I Need A Savior

To say that, to admit my need for help, is something very hard for me. I have been little miss "let me do it myself" since I was little. I was the early walker, the crib escapee, the early reader; I joined future problem solvers club the first chance I had; I've been known as the person with the answers. When something's wrong, I want to fix it, and I want to do it myself. I'm incredibly stubborn, and have some perfectionist qualities, which is what makes me good at certain things I do and have done in my life. But it has also cultivated this fear of failure, and to me, asking for help is part of failure.

But the more I read about the standard that God set for His people from the very beginning of time, the more I realize how screwed we all are. I mean, there is just no way anyone can keep the Ten Commandments. No one can follow all of the ways of the Lord, and Jesus certainly didn't make it easier with the broadening of adultery to include lust, and murder to also mean anger. James 2:10 says that if we keep the entire law but stumble at just one point, it is as though we have broken it all.

Do you know how people used to get in God's graces before Jesus? They had to make offerings. Sin offerings, peace offerings - there was a blood requirement. Leviticus, especially chapter 16 and 17, as I've blogged before, makes this all very clear. It was an incredibly vicious cycle. People would sin, so they would slaughter and sacrifice, and then things would be good for awhile, but inevitably they'd fall again, and there was more killing and then more stumbling and it just never stopped. Being that we serve an incredibly gracious and loving God, He Himself decided to step down. Jesus, who was when the world was created, and will be when it ends, decided that we were worth His love. As an artist is very proud of her creations, as a father is protective of his children, so was the Lord. We were worth His pain, His suffering, His mocking, HIs life.

And it gets more amazing than that. If you read the Old Testament, I mean, really read it, it is blatantly obvious that Jesus was always going to come, that there was always going to be one name, one person, one Savior to rescue and redeem a people. From the beginning our God knew that we would need a Savior; we'd need the blood of the Lamb as a perfect sacrifice. Jesus did what all of those sin offerings could not do. He filled a need before we ever knew we had it.



For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement. Leviticus 17:11

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:6-7

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:13 (Joel 2:32)