I Have a Great Need For a Savior and a Great Savior For My Need

As a Preacher, I am often ashamed of myself. Seriously. Who I am in private does not always match the man people see publicly. I have a tendency towards doubt, depression, anxiety, anger, and other things besides. I stumble and fall in many ways, and I feel so unworthy of the calling laid upon me. Loved ones, I have a great need for a savior. I know I need a savior every single day of my life. As I search the Scriptures, walk through life; as a husband and father, I fail often. I KNOW I need a savior.

What brings me comfort is knowing I have a great savior for my need. Jesus knew who I was when He called me. The Father knew every one of my days, so there is not a single one that shocks Him or surprises Him. His Holy Spirit is guiding me, shaping me and changing me, every day. I am not who I want to be, but each day, I’m not who I used to be. I’m not enough, but Jesus is. I can not earn my way into the Father’s care, nor can I do enough to be in His will, yet Jesus did.

He lived the perfect life I could not and took on the Father’s wrath that I have earned. Jesus was crushed and bruised for my ransom, and by His stripes I am healed. And He did this, dying, to pay the consequences and penalties my sin (and yours) incurred. On the third day, He rose again, because the wages of sin is death, and He did not earn those wages. His rising again proved that I, too, am one who is saved and rescued from sin, one who rose from the death he lived in to the newness of life offered by Christ. I did not earn or deserve it, but now, and in the life to come, I have life in Christ Jesus. I have a great need for a savior and a great savior for my need.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall seei and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

1 John 1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.