Jesus Saves! But HOW?

How glorious it is to know that God, the One against Whom humanity has steadily rebelled since Eden, has chosen to make peace with us rebels through His Son! His grace truly is amazing: that the offended would take upon Himself the responsibility of forgiving and reconciling the offenders is more wonderful than we can imagine.
And yet, it is true! Jesus saves us from our sins and restores us to relationship with God.
But how? How is it possible that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago and 5,000 miles away would save you, here, today?
The orthodox understanding of Christ’s saving work presents His redemptive ministry in three basic parts. For the next three Fridays, we’ll look more closely at each of these three parts of Christ’s atoning work. For today, here’s an overview of how Jesus saves.
The most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. As the incarnate second person of the Triune God – and thus both fully God and fully human – Jesus was able as a man to die, and as God to do so perfectly. In His death, He took our place under the righteous wrath of His Father. Indeed, as Isaiah prophesied in the famous text about the suffering Messiah, “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . the Lord was pleased to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:6, 10). Those who trust Jesus are no longer under the Father’s wrath, because that wrath was fully poured out on the Son. Forgiveness is accomplished because the God’s wrath upon human sin has been satisfied.
But if Jesus came only to die, why would He spend over three decades living among sinful humanity before dying for our sins? Jesus Himself told us why: “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Because humanity’s sin rendered us incapable of meeting God’s righteous requirements, Christ lived a perfect and sinless life on our behalf. As our representative, He lived before God flawlessly and fulfilled all the Law. Those who trust Christ are given His righteousness, as God sees us in Christ, clothed in His perfection. Thus, not only are we forgiven by Christ’s death, but we are also reconciled to God by Christ’s righteousness given to us.
However, Christ’s atoning work would be incomplete if, after having lived a sinless life for us and died under God’s wrath for our sins, He then remained dead. His resurrection not only vindicates all His claims, but also guarantees our eternal life, as He lives His life out in us. Jesus came out of the tomb to come into your life and live in you. Thus, as He lives in you, His life flows through you, and by the union of His life with your life, you are able to bear the fruit of Christ-like living, and draw others to Him. (See John 15:1-11.)
So, here is how Jesus saves us. We are forgiven by Christ’s substitutionary death. We are reconciled to God by His righteous life. And we live in union with Him for God’s glory.
It’s really amazing, isn’t it?
Next Week: By His Substitutionary Death