He Saved Us

7 Reasons God Chooses To Rescue You and Me by Demian Farnworth

Spend any time in the Bible and this is pretty clear: Christianity is a rescuing relationship. It's a story about God saving men and women from the inevitable and deadly eternal consequence of their sin. God is a saving God.

But why? Why would He choose to rescue us? Titus 3:4-7 (NASB) gives us a clue:

"But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

In other words, He saved us because of His kindness, love, mercy, regeneration, Spirit, Son and grace. That is the sevenfold divine operation that brings about our rescue. Let's explore each briefly.

BY HIS KINDNESS

The word kindness literally means "goodness of heart." It means He has a concern in His heart toward people in misery. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and reaches out to unworthy sinners.

BY HIS LOVE

Love in this context means "pity and compassion." In fact, it is the Greek word philanthropia from which we get the word philanthropy - love for mankind. But this kind of love is not just an emotion. It reaches out with a feeling to act. It's best expressed in the story of the prodigal, when the father saw the son and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him repeatedly (see Luke 15:20). That's the heart of God. He is not reluctant to receive the sinner.

BY HIS MERCY

Mercy is a magnificent word. But it's different than grace. Grace relates to guilt. Mercy relates to misery. And when left in our sins, we are miserable. Wretched. Headed for judgement. But we receive salvation. Why? Because God is kind and compassionate and does not want us to remain in our misery. But that's not all.

BY HIS REGENERATION

Regeneration basically means to receive new life - to be born again. Jesus told Nicodemus, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again" (John 3:3 NIV). It's a washing away of the old life and the creation of a new one and only God can do that (see John 3:6,7 NIV)

BY HIS SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the One who renews us. Because of God's kindness, love, mercy and regeneration, we are renewed by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. And that Spirit gives us life, sustains that life and empowers that life. God does it all!

BY HIS SON

Jesus came to pay the price for sin and conquer death. That was Jesus' part of salvation. Understand: Justice had to be satisfied and because the wages of sin is death, somebody had to die. Thus, all of the sins of the world were placed upon Jesus so that we might have life. John the Baptist proclaimed, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29 NIV). That was a sacrifice. For us. And us alone.  

BY HIS GRACE

Like I mentioned above, grace is interested in guilt. And it gives us what we don't deserve. Grace says you are pardoned; you are forgiven  because of the sacrifice of Christ. In other words, we are made right with God - we have peace with God - because of Jesus' death and resurrection, something we don't deserve. That is God's grace.

In the end, all of this results in the most immense and most amazing benefit to the undeserving sinner: We are made joint heirs with Christ of all that God possesses, including eternal life. 

Why? Did we make it happen? No. It happened because of God's kindness, love, mercy, rengeneration, Spirit, Son and grace. He did it all.

And so, looking back on this sevenfold divine rescue operation, you should see one thing (and one thing only): God saves us. And when you fully absorb that reality, you should proclaim as the apostle John did in 1 John 3:1 (NASB), "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

HE WANTS TO RESCUE YOU

Do you want to be rescued by God? If you desire the great love of the Father mentioned by the apostle John, pray this simple prayer sincerely with all your heart:

Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross so that I may have eternal life. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my life and take complete control. I surrender all to You. Jesus, I love You. Amen.

Congratulations! Eternal life is an incredible gift... and starting today, you're on a new journey of exciting changes and blessings! If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we want to send you a free book: A New Way of Living. This book will help you understand God's plan for salvation and what the decision you made today means. Just give us a call at (800) 727-9673 or visit joycemeyer.org/salvation for this free gift or additional resources on salvation.

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from Enjoying Everyday Life, A Joyce Meyer Ministries (JMM) magazine August 2011 issue