Jesus - The Person Salvation

The name “Jesus” is from the Greek name “Yehsoos” which in turn is from the Hebrew name “Yeshua” which means “Salvation”. Now, we see that when the name Jesus is given to Mary the she is told “His name will be called ‘Jesus’ for He will save his people.” Jesus’ didn’t just have any old name; it was specifically given Him by God to describe why Jesus came – to save His people. Salvation is not just an escape from hell, but a wonderful gift that is all-inclusive; it deals with the whole of life, not just everlasting life. Salvation is something that can be hard to understand. Let’s take a quick look at scriptures that emphasize this word.

But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. (Exodus 14:13 NASB)

The people of Israel were in a real problem. They went out of Egypt on the word of the Lord only to be stopped by a sea of water and a pursuing Egyptian army… yet God provided a way out; He parted the sea for Israel and then swallowed up the Egyptians in the sea so that they could never again stop Israel from God’s purpose. That is one instance of Salvation. Let’s look at another.

My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my savior, You save me from violence. (2 Samuel 22:3 NASB)

David sang this song when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies. Again, God is delivering someone from apparent and pressing destruction. So many verses are like the one that follows, it relates salvation to a rock, a stronghold, a refuge, a shield of protection; what might this verse say about salvation? Salvation is as a cleft in the rock – a place of safety.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. (Psalm 62:2 NASB)

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving that which I have vowed I will pay Salvation is from the LORD. (Jonah 2:9 NASB)

Here we see that Jonah too was in a mess. He had disobeyed God and was cast overboard and eaten by a fish. These were pretty hard circumstances. When Jonah turned from his plan, and pursued God’s plan, God forgave and Jonah was saved from the fate that he had made for himself.

In the New Testament Salvation is personalized. It is no longer just “the Lord’s salvation” but “my salvation” this was provided through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection which paid for out sins, rescued us from satan, and defeated satan once and for all, triumphing over him and making a public spectacle of him. Salvation was personalized through Jesus, and God became more than just some guy ‘up there’, He too became personal. He became Daddy.

Today, people seem so unsure and so insecure in their salvation, or even of their salvation. Why is this? If Satan can attack what you think about your salvation, he can attack what you think that God thinks about you, and if he can do that, then he can change your mind about who you think you are. Paul spoke of these things, saying

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NASB)

We cast down speculations and things that try and rise up above the knowledge of God – we put them in obedience to Christ. Then Paul encourages us to “take the helmet of salvation”, the helmet protects the head. We must protect out minds, it is in that place where satan will try to convince us that we could never be saved, never really be accepted by God, never really be adopted as children of God and forgiven, once and for all. How do we overcome this attack of satan? It is clear in the book of Revelation where we are told:

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Revelation 12:11 NASB)

We overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb, that means that we remind ourselves, and satan that the blood of Jesus Christ shed on for us was enough to completely atone us forever. The blood of Christ was good enough to cover all of our sin. We overcome satan by the word of our testimony, that means that we speak about what God has done, and we speak the word of God. What does his word say about you or your circumstances? We overcome by not loving our lives even to death, yes, fear can conquer us. We must, through the knowledge of completed work of the Blood of Christ and through our testimony, rid ourselves of the fear of death. This is done when we are certain that we are right with God – and that can only be accomplished through a personal knowledge of the blood of Christ and knowing Jesus Christ personally, and that is the greatest key to life itself.