The Biblical Names of Jesus: Beautiful, Powerful Portraits of Christ by Paul Thigpen

Author:Paul Thigpen [Thigpen, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2018-11-14T06:00:00+00:00

“A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD!”

Given Christ’s divine identity and redemptive mission, we should not be surprised that “Savior” is a title given to him from the very beginning of his life on earth. The Old Testament declarations that God saves his people foreshadow his coming to earth as a Man.

Even before Jesus’s birth, certain members of his family come to realize that his arrival will somehow be an act of God’s salvation for his people. In the Virgin Mary’s Magnificat, her song of praise to God when she visits her cousin Elizabeth, she speaks of God as her “Savior” in light of the angel’s announcement that she will bear the Son of God (Lk 1:47).

The prophecy of John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, describes the events about to take place in this way: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us” (Lk 1:68–71). Note how he echoes David’s words in speaking of “a horn of salvation.”

This Savior was promised by God to the nation of Israel. As the Apostle Paul will later emphasize when preaching to a Jewish audience, from among King David’s descendants, “God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised” (Acts 13:23).

Yet note that Jesus is called, not just the Savior of the Jews, but “the Savior of the world,” “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1 Jn 4:14; Jn 1:29, emphasis added). The salvation God promised long before, through Isaiah, brings together all the peoples of the earth into God’s kingdom. The wise men from the East who travel to see the Christ Child, bringing him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, are just the first of the Gentiles to seek out the Savior (Mt 2:10–12).

The universal offer of salvation in Christ is also demonstrated many years later when he speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:1–42). The Samaritans and the Jews have a history of mutual hostility, and though the two peoples have common origins, they have gone their separate ways. The Jews have come to view the Samaritans as aliens rather than fellow members of God’s family. Nevertheless, after Jesus spends time with the woman and her Samaritan neighbors, they come to believe that he “is indeed the Savior of the world,” not just of the Jews (v. 42).

The universality of Christ’s saving mission is repeated throughout the New Testament. In preaching to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul emphasizes that Christ “is the Savior of all men”; “God our Savior … desires all men to be saved” (1 Tm 2:4; 4:10, emphasis added). John’s Gospel tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten

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