Saved by
His Life
We shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).
These words give us encouragement for difficult days when tempted by
forces beyond ourselves, but let’s be clear as to what these words of the apostle
Paul do not mean. “Saved by His life” does not imply that salvation comes from
imitating the principles and godly character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Following or
imitating the Lord Jesus Christ will not save anyone. No one has ever been saved by
imitating the life of Christ. He alone lived a perfectly holy life. No one else can ever
measure up.
The apostle wrote, “For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).
We are saved by the death of Jesus Christ that atoned for all our
sins (Rom. 5:6-9). His precious blood alone atones and cleanses us from all sins. His
blood purges our guilty consciences. We have peace with God because of the finished work
of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our salvation is complete and eternal from the moment we
believe on Christ. We are saved for eternity from the moment we put our trust in Christ.
It is utterly impossible for a sinful, totally depraved man to follow
in the perfect footsteps of our sinless Lord. Trying to “live the Christian
life” saves no one. “Saved by His life” does not mean that we are saved as
though His life were an atonement for our sins. “Saved by His life” cannot mean
that it is His life on the earth, rather than His death that saves sinners. Christ paid
the penalty for our sins by His death.
The unblemished, sinless Lamb of God had to die as our substitute to
put away our sins. His perfect life had to be given up in death.
The moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior we were
born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Because we have been saved by grace, and not of
our own works, the Holy Spirit enables us by His power, as His redeemed people, to live in
a manner pleasing to the Lord. He is more than our example of how to live His life; it
must be His life in us, not our trying to imitate Him that empowers us.
We were saved from the penalty of sin when we trusted in
Christ as our Savior. Now that we have been saved from the penalty of sin through the
death of Christ, we are now being saved daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment from the power
of sin through the intercessory work of the risen Christ and His indwelling Spirit. We
shall be saved from the presence of sin when we see Jesus face to face in glory,
and we will be fully conformed to His image.
Salvation
is a big work of God. Our justification is the removal of the
guilt and penalty of sin and the bestowal of a righteous standing in
Christ before God’s law. This new standing before God was given to us at
the moment we believed on Christ. Sanctification is the
progressive work of the Holy Spirit through out the Christian life on
this earth. It also began the moment we believed on Christ as our
Savior. Moreover, glorification is the glorifying of our
resurrected bodies at the Rapture. When Paul writes, “we shall be saved
by His life,” he is not referring our Lord’s life on earth as an example
of how a Christian should live. His example saves no one. His blood
does. His death was an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We are justified
by grace through faith in His sacrifice for us on the cross.
We who have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son shall be
saved by His resurrection life. Jesus Christ lives in glory to complete in us the work
which His grace had begun. Therefore, the apostle Paul can say, “We are saved by His
life.” We are not left to our own resources to live the Christian life after we have
been saved by God’s grace. The One who loved us enough to die for us on the cross now
lives to sustain all who believe on Him for salvation. He is just as much interested in us
now as He was before He died for us. He keeps us in His saving power. The grace of God
that saves us also keeps us. His sustaining grace is with us day by day. Christ is alive
and we share in His life.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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