Savior & Redeemer

 

Two words that are seen as similar and often get confused with the other. God is my Savior; God is my Redeemer. Just words that are used to describe God, so why are they the focus? In scripture, there are over 100 different adjectives and names to describe God. Descriptions like “advocate,” “horn of salvation,” to even “the vine” are heard throughout the scriptures, but hearing Christ is our Savior and Redeemer should produce a vast flood of thankfulness and love in our hearts. What if I said that understanding the terminology of these words and how Christ fulfills them can help you better understand who you are and who He really is?

1 John 4:14 “And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world.”

The word saved has become a word we use almost every day. Whether it’s our coworker saving us from forgetting our 10 o’clock office meeting, the seatbelt designed to save our life if we crash, and even a last second buzzer beater that saves a team’s season. People are consistently in need of saving. “To be the savior of the world,” a phrase used to describe Christ seems to take saving to a place that may make us feel uneasy. We are fine with a seat belt saving us in a car wreck and we know we need to wear them, yet we have a harder time when we say Christ needs to save our lives and confessing it. What if we as a people view the word saving as something entirely different then it is meant to be. We tend to soften the situation by not thinking the worst-case scenario and being obliviously optimistic. So, I urge and ask the question as you continue to read, what if I really am in need of saving? What if I can’t be morally good enough or live with high enough standards? The good can’t outweigh the bad? When we consider what the requirement is for heaven, we fall drastically short. The worst-case scenario comes true. Christ though, being called a “savior to the world” can save us. He can take us from our worst-case scenario situation and give us an unimaginable hope. 

Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” 

You see, Jesus Christ living the life we never could, dying the death we deserved, offering us the holiness we never dreamt of allows us to be saved from death and our sin. Yet he doesn’t stop there. We need a savior; God comes not only as a savior, but redeemer as well. Not only does Christ offer us saving in the midst of our brokenness, but also, he says he will redeem his people. The salvation Christ freely gives us was finished 2,000 years ago on a cross and the redeeming is done daily.

We live in the already, but not yet world. We are saved by Christ’s death and given eternal life with belief in him. That is the already. We are being redeemed, a process in which God molds us more into his likeness, our true form, by slowly reshaping our heart to desire him more than the world. This process takes us an eternity as we are being made new daily and will be complete when we are with Christ. That is the not yet.

So yes, we need to be saved, but we also need to be made new. Jesus Christ allows us to be saved as he died for us on a cross, becoming our savior. When we trust in him, he simultaneously becomes our redeemer too. The Holy Spirit becomes our redeemer, by turning our dead hearts alive. God is so loving that he saves us with his death, but redeems us each day until the day that the not yet becomes the here and now. On that day we will sing like Psalm 71…

Psalm 71: 23

“My lips will shout for joy,

when I sing praises to you;

my soul also, which you have redeemed.”