Your view of Jesus will shape your response to Jesus. Jesus isn’t your homeboy, a ninja or just a baby. Jesus is Saviour. That’s what the name Jesus means, “God saves”. In Matthew’s biography of Jesus it says: “Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). Why did Jesus come as a Saviour? Because people needed to be saved from their sins.
The Bible and human experience make it clear that all people have sinned. Sin is when we disobey God, in effect we live as if there is no God. The presence of sin means that our greatest need is to be saved from sin and the penalty for sin.
That’s where baby Jesus steps onto the scene. The extraordinary thing about Jesus is that he is the one person in history to not sin, he always lived in obedience to his Father. And so he didn’t just come to be cute and cuddly Christmas Jesus, but he came on a unique rescue mission to save people from their sin.
He does this by dying on the cross 33 years later. When Jesus died, he took upon himself the penalty that people deserve for their sin. It’s only by trusting in Jesus as your Saviour that you can be forgiven of your sin.
When you understand that Jesus is Saviour, the best way to respond to him is recognising that you need to be saved.
Jesus is more than just a cute little baby – find out more in part 3…
