Robert J. Wieland
A powerful “Good News” text is 1 Timothy 4:10:
“We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.”
There are two ways that Christ is the “Saviour of all men”:
(1) He is literally and effectively “the Saviour” of those who “believe.”
(a) Their faith in Him is the kind that Galatians 5:6 describes as “faith which worketh by love.”
(b) That faith itself produces obedience to the holy law of God, because faith is a heart-appreciation of that love (agape) of God.
(c) Such faith melts a hard heart and reconciles the soul to God.
(d) We humans can’t duplicate what Christ did; but we can let our small, shriveled up hearts “enlarge” so we can appreciate what He has done for us (see Psalm 119:32).
(e) Then the love (agape) of Christ will “constrain” us “henceforth” to live only for Him.
(2) The second way that Christ is already “the Saviour of all men” is seen when we look at Romans 5:15-18:
(a) The “offence” our father Adam passed on down to us is the heritage of sin we all inherit from him.
(b) But the grace of Christ is much greater than all the sin the devil has tempted us to do.
(c) Christ has therefore reversed that curse that Adam brought upon us; he is the new Adam, our new father of the human race.
(d) What He did was to pay the penalty of our sin so that the Father could pronounce on the whole human race a “judicial verdict of acquittal” (Rom. 5:16-18, NEB).
(e) Therefore the Father has no chip on His shoulder against you or anyone; He makes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).
(f) Note: this is a judicial verdict of acquittal; now we must take action: be reconciled to God and to His holy law and let Him save us from sin.
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