Every Christian knows that Jesus Christ came to save us by dying for our sins. But did you know that He came to do more than that? He came to save us by his life.
We find this amazing truth in Romans chapter 5, verse 10, but many believers have never heard of being “saved by His life”, let alone understood what it means. So, let’s see if we can figure this out together.
When we placed our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior, 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us we were placed in union with His Spirit. Just so we wouldn’t be confused, God gave us marriage to show us exactly what being in union means.
Tom Smith is marrying Mary Jones. According to Jesus in Matthew 19:6, they will no longer be two, but one. Obviously, Tom won’t become Mary, and Mary won’t become Tom. But they’ll be so intimately one that they’ll be known as the Smiths, an inseparable union of two separate persons.
This same dynamic occurs between us and God. Romans 7:4 tells us that, through faith, we became the bride of Jesus Christ. Obviously, we didn’t become Jesus, and He didn’t become us. We remain two separate persons. But because of our faith, we now live in intimate oneness with Him, so we can experience life like never before.
Let’s consider Tom and Mary again. When Tom married Mary, everything he brought to their union became hers, and everything she brought became his.
It’s the same in our union with God. Everything we brought to the union belongs to the Lord Jesus, while everything Jesus brought belongs to us. In this great exchange, we trade the meager resources of our life for the glory and wonder of His life.
Ever since Adam’s sinful choice in the Garden of Eden, people have been living independent of God. Let’s call that running on battery power. God created us to be plugged into Him, drawing constantly on His never-ending power. But Adam chose to run on batteries instead.
Some of us have dollar-store batteries, with just enough power to barely get us through life. Others have name-brand batteries, which help us not only get through life but have extra power to accomplish a few things and get satisfaction for us and our families. And a few of us have supercharged batteries and live extraordinarily successful lives.
But no matter which batteries we have, we all share the same problem: Our batteries eventually will run out because we’re living on our own, apart from God and His all-sufficient resources.
This world will bring difficult circumstances to our lives that can drain our batteries and leave us unable to handle the demands before us. We’ll face loss and frustration, broken dreams and shattered relationships. We’ll get bills we can’t pay, temptations that overwhelm us, and choices that offer delightful joys but bring terrible consequences. We might lose our health, have our marriage fail, or face the painful death of a loved one.
In all this, we can feel empty, with little strength to go on and no willingness to fight. The Apostle Paul felt that way too. In 2 Corinthians 1:8, he described how, at one point, he despaired of life itself.
But he didn’t stay that way.
He knew that, through his faith in Christ, he had been plugged back into God. He lived in union with Him and had exchanged his own meager resources for the infinite provision of God’s own life.
Knowing this, he made the choice to live by faith. He shifted his focus away from the circumstances that were emptying him and bringing him death. And he set his mind on the only One Who could fill him with life – the Lord Himself. He trusted that, just as God raised Jesus in His greatest need, He would likewise raise Paul in his. And God did just that.
As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4, we can feel hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned. This world can knock us down, but it can never destroy us because we are renewed by the power of Christ’s own life, which dwells within us. We don’t ever need to quit, because He saves us daily with His life.
When we feel weak, we have His strength. When fear paralyzes us, we can move forward because we have His peace. And when the sorrows of life threaten to overwhelm us, we can experience the incredible flood of His joy.
No matter how desperate our circumstances, He stands ready to be all that He is to all that we need, in the moment of faith. That word ‘faith’ is key.
As unbelievers, we needed to place our faith in the Jesus Who died for us on the cross. And as believers, we need to place our faith in the Jesus Who lives for us, and in us. His death paved the way for us to be with Him in heaven, but His life empowers us to live from Him right now on earth.
He not only saved us by His death, but He also wants to save us by His life. He wants to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or even imagine … if we’ll only trust Him to do so. As the hymnwriter said, “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
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