3rd February 2025

As the name Emmanuel teaches us that God is with us, so the name Messiah teaches us that this God, who is with us, will be our deliverer; our deliverer from sin and death, from our broken state we put ourselves in, and from the accuser of all mankind, who seeks to kill us and remove us from the saving hand of God. 

I didn’t always know that I needed saving. Pointing out my sins was more than condemnation, it was a revealing of the need for my deliverance from sin, my salvation. Imagine you are standing on what you think is solid ground, but someone who observes from a different angle and sees your precarious position over an unstable precipice. You do not know you are in danger, but they do, and so they point out to you your mistake, calling you back from danger, and providing your salvation.

Jesus was the Messiah, the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation. Matthew 1:17 gives us a genealogy of Jesus, ‘Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.’ The Jewish nation watched and waited for this Messiah to come and rescue them. His birth was announced by angels (Luke 2:8-15), and yet many did not recognise him or his coming. Of those who refused to recognise him and honour him were those who stood by watching him be crucified and mocking him to come down from the cross if he really was the Messiah (Mark 15:32; Luke 23:35-39).

Jesus could have done what they wished, he could have come down from the cross and rescued himself, but this he refused to do. He could have proved by that action who he was, but he chose to do it in another way. If Jesus had saved himself, he would have condemned all of humanity to the punishment of their sins. If he had come down from the cross as they wished, they would be lost without hope in this world for they had refused to recognise Jesus as their Saviour. He refused to condemn even those who were killing him. As the name Messiah says, he is our deliverer from sin and death.

How much am I, or are you, willing to do for another? We have become self-serving in our generations. We may be willing to sacrifice our time and our money for someone else, but to die for them is another thing altogether. Even if I chose to die for someone it would only be a temporary physical salvation, but Jesus, our Messiah died for us, to not only save us physically but also spiritually. We have eternal life through his sacrifice for us. This is something I could never do for myself or anyone else, yet he was willing to put himself in our place. It is by this Messiah that we have true life; life eternal with him. Praise be to our mighty loving God!

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