Imitators of God - Jesus Series: For Today, Unto You is Born a Savior Part 1

MOUNTAIN HIGH MEN'S MINISTRY

IMITATORS OF GOD

CONFORMING TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST

Ministering to Prescott and Quad-Cities Area

DEVOTIONAL

FOR TODAY, UNTO YOU IS BORN A SAVIOR

Part 1

Luke 2:8-11 (NASB)

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Greetings!

The Scripture says that in His incarnation the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8) “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and [was] made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). All the adjectives and exclamations in language could never say enough about that reality. Yet, paradoxically, history’s most notable birth happened under the most obscure, nondescript, humble circumstances imaginable—Jesus was born in the place where the animals of those staying in a public shelter were kept. No one in the sleepy little village of Bethlehem realized the significance of what had happened, except, to a certain degree, the Child’s parents. But that was about to change; the silence regarding the Savior’s birth would be broken in a most supernaturally dramatic way.

I pray you will be challenged, convicted, encouraged, and blessed by today's devotional to the glory of God.

FOR TODAY, UNTO YOU HAS BEEN BORN A SAVIOR

Luke 2:8-11

Part 1

Luke 2:8-11 (NASB)

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

If the announcement of Jesus’ birth had been part of a humanly planned public relations campaign, it would have been handled very differently. The announcement would have targeted the powerful and influential in Israel: the high priest, the members of the Sanhedrin, the priests, Levites, scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees. Instead God chose to reveal this glorious truth first of all to members of a lowly, despised group.

The theme of this passage is found in the angel’s declaration in Luke 2:11, “there has been born for you a Savior.” That statement is the heart of the gospel message that the church proclaims to the world: all people are sinners, and in need of a Savior. But the concept of a savior is by no means limited to the New Testament. The idea that there is a radical disconnect between the supposedly angry, hostile, vengeful God of the Old Testament and the compassionate, loving, saving Christ of the New Testament is a figment of the skeptics’ imagination.

The truth is that in the Old Testament God was known to His people as a Savior and a deliverer. That is in sharp contrast to the false gods worshiped by Israel’s neighbors. When the prophets of Baal, one of the chief Canaanite deities, confronted Elijah on Mount Carmel, they tried for hours to get Baal’s attention. But “there was no voice and no one answered” (1 Kings 18:26). That prompted Elijah to say mockingly, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27). Even after they in desperation mutilated themselves (1 Kings 18:28), “there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29). At the other end of the spectrum from Baal’s indifference was Molech’s cruelty and hostility, which his worshipers desperately attempted to appease by the unspeakable atrocity of infant sacrifice (Lev. 18:21, 20:2-5; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35).

Unlike the false gods of Israel’s pagan neighbors, the God of Israel, the only true, eternal, and living God, is by nature “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness’” (Ex. 34:6; cf. Ps. 103:8; Joel 2:13).

Compare:

Nehemiah 9:17 (NASB)
"They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.

Jonah 4:2 (NASB)
He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

The Jewish people understood, therefore, that it was in keeping with God’s nature to save His people. In Deuteronomy 20:4 Moses reminded Israel,

Deuteronomy 20:4 (NASB)
For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

David called God “my savior, [the one who] save[s] me from violence” (2 Sam. 22:3); the “God of [his] salvation” (Ps. 25:5); and the “Savior of those who take refuge at [His] right hand” (Ps. 17:7). Psalm 106:21, Isaiah 45:15; 63:8-9; and Jeremiah 14:8 also refer to God as Israel’s Savior, as does God Himself (Isa. 49:26; 60:16; Hos. 13:4).

Isaiah 43:3 (NASB)
"For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place."

Isaiah 43:11 (NASB)
"I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me."

Isaiah 45:21 (NASB)
"Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.

Reflecting their understanding of that key Old Testament truth, Mary (Luke 1:47), Zacharias (Luke 1:68-69, 77), and Simeon (Luke 2:30) all spoke of God as Savior, as does the rest of the New Testament (1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4; Jude 25). Since God alone is the Savior (Isa. 43:11; Hos. 13:4), the New Testament’s repeated use of that title for the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., Luke 2:11; Titus 1:4; 3:6; 2 Peter 2:20) is a strong affirmation of His full deity and equality with the Father.

Acts 5:31 (NASB)
"He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."

Acts 13:23 (NASB)
"From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus."

Philippians 3:20 (NASB)
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 1:10 (NASB)
but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

Titus 2:13 (NASB)
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,

2 Peter 1:11 (NASB)
for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

2 Peter 3:18 (NASB)
but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

1 John 4:14 (NASB)
We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

What allows God to be the Savior of lost sinners is the propitiatory, sacrificial, substitionary death of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament describes Messiah’s sacrificial death most thoroughly in Isaiah 53:

Isaiah 53:4-6 (NASB)
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Isaiah 53:8 (NASB)
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

Isaiah 53:10-12 (NASB)
But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.¹¹ As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

All the redeemed, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament eras, were saved by God’s placing their sins on Jesus Christ. He alone is the source of salvation.

Acts 4:12 (NASB)
"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

Peter wrote,

1 Peter 2:24 (NASB)
"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." (cf. 1 Peter 3:18; John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:28; 1 John 2:1-2).

God revealed Himself as a Savior to Israel in two ways. Temporally, God saved the people by delivering them from bondage in Egypt and preserving them through the ensuing forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Isa. 63:9; cf. Num. 10:9; Deut. 23:14; 33:29; Judg. 2:18; 8:34; 2 Sam. 3:18; 22:1, 4; 2 Kings 17:39; Ps. 106:10; Ezra 8:31).

Through common grace, God, in His “kindness and tolerance and patience,” gives sinners an opportunity to repent (Rom. 2:4); He is “the Savior of all men” in a temporal sense and “especially of believers” in a spiritual sense (1 Tim. 4:10). God delivers people generally from the just and immediate temporal and physical consequences of their sin, but more importantly delivers believers from sin’s spiritual and eternal consequences as well. Thus the believing remnant of Israel (Rom. 9:27; 11:5) enjoyed not only God’s temporal salvation like the rest of the nation, but also spiritual salvation.

The angelic announcement of His birth set forth at the outset the purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry. He did not come into the world to be an example of nobility and integrity. He was not merely a Jewish sage, a teacher of morality and ethics. Still less was He a passive, nonviolent social reformer; a sort of first-century Gandhi. He was and is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14), who came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) by “[saving] His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus did come to fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. The fulfillment of those covenants, however, is predicated on the fulfillment of the New covenant, which was initiated by His sacrificial death.

Matthew 26:28 (NASB)
For this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

The announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ heralds the greatest good news that the world has ever heard. From the narrative of that announcement and its aftermath, five truths about the good news emerge: (1) the proclamation of the good news, (2) the pervasiveness of the good news, (3) the person of the good news, (4) the purpose of the good news, and (5) the picture of the good news.

We will consider those truths beginning with part 2 of this devotional series.

Proverbs 22:19 (NASB)

So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have taught you today, even you.

Amen.

Ephesians 1:16-18 (NLT2)

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your heart will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.

Richard Valenzuela

Imitators of God Men's Ministry

Conforming to the Image of Christ

Mobile: 520-971-6110

Richard@NationalAutoBodyResearch.com

GROW UP IN ALL ASPECTS

INTO CHRIST

Ephesians 4:15 (NASB)

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

IMITATORS OF GOD-Conforming to the Image of Christ

Mountain High Men's Ministry - Prescott, AZ