We cannot save ourselves but Jesus can and does if we believe that He can. In order to believe that Jesus can save us we need to know Jesus and what he is like and what character and abilities he possesses. We need to believe that he does have the means, the ability and the desire to save us. Why is he able to save us when we cannot save ourselves? In order to be able to answer such questions we have to know Jesus.
Let us introduce you to Jesus?
Jesus is God’s one and only beloved Son as we see revealed in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus is both God and man. We can see that he is God in such Bible verses as John 1:1-4:
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
We can see that Jesus is man as well in John 1:14 where we read “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus was sent by God the Father into the world in order to save those who believe in him to eternal life as we saw earlier in John 3:16. This is also seen in Luke 19:10 where we read “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Jesus saves us by dying in our place. He pays the punishment of death for us in order that we can be declared innocent and be able to have a relationship with God. This is revealed to us in passages such as Romans 6:23 where we read “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is also revelaed to us in Romans 5:8 where we read “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus dying on the cross for our sins however is not the end of the story because God was satisfied with Jesus’ sacrifice he raised Him from the dead and he now sits at God’s right hand ruling over all creation as we see in Ephesians 1:19-20 where we read “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,”
Knowing that Jesus died and was raised from the dead in order to save us so that we might have eternal life is not the end of the story. Jesus wants us to have a relationship with him and his Father.
For that relationship to grow and mature and become stronger we need to get to know Jesus more and more.
Jesus helps us with this by revealing himself to us through his word. Here are 7 ways that Jesus describes himself in John’s gospel that help us get to know him better and in turn strengthens our relationship with him.
In John 6:35 we read “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
In John 8:12 we read “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
In John 10:7 we read “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.” And in v9 Jesus expalins what this means when he says “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
In John 10:14 we read “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—“
In John 11:25 we read “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;”
In john 14:6 we read “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In John 15:5 we read “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
The Bible has many more verses concerning who Jesus is. Read the Gospels and the rest of the Bible and come to know him more and more. Pray to God that he would enable you to know Jesus more each day as you read about Him.