God Wants to Save Us

Yesterday, we made a jump.  We pointed out that God Saved Moses and the Israelites.  Then I said that God wants to save us as well.  The prophet Jeremiah told us that God set a plan in motion that would work things out God would “forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  That plan was to send his Christ.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 NIV)

Christ was (and is) God’s solution to our problems.  That is why all the Israelites of the Old Testament days were looking forward to the arrival of the Christ.  Christ would be the solution to the problems caused by our sins.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV)

The blood of the lamb saved the Israelite nations when they were held captive in Egypt.  The angel of death would see the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and pass over their households.  The households without this blood would not be safe that night.  The same is true for us.  The blood of the lamb (the Christ) is not on our doorpost.  It is on the cross where the lamb was slain.  The angel of death sees it and passes over us still today.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)

Who is this Christ, this sacrificial lamb?  What the Israelites waited to see, we now know.  Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  When Jesus sat down with his closest disciples to have a meal, they had gathered together to celebrate the Passover.  The meal would remind them of the night the angel of death passed over the households of their ancestors.  When he ate with them, though, he changed the meaning of that meal.

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. (Luke 22:19-20 NIV)

Jesus was explaining to them that he would become the final Passover Lamb.  God doesn’t just want to save Noah, Moses, and the Israelites.  God wants to save us as well.  That is why God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus.  Thank God that He wants to save us, too.