What a Savior!
There was a small town in Maine that was to be the site of a new hydro-electric dam. A dam would be built across the river and the town would be submerged. The project was announced and the town people were given many months to get things arranged for moving.
During those months, as you would expect, the town changed drastically. No more improvements were made – No painting. No repairs on buildings, roads, sidewalks. Every day that past, the town became shabbier and shabbier. Even though the people still lived there, it became ugly and looked abandoned. One person commented, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”
That town was cursed with hopelessness because it had no future. There were many people who are hopeless when it comes to salvation because they only look at themselves and see that they surely can’t go to heaven by themselves. There is no hope within.
When man sins – any man sins – he becomes black with sin, such that it may be hard to identify the image of God still in him. Some people have truly sunk so low that they cannot be distinguished morally or spiritually as a creation of God except only by God Himself. There are multitudes in the dark valley of sin. But there is no hope within for salvation.
The author of this song – What a Savior – talks about the hopelessness to save himself, how Jesus shed His blood for us, and finally, how he now has hope.
THERE IS NO “HOPE” WITHIN
“I was straying in sin’s dark valley, no hope within could I see;
There is no hope for man to save himself without God, without Christ, without the Gospel. “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). You and I, left alone, cannot get to heaven. We don’t know the way; we don’t have the strength to make it. Not on our own. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
But ultimately, those who see no hope within and so live sinful lives are wrong because, as the song-writer states…
“They searched thru heaven and found a Savior to save a poor lost soul like me.”
Let’s look at the description now of that Savior.
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THE SAVIOR –
“His heart was broken on Calvary – Jesus experienced pain in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) when He prayed and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. But the one reference to the blood of Jesus at Calvary is found in John 19:34.
“His hands were nail-scarred, – The reference to the nails is found in John 20:25. We wonder if His hands are still scarred by those nails. Will He still have those scars in His hands on the day of Judgment?
“His side was riven, – Again that is when the soldiers pierced His side with the spear to verify His death. The word “blood” is now found 70x from the book of Acts through Revelation because His blood is so important for our salvation.
“He gave His lifeblood for even me.” Consider Romans 6:3-5 to see how we come into contact with Christ’s blood.
NOW THERE IS HOPE
Before Alexander the Great set out to conquer Asia, he asked his followers how they were doing financially. He did not want the families and dependents of his soldiers to suffer while they were away. So, he distributed from among his resources to those families.
Nearly all those resources were gone when Alexander came to his general and friend, General Perdiccas. The general, however, asked Alexander what resources he had left for himself. “Hope,” Alexander answered. “Well, in that case,” General Perdiccas replied, “we who share in your labors will also take part in your hopes.” He refused the resources offered to him and several others of the king’s friends did too.
Such is the power of confidence and hope that Alexander the Great’s men had in him.
Do you have that same type of confidence and hope in Jesus Christ? When baptism puts us into Christ, then we aren’t concerned about the “crown or renown” that the world might see. We know that we will receive the riches of glory that Christ has promised us.
The third verse says… “Death’s chilly waters I’ll soon be crossing, His hand will lead me safe o’er; I’ll join the chorus in that great city, And sing up there forevermore.” Take a look at Revelation 7:9-17.
–Paul Holland
