Have you ever used a Lifesaver? Fortunately, for most of us that is not the case. Nevertheless, for the person at the point of drowning, the Lifesaver does exactly that, it saves his life! Holding on to the lifesaver, someone drowning is dragged to shore by the line attached to it.

There is a sense, however, in which we are all in danger of drowning. We are in danger of drowning in our sins by which we are guilty before God, worthy of eternal condemnation. The problem is that we don’t even want to acknowledge that. Furthermore, there is no one standing on the shore to throw us a lifesaver, no one that is, except for the very God whom we have offended by our sins! That lifesaver is Jesus Christ! God “threw” him into the world to save those “drowning” in their sins.

The Christian Church has summed up this life-saving action by God by saying about Jesus Christ that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. By means of this brief explanation we aim to show you the marvel of that life-saving act by God, with the prayer that you will be stirred to come and join us in worshipping that life-saving God.

God throwing the “life-saver”
The birth of every child is a marvelous act of God. Yet, when it comes to the birth of Jesus, the Bible shows us clearly how this was uniquely brought about by God. We are told in the gospel according to Luke about an angel coming to Mary and saying to her “you will be with child and give birth to a son… He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David…” It is of course not unusual that a young woman would get pregnant. This pregnancy, however, would be very unusual, for it would take place without the involvement of a man. The angel said “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:31-35). What we see then in the birth of Jesus is that he is actually God’s own Son who takes on human nature.
God sent him into human form. He brought this about through the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul also touched on this miraculous act of God in his letter to the Philippians, where he wrote that Jesus “who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” (Philippians 2:6,7). The same apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians that “God sent his Son, born of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4).

We can see then how the Bible teaches that Jesus had Mary as his mother and God as his Father. The key point to note that it was God who sent his Son! God has thrown the lifesaver into a world that is perishing. And God
declares that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16,17). Note well then: God sent his Son into human form to deal with man’s basic problem, sin.

Why this dramatic rescue?
Why did God follow this dramatic route of sending his own Son into human form? The answer comes down to this: it was the only way we can be rescued from our sins and the punishment we deserve, namely, eternal
death. Man is the sinner, and so man should pay. But, as the apostle Paul says so clearly, man is dead in his transgressions and sins (see Ephesians 2:1). So there is the impossible situation of man having to pay off his debt,
but being unable to pay. No one can pay for his own sins, let alone throw out a lifesaver to rescue others.

Jesus Christ is the only possible solution to man’s problem. Born from Mary, Jesus was fully human. He
could trace his ancestry all the way back to Adam and Eve (see Luke 3:23-37). But being only human was not good enough. If he was a sinner like the rest of mankind, he too would simply be part of the drowning crowd. To be a
life saver, he had to be more than human, both in terms of being free from sin himself and in terms of being able to carry the heavy load of God’s anger against sin. In order therefore to rescue fallen man, God brought about the birth of his very own Son from the Virgin Mary, so that he would be both human and God.

The need to grab the lifesaver
When a lifesaver is thrown to a drowning person, the person must grab it or it won’t do any good. So it is with the Lord Jesus Christ, he must be grabbed, not with hands but in faith. The sincere promise of God is that
everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the God given Saviour from sin will receive forgiveness of sins. Remember the promise of John 3:16, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Invitation
In our weekly worship services, we learn more about the great life-saving work of God in Jesus Christ. In our worship we express our joy to God for the great gift of Jesus Christ, his only Son who took on our human form
to be our Saviour. If you wish to learn more about this “Lifesaver”, Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, or if you believe in him as the Saviour of life sent by God, then we invite you to come and
worship with us every Sunday.

See more articles here.

Check back next month for a new installment from this mini-series. Alternately, enter your name and email address below to receive an email update letting you know when new installments for this mini-series are added to the site.

Error: Contact form not found.

(Your personal information will not be shared and you may unsubscribe at any time. You will only receive emails related to this mini-series.)