Reading Material Reflecting Early Church and Early Anabaptist Truth
Jesus is not your Personal Savior
So you have a Personal preference , a personal interest , personal information, a personal opinion, a personal possession, a personal decision or personal property and just recently at such and such a date, at such and such a time Pastor so and so lead you in a sinners prayer and now you have a personal savior. .. Or do you?
We've all heard it. It's John 3:16 “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son…” Probably the most popular yet misunderstood verse in modern Christianity today. Confused people read this verse with the thought that God gave Jesus to the world to be the worlds. At Christmas time they try to honor God by representing what they think he did through giving gifts. Usually the gift giving game involves finding something that fits someone’s personal interests. “Oh ! just what I always wanted” they exclaim as they open up their Christmas gift. Just like when God sent his son to the world and he was just what they always wanted. Or was he?
What does it mean when someone says, “That’s my personal preference, personal possession, Personal (Fill in the blank) ?” They’re saying “It belongs to me I can do what I want with it.” So what do most people who accept Jesus as their personal savior do with Him and His gospel? That’s right… What ever they want.
Can we make Jesus a personal possession that belongs to us? Are the people who do that really saved? Does Jesus belong to you or do you belong to Jesus? Well what does the Bible say? “ The church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”Acts 20:27-29 “… with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Revelation 5:8-10 “They were purchased from among men and offered… … to God and the Lamb." Revelation14:3-5 It’s that simple. Salvation means we belong to the Lamb not that the Lamb belongs to us.
When Christ died on the cross, did he give himself to us or give himself for us?
What did Jesus say?
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:44-46
Who did we need ransomed from?
Who held us captive? “…the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:25-26
He was a ransom given for us not to us. Jesus is only your savior if you belong to him. This is something the first believers knew from the beginning in the book of Acts. Notice what happened after they repented. Acts 3:32 “neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.”
Salvation to the early Christians was the exact opposite of adding Christ as one more personal possession to the things they possessed. They were even giving up personal ownership of the things that they possessed because they knew they now belonged to another.
If someone has deceived you into saying a prayer that makes Jesus another one of your Personal fill in the blanks then I have news for you… He is not your Savior and what’s worse is you’re aligning yourself with the Devils agenda to claim Christ as his.
Remember it was the Devils desire to claim Christ as his, to do what he wanted with him from the very beginning. It started in the Desert with temptations and ended on the cross where Satan thought he finally had Him as his own. But it was only for a short time that he could make our Lord suffer and then to the Devils dark dismay he had to soon face the reality that Christ could never be his and the only thing he was going to get out of it was loosing his captives.
Saved by a Jesus who does just what you please,
You’ve tried to pray a prayer to make him your very own,
But continue to walk in darkness without him all alone,
Satan already tried that, in the desert to get the Lord’s will.
When that didn’t work he settled for His body which he would kill
Satan waited for that moment as Christ yielded himself to the cross,
but when that time was over all he had was lost.
So if you want a personal savior to be your very own,
Satan wanted him to so remember that you’re not alone.
Just like Satan you can do with Christ what you want,
Twist his words take them and tie them in a knot.
But when your time is over you will surely see,
With your work like the Devil’s as lost as you could be.
The way Satan keeps his captives is to make men think like he does. His greatest deception of all is to make men think Christ can be theirs and thus makes men his. The idea of personal ownership of Jesus originated with the Devil and is nothing new. From the beginning Satan was giving men over to this deception when he delivered our Lord into the hands of the Roman soldiers to do with him as they pleased.
Today not much has changed. The same thing still goes on just at a much larger scale. Satan has delivered a false Christ into the hands of men like Judas and the religious hypocrites who cashed him in to the Roman soldiers. Modern day men, greedy for filthy lucre like those who cast lots to divide up the Lords raiment for spoil have made merchandise marketing Christ’s crucifixion. Christian books stores and big ministries sell pictures and movies where dramatic music accompany scenes of the Lord being mocked and flogged. Like all movies they evoke a strong emotion and as the music plays on people’s feelings they think they’re a step closer to God. If any one of those people could go back in time to see the crucifixion take place they would probably not even recognize what was happening. Yes they may catch a glimpse of a man in the midst of a group of soldiers who were standing around laughing but they wouldn’t get any more out of it than the last time they walked past a police car and saw a group of police standing around with coffee in their hand laughing about a barely noticeable man handcuffed inside.
Today men have deceived themselves into thinking that because Jesus died for them he now belongs to them.
Isn’t it a mystery how all you have to do is give the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes a little twist or tweak here or there and it suddenly becomes the power of Satan to damnation for everyone who’s deceived.