RPG Adults
JESUS BORN TO SAVE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9
Luke 2:1-7
Galatians 4:4-7
“Joy to the world!
The Lord is come!”
JESUS BORN TO SAVE
Jesus saved us by His obedient life and sacrificial death. Philippians 2:8 says that the Lord Jesus took the form of a man in order to die for our sins: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Galatians 4:4-5 sheds additional light that Jesus became man not only to die but also to live for us: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Jesus, as the greater Adam, kept the Ten Commandments perfectly, and as the sinless Lamb of God, gave His life vicariously to save us from our sins.
Christ was born in 5 BC in a little town called Bethlehem (cf. Mic 5:2). He was born not in a palace but in a stable, and His bed was not a cradle of silk but a manger of straw. It was a very lowly and humble birth for One who is Himself the Son of God and King over all. The Apostle Paul drew from the incarnation of Christ an important lesson on humility: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:3-8). His lowly birth revealed the life He was going to live — the life of a lowly servant. Jesus Himself said, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He came not to be served, but to serve. For our sake He came. He was born to die, to save us from our sins.
THOUGHT: No Virgin Birth, no Salvation.
PRAYER: “Come, Thou long expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free.”