It isn't uncommon to hear people talk about "making Jesus your personal savior." Today's readings help us to gain some valuable insight about this kind of statement. What kind of a savior is Jesus? How is his care shown to people? We see in Genesis that the Lord is deeply and personally involved in his creation. He visits it in specific places, causing things to happen. He provides what all creation needs without the involvement of the man who has not been made yet. We see in Mark that Jesus goes to various places. He visits the home of Peter. He goes to various towns. He goes to desolate places. Wherever he goes those who are in need of healing come to him. So Jesus is visiting people with his healing love, both those people to whom he has gone and those people who come to him. Jesus is personally deeply involved in the care of his creation. He is personally involved in redeeming the world to God. So what's questionable about the idea of making Jesus your personal savior? In the Bible we don't see anyone making Jesus do anything. True, he is taken and crucified, but that is part of the overall redemptive plan. We cannot presume to interfere in that. But the Jesus we see in the Bible is the Jesus who chooses from his own desire where to go, whom to visit, what people to bless and heal. It is not our decision that matters, it is the decision of Jesus. We don't make Jesus anything.
Let's try a better way to view this whole business of salvation. Jesus has chosen to come and redeem the world. He has died for the sin of the world, including the sin of Adam which is inherent in all of us, including the sin which you and I have committed in the past, including the sin which you and I will commit in the future. In Christ, God has redeemed the world. Jesus has become personally involved, and has made himself our personal savior. So what do we do about that? He has already come to us. He has visited us. He has taken our sins upon himself before we were able to choose to sin. Does it matter then what we do? Yes and no. We can rest in the truth that salvation has come. We can believe on Christ. Looking at it from the view of a computer operator, let's just say that is the default mode. Jesus has died for my sin. That's the way things are set. That's the default. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord. Don't change the default mode. Jesus has already made himself my personal savior. Jesus has already made himself your personal savior. What is our tendency though? Our tendency, as people who were born in sin, who live in a sinful world, who still have the sinful nature clinging to us, is to change the default, to disbelieve, to try to earn our salvation through our works, to reject the salvation Christ has purchased. And our Lord, who has provided the way of salvation, lets us reject him. He lets us disbelieve. He lets us change the default setting so we are pointed to destruction. That's what we are able to bring to the equation.
Believe in the Lord. He has made himself your personal savior. He is personally involved in your life. Believe it.
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