Saved From Sin

SAVED FROM SIN By Walter L. Surbrook

Let us focus our attention upon a glorious and heart encouraging text found in Matthew’s Gospel, which reads as follows: “ . . . Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21.

What sublime music this brings to a lost soul! It is sweeter than evening bells. It is like an oasis in a desert to a thirsty perishing man. What tranquility, what composure, what assurance it brings to a sin- disturbed and troubled soul. To be assured that a Saviour has come Who can actually and experientially lift the troublesome, tormenting load of sin from one’s soul, right down here in this life, is almost too good to be true. Yet, my friend, that is exactly what Jesus came for. He came actually to save His people from their sins in this life.

Let us get it crystal clear that He did not come to save His people IN their sins, but FROM their sins. He came to save them out of their sins so completely that from that hour they are to live godly lives above sin.

At the time of the birth of our Lord, the name “Jesus” was a common Jewish name as familiar as the name John is with us today. It is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua which means Saviour. At that time the people were looking for a Joshua who would reveal himself as King, break the power of Rome and set up an earthly kingdom.

Could they have realized or seen it, their chief trouble was not that of a Roman yoke, or that they had been beaten in battle, but that they were sinners and needed a Saviour. [And, this is true in America TODAY! -- DVM] They needed one who could not alone overcome externals, but who could conquer sin and deliver the soul from its power and presence. We are told in Scripture that “For this purposethe Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Let us emphasize the heart of the text again, “He shall save his people FROM their sins.” There is no salvation unless it is FROM sin. We have no evidence that we are His people unless we are saved from the power and dominion of sin. Mark it, a mere profession of being His people will not answer. Unless we are saved from our sins we have no evidence whatsoever that we are the children of God. It is impossible to be a Christian and indulge in known sin, or live in the practice of any iniquity.

There is no salvation unless it is from sin, and that deliverance must come before death, for after death comes the Judgment, according to Hebrews 9:27.

He came to save His people FROM their sins, not IN them. To try to save a man in his sins would be like trying to save a man from drowning by keeping him under the water. No, my friend, just as literally as a man must be pulled out of the water to save him from drowning, so must the soul be pulled OUT OF sin to be saved FROM sin.

Practically everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one will ever be admitted there who has not been washed or loosed from his sins down here in this life.

Yes, my friend, I have good news for you, if you have never been saved from sin—that is, born again—born from above, you can be. After you have been born again, you will understand what the Apostle Paul was speaking about in Romans the fifth chapter and first verse when he declared that when one is justified by faith he has peace with God. When one is saved from his sins, he will then enjoy the peace and fellowship of the Lord.