the temple; he may have heard the apostles preach; we are not told, but considering the number of times that he had been laid at the gate of the temple, he must have known something of what was transpiring. There will be those who have a false sense of security because they have eaten and drunk in the presence of the Lord and have heard Him teach in their streets. They will refer to this seeking entrance through the door which then will be closed for ever. The Lord will say to them, "I do not know you..... depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity", Luke 13: 27. So we must not just assume things. The Lord knows; "The Lord knows those that are his", 2 Tim 2: 19. Not only does He know who they are, but He knows them. It is a wonderful thing to be known of God; to be known by the Saviour. Does He know you? Do you know Him? How well do you know Him? Have you ever been moved inwardly by the preaching? Have you just consented to the preaching? Have you assumed that everything is all right because you have been to the preaching many, many times and are in accord with it, generally speaking? Have you merely assented to the preaching? Well, apparently this man had never been affected inwardly, he had never been moved. What we look for, and I trust will see, is such power in the preaching that persons are not only momentarily affected, but that something abiding happens in them. We need to be moved inwardly. This man was moved. He stood up, he leaped, he walked, he entered into the temple, he praised God. He was a real case. He became an example to Israel of what the Spirit of God was ready and able to do with them as a people if they would only listen and submit to the appeal of the gospel. In listening to it, allow the word to enter, to penetrate, to affect your inward parts so that there is action and evidence that the power of God is working in you. The word relates to the Saviour, it relates to His Name, the only Name under heaven "by which we must be saved". What a Name it is!

Nothing is said about this man's state of soul. He is not questioned by Peter. He may have known something of the terms of the gospel, but it had not changed him. What he needed was change, and what we need is change. Christianity is a real thing, it changes persons. If there is no change with them, what evidence is there that God is working? We need to submit to the power of the word, to be searched in our inward parts. David, a repentant man, said to God "Thou wilt have truth in the inward parts", Ps 51: 6. What are the inward parts? The mind? Well, the mind is the gateway to the heart. What is received through the mind is to have its effect in the heart; the very spring and source of the life of the person. In the circulatory system of our bodies the blood is forced, by the heart, throughout our whole bodies. And the word, finding its place in our hearts affects the whole body. Out of the heart are the issues of life, (Prov 4: 23). Note that it is out of the heart.

We want the word to penetrate, to get right in, to search out what is in the heart and bring us into the presence of God. God is a sin-hating God, but He is a God who delights to forgive when there is repentance. At what a cost has He established the plat form on which He can show mercy; the platform of the righteousness of God. Never was there a proffered righteousness like it. That platform was not known until Jesus died and rose again, (see note 'd' to Romans 1: 17). There was righteousness of the law; any Jew could have told you about the righteousness which is by the law, but when Jesus died and rose again He established by His wonderful sacrifice, a platform on which God could draw near to men with forgiveness when repentance according to God took place. God can show mercy and forgive. What a God! What a platform! Through the glad tidings and the work of the blessed Spirit in our souls we become conscious that we need a Saviour, that to stand before a sin-hating God in favour as forgiven, justified and reconciled we must, by faith, appropriate the precious finished work of Christ. I trust that we all know this, and that what I have said is, in a sense, unnecessary. Yet we need to be freshly reminded of the greatness of the work of Christ and the need for the work of the Spirit. For us to arrive at the acceptance of the glad tidings must be the result of new birth, the inscrutable work of the Spirit of God. I trust that all here are conscious of being in this category knowing and loving the Saviour.

The second scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus "is able to save completely those who approach by him to God". Does that mean persons who come to God in repentance? That is the way we come to God first, like that poor man, so conscious of his sins that he did not as much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast and said, "God, have compassion on me, the sinner", Luke 18: 13. We need to approach God and plead the precious blood of Jesus to know forgiveness of sins. But Christ, as Saviour, will help us to do that. And that is just the beginning of His Saviour service to us, for those "who approach by him to God" are persons who know God. Do such persons need a Saviour? Certainly - we all do! We need to be kept happy and with desires to draw near to God. Approaching God is characteristic of such persons. They come to God by Christ daily, knowing the blessedness of approach by the new and living way. "Having therefore..... boldness for entering... by... the new and living way", Heb 10: 19. But we must be "sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience". That was first done when you accepted the Saviour; the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus cleansed our heart; it was purified by faith, you came to Go "by Him". But then, our bodies are to be "washed with pure water". What do we know about that? It is part of our present salvation, giving us liberty to draw near to God. The water came from the riven side of Jesus: "immediately there came out blood and water", John 19: 34. Do we neglect the water? If we draw near to God by Jesus, we dare not neglect the water, which cleanses our circumstances, too. The priest of old did not dare enter into the holy place without using the laver. The blood of Christ settles every moral issue, the water that came from His side cleanses us from unclean associations; from unclean thoughts; cleanses us from man after the flesh, so that we do not speak to God in the activity of the fleshly mind, but by the Spirit of God. How wonderful that a divine Person having come into manhood, has established the basis of our approach to God! And how wonderful that "those who approach by him to God" are the subjects of His present saviourhood!

What is the character of His saviourhood, you ask. Firstly, you may need to be saved from self; you need to be saved from a wicked world through which you must pass; you need to be saved from temptations which the enemy constantly seeks to ensnare us with. We need to be saved "completely" now. May we know the Saviour in His present activity and priestly feelings for us as He appears in the presence of God for us. Some may think of Him only as Saviour when He was on the cross. He was on the cross, but He is now in glory, and in the glory He is still the Saviour. It is not just historical, it is a wondrous present reality.

