Text: Luke 2:22-40 | Listen to Message
Salvation Is A Person
In some form or another, every religion claims to offer some kind of salvation. Maybe it’s eternal life. Maybe it’s heaven. Maybe it’s reincarnation. Maybe it’s higher consciousness. Maybe it’s your best life now. But every religion claims, “I can save you from this, to this.”
How you get that salvation is another question altogether. And there’s no question virtually every religion offers its version of salvation as a reward for good behavior:
- Obey these rules.
- Be a nice person.
- Walk this path.
- Go to these religious services.
- Read this religious book.
- Pray these prayers.
- Do good deeds.
- Be sincere.
- Don’t do the stuff on the naughty list.
And if you check all the right boxes – or at least enough of them – voilà, you can achieve your salvation! If you’re good at being good, you get to go on to the next level; if you’re not, well, sorry.
This is definitively not the message of Christianity and the Gospel.
Luke 2 talks about a day when a man named Simeon looked into the face of a 40 day-old baby and said, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” Long story short, Christianity teaches that salvation is a Person – the Person of Jesus Christ.
Let that sink in. According to the Bible, salvation is not a principle, a path, a procedure, a program, a prayer, or a performance. It is not something you do for God. It is not something you earn if you’re good at being good. It is a Person. And it has everything to do with his gift of himself to you.
Jesus is salvation. So what should our lives of faith look like?
Given that salvation is a Person and not an impersonal program for your life, it seems like the walk of faith should look a lot like a normal, healthy relationship. The Christian life would involve a lot of talking, a lot of listening, and a lot of love. Our obedience would take on a new motive and a new pleasure, as we simply strive to enjoy the One who gave himself for us. Our “quiet times” wouldn’t be about checking off boxes, they’d be about having a conversation with the Savior. Our sharing of him would be less about making conversions and more about introducing others to our Friend and Father.
Furthermore, if salvation is the Person of Jesus, it’s not just some far-off thing in some faraway place; salvation is here!
Sermon Notes & Application Questions