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The unbeliever is known for not speaking the truth. He is a liar like Satan, the father of liars. They know how to twist something that is not true and it will be as if it is true. Sometimes, however, the unbeliever will speak the truth, even on a thing the child of God may be ignorant of. It is painful, very painful, if the child of God refuses to accept it.
When the Lord Jesus was crucified, some people, to ridicule Him said, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save,” Matt 27:42. If we analyze that statement, we find out that the first part is correct but the second part is in error and in ignorance absolutely. .
The angel of God told Mary, a virgin, that through the power of the Holy Spirit, she would give birth to a male child who would be called Jesus, “For He will save His people from their sins,” Matt 1:21. I am a living testimony to that. On April 16, 1972, the Lord Jesus saved me from my sin. The people who said it knew how He healed the sick and raised the dead, including Lazarus. His friends and some of his family members might not be far away when some people made the ridicule. When the only daughter of Jairus, a Jewish leader, died and the Lord Jesus brought her back to life, many people were aware of it. Some of those people knew that He saved others. And He did! My wife can testify to it, of how He saved her in 1970.
We must appreciate these people for their confession that the Lord Jesus saved His people. It is not every minister of God that knows this truth. It did not start today. We give God all the glory for the humility of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. He confessed in his written testimony about himself, which many people in his position would not dare to say. He was a minister of God and also the son of a minister of God. His mum, Hannah, was known for praying for her children round the clock.
On his missionary journey to America by ship, Uncle John was worried when the ship was in danger of sinking. Surprisingly, he saw a group of people, Bohemian Christians, at peace and in fellowship with God and with one another. “Don’t you know the danger we are facing,” he went and asked them. They told him that they knew and had reported the matter to Heaven! You could imagine how he was humbled within. Arriving at the shores, one of them came to him and asked whether he knew Jesus Christ. Imagine asking the late great Mathematician, our Dr. Chike Obi, whether he could solve a simple algebraic equation! “Yes, I know Jesus Christ,” he answered. “As what?” He was asked. “As the Saviour of mankind,” he replied in confidence. “Has He saved you?” He was asked. An honest man, and a man of integrity, he would not tell lies. He kept quiet but confessed in his diary, “I went to American to save souls. Who will save me?” For devotion, fasting, evangelism, et cetera, all his life and even in that ship, he was great.
God showed him that salvation is not by works. He saved him and used him in establishing the Methodist Church and in turning England and the whole world to Himself! It is good for someone to know that Jesus saves, and the question is whether He has saved that person. It is good to know that degrees are awarded in various universities, but has the person gone there to be awarded? Knowledge is very important in every aspect of life, but it is of no use if it is not applied.
The Lord Jesus saved people truly and He is still in the business of doing that. If anyone is not saved, it is so because he has not surrendered himself for salvation. On the cross, Jesus paid the supreme price for our salvation and announced at the end that He had finished the sacrifice for every man.
The allegation that the Lord Jesus could not save Himself after saving other people is not right. He saved other people and could save Himself but He did not want to. That was a great sacrifice. I wrote many years ago, how Rev. H. L. O. Williams, Principal of Methodist College, Uzuakoli, was going back to England, his native country, in those days, in a ship and there was a tempest. Like any other passenger, he brought out his life jacket, but unlike any other passenger, he did not put it on but gave it to a woman, who had none. Unlike any other passenger, he died while others, including the woman he helped lived. Uncle H. L. O. Williams saved the woman and could have saved himself with that life jacket but he sacrificed his life to save the woman. That was what Jesus did for us, dying in our place. .
Most mums do this always. When food cannot go round, they serve what they have to their spouses and children and go to bed without eating. It will be wrong and most unfair for someone to ridicule such women, saying that they fed others but could not feed themselves. They had all that it took to feed themselves sumptuously but made a sacrifice by feeding their family members and then going to bed hungry. It is not weakness but strength. This is what enduring love is all about. That was what Jesus did, I repeat.
If the Lord Jesus had saved Himself, there would have been no sacrifice. Uncle John would have lied, who said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. Imagine a situation, where some people want to make a sacrifice with a ram and seeing the long knives, the ram runs away to save itself from death. There will, for sure, be no sacrifice. That was what Jesus did not do. He could have disappeared but He did not.
Had Jesus fled, He would not have saved us. We will remain in our sins. Thank God that He paid the supreme price by dying vicariously. Someone, who never imagined that he would fight, had fought because someone had provoked him by calling him a thief. Jesus refused to be provoked, a lesson all believers should learn. My driver will not adhere to this. “Stupid man, he called me, when I did not say anything to him,” he would defend himself. “Are you a stupid man?” I will ask him, “If not, why did you respond? The guy was referring to a stupid man, which you are not,” I would say.
It is possible for some people to provoke us deliberately, may we refuse to join issues with them. It is possible for someone to paint our good works in lurid colour, may it not deter us. It is good for someone to know that Jesus saves but it is not enough. The acid question is, “Has He saved you?”
For further comments, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]