If we draw near to God by Him we would know the value of His Name, and that God has raised Him from the dead. We believe in our hearts, and we confess with our mouths, giving Him a basis for saving us out of every problem and difficulty that we have to face in our lives here. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord; and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved", Rom 10: 9. That is not a matter of our eternal salvation, it is present salvation; the operation of the present saviourhood of Jesus. "For every one whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved", Rom 10: 13. That name "is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe", Prov 18 :10. It is a wonderful thing to confess that Jesus is my Saviour. Not only that He died for my sins, but He is a living Saviour, who lives to save me completely, or to the uttermost, as one who has come to God by Him.

Do you get on your knees each morning? Of course you do, you commit yourself to the care of God, you seek help by the Spirit to be true to the Lord during the day. In principle you offer your morning lamb. What about the evening? Do you get on your knees then? Are you in the same vibrancy as in the morning? Or has something happened during the day and you have made a mess of things? Were you angry, and spoke rashly? That was not a demonstration of the Saviour's power to save us completely. We can walk in the consciousness of the saving power of Jesus, who is in heaven to make intercession for us, as Priest and Saviour and Advocate. Now the advocate service of Christ, which He takes on when you break down? Do you know that He interposes the efficacy of His precious death and blood-shedding when the throne of God demands that the soul that sins must die? And the blessed Spirit of God works in your soul to affect your conscience and bring you to the realisation of what the issue is. You repent before God and are restored to happy communion, but do you realise that the Lord Jesus, your Saviour has served you as Advocate? What a Saviour He is! Let us just be refreshed in our spirits in the consciousness that every moment the Saviour is in the presence of God to intercede for us. O, what a Saviour! His feelings are known by the blessed Spirit of God whose own feelings are so deep, so full, and as the Paraclete, He makes intercession for us "with groanings which cannot be uttered", Rom 8: 26. It all causes us to wonder how much we are costing divine Persons in the way of feelings which our carelessness causes. We should not go on independently until suddenly we find that we have transgressed. We need the Saviour all the time, and He is available.

One day our pilgrimage here will be over, unless the Lord comes for His own, we will die. The brethren will meet together and have a burial meeting, our bodies will be laid to rest, but our spirits will be with Christ. Shall we still need a Saviour? We surely shall. He will still be our Saviour! This same One, who once has been "offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear". Ah, He is going to appear again. "Once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice". That has been accomplished. The Saviour we know and love did that. But "To those that look for him" He "shall appear... the second time without sin for salvation". That long-expected coming will be apart from the question of sin. He will not deal with sin then, He will raise you and all His own from the dead, and change our bodies and take us to be with Himself. That, as I understand it, will be the Saviour's act. O, what a Saviour! A Saviour - past, present and future! His Saviour service covers the whole span of responsible history, from the cross to the translation of the saints to heaven, with our bodies of glory, incorruptible. O, what a Saviour!

You may ask, 'Will I not need Christ eternally?' I have no doubt about it. As a Saviour? Well, perhaps not as a Saviour. I believe that we always will need the support of Christ, possibly not as Saviour, but we never cease to be creatures. We will feed on Christ as the Tree of life, I believe. I believe there will be the appropriation of Christ eternally. Also, because we will always be creatures, even though we have incorruptibility, and there will be no possibility or danger of breakdown, yet we will find that we are sustained by the appropriation of Christ, the Tree of life. I believe the Spirit will keep us in constant freshness of spiritual life; we will drink (I speak figuratively) of the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, which flows out from the throne of God, enlivening everything that it touches. The blessed Spirit is able to maintain, eternally, a freshness of life and response which will satisfy divine Persons. O, what it will be! In the meantime we are in the area of things where saviourhood is needed. Let us increase in our appreciation of the Saviour.

Think of how Paul would understand and appreciate the saviourhood of Jesus. He said "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him", 2 Tim 1: 12. What a deposit he had placed in the keeping of Jesus! Paul knew that when he will be raised from the dead by the saving power of Jesus, those things which he had committed to Him will all be there - none will be lost. When we pass the zenith of our lives, we gradually lose the ability we once had; our minds can no longer retain things clearly, our faculties decline and we may become senile. Is that how we shall be raised? Paul knew the Saviour well enough to commit everything to Him. What Paul reached to spiritually is in safekeeping in the hands of the Saviour; it has not been lost because of physical decline. All will come into fullest expression in the glorified body with which the Saviour will clothe us, He will do that as Saviour - Saviour of the body, as it says in Philippians: "Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself", Phil 3: 20,21. Think of the Saviour bringing into the realm of glory those whom His precious work has secured. All will be fitted for the place with bodies of glory. Jesus Christ as Saviour shall transform our bodies; He will do that. Nothing will be lost, everything that is the result of the work of God, which has been resident in and has found expression through the human body, will be carried through into that wondrous day to express itself without restraint in bodies suited to that sphere of glory. What a day it will be! May the Lord help us to be more and more attracted to the Saviour, looking forward to the moment when His voice will be heard, whether we wake or sleep, and when He, as Saviour of the body will change us and take us to Himself.

CLAPTON LONDON

19 May 1974