We Need a Savior

March 17

"While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

“So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’

And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

"Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,” Acts 26:12-19.

Paul, the great Apostle who ultimately gave his life for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, had been “a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” In Philippians 3:4-14, he expands upon his background of faith in the law of Moses and in the religion of his nation:

“I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul here acknowledges his knowledge, his training in the law and religion of his heritage; he acknowledges his zeal for the things he had been taught and the lofty height he had reached as a representative of his faith.

He also confesses the utter worthlessness of all he valued when it came to the eternal security of his own soul. Paul declares that everything he counted of worth in the service to his God was utter refuse in the value system of the Almighty.

Paul, because of the encounter he had with the Living Christ on the Road to Damascus, the Living Christ whom he had persecuted, was able to recognize that all the knowledge of religion, all the practice of the tenets of faith, all the zealous pursuit of the purpose of God—if viewed from a skewed perspective, are worthless.

Paul was able to conclude through his encounter with Jesus that Jesus Himself is the only viable way to God, the only reasonable object of devotion and service. Paul was able, because of knowing Jesus face-to-face that owning the Living Christ is the only way of salvation.

We, in our injudicious zeal today, must come to that same conclusion. Nothing can save us. No amount of misguided service to God can please Him. Our hope is “built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” (from On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, by Edward Mote).

We, like Paul, need a savior…and the only Savior is Jesus Christ.