How does Jesus save?

There are several theories that aim to answer this question, but what the apostles preached in the book of Acts seems almost so simple that it’s easy to overlook: “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” (Acts 17:3). We’re going to take a fresh look to show how Jesus saves not just by what he did, but by what he is going to do.  

You’ve probably heard the popular Christian theory of salvation, that Jesus died instead of us, to take our punishment, or pay the penalty for our sins. This is called the substitution theory. Substitution theory begins with a simple equation: sin equals death, therefore, Jesus died instead of us, so we don’t have to die. Often a courtroom analogy is used, where a judge has given a death sentence to a guilty man, but at the last minute an innocent man rushes in and the judge accepts his offer to die in the guilty man’s place.

The issue with this theory is that it paints God as an unfair judge who is satisfied by the arbitrary death of an innocent person, rather than a change in the guilty. If Jesus did die instead of us, then why does it matter how we live if our sins are already paid for, and why was he raised back to life? While substitution theory sounds simple on the surface, the more you dig into it, the more issues that arise.

Instead of starting from sin and death, we need to start from God’s love. The point that the Bible emphasises over and over again is that God loves us and God’s love is at the centre of his plan of salvation for us (John 3:16-17).

Jesus came to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) but our sins are not paid for with death; They are forgiven out of love (Psalm 51:1). Forgiveness is a free pardon and there is just one thing that stands between us and God’s forgiveness, just one thing that God wants us to do:

Repent.

To repent means to turn around, to change direction. God wants us to turn to him with all our hearts: to seek his forgiveness and walk in his ways. That’s it. That is all God has ever asked of his people (Matthew 22:37-40, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:11-17, 2 Chronicles 6:36-39).

God has never wanted our death; he wants us to live for him.

Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; … get a new heart and a new spirit… For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

David expressed the joy that came from having his sin forgiven when he turned back to God. God did not want a sacrifice. God wanted his repentance – a change of heart to acknowledge and be sorry for his sin (Psalm 32, Psalm 51). Genuine faith and repentance from the heart will lead to a change in the way we live. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10, James 2:18).

So, why then, you might be wondering, were there all the sacrifices under the law? The sacrifices were to be given from the heart, to show the giver’s repentance, their love, their thankfulness and praise. God condemned those who offered sacrifices without their heart being in it (Malachi 1:13-14). This is the lesson Saul had to learn and that Jesus reiterated to the Pharisees (1 Samuel 15:22, Matthew 9:13). Sacrifices were a way of giving something up for God, showing trust in him to provide and acknowledging God as the one who gave us everything in the first place (2 Samuel 24:24, 1 Chronicles 29:14-16, Psalm 50:14, 51:17, 116:17, Hebrews 13:15).

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

Jesus came, not to fulfil some technical requirement of the law around sacrifice, but to call us to repentance. Jesus started his ministry by proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near” (Matthew 4:17) and he demonstrated how God truly wants us to live, with love, mercy and kindness, even for our enemies (Luke 6:35).

But this is only half the story. God’s prophets have always preached the message of repentance and people repented and were forgiven even before Jesus came (Jonah 3:4-5, Mark 1:4-5, Psalm 51:1, Hebrews 1:1-2). The second part of salvation is what we are being saved for: “the kingdom of God” (Matthew 4:17).

Jesus was different from all the prophets who came before him bearing the same message, because he is the Christ. ‘Christ’ is the Greek word for ‘anointed one’. It means that Jesus is the one God has anointed, or chosen, to be king. Jesus is the one who will bring in the promised salvation of a kingdom of peace and joy to those who have repented and turned their hearts to God.

Jesus’ death was part of this much bigger picture. It was one step in the journey to both bring us to repentance and perfect Jesus for his role as king (Hebrews 2:10, 17-18). Most importantly, it is not simply Jesus’ death, but his death and resurrection that need to be considered together. Jesus died in faith that God would raise him from the dead because he knew that his resurrection would lead people to believe and repent (Luke 18:31-33, Acts 2:22-32).

Entrusting his life to God was the final victory of a lifelong battle against sin, but it was Jesus’ resurrection that brought hope and a change of heart to both his followers and sceptics (Hebrews 2:14, 4:15, 1 Corinthians 15:14). It was his resurrection that proved Jesus is the Christ, the one that God anointed to be king. It was the resurrection that turned his fearful disciples into powerful preachers who risked their lives to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, and it was the power of the resurrection that led people to believe and repent (Acts 2:36-37, 5:30-31, 10:34-43).

Right from the beginning God promised a child who would one day overcome and destroy sin (Genesis 3:15). In living a life wholly dedicated to God even to the point of death, Jesus overcame the temptation to sin within himself, and he will remove sin from the world entirely when he returns as king (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus has become the righteous and worthy king who will judge with true justice to relieve the oppressed and bring peace and joy to the whole earth. This is the ultimate salvation all the faithful are waiting for (Matt 3:11-12, Psalm 72).

It is in this sense that Jesus died for us - (not instead of us) - and bore our sins. Instead of becoming king straight away, he submitted to God’s plan and went to this length to first reach out to us (Acts 3:26). God loves us so much and no matter how far we have strayed, God is waiting for us to return to him because he wants to forgive us (Luke 15:10, Romans 8:31-32, 2 Peter 3:9).

We are called to show our repentance and allegiance to Jesus as the Christ by baptism into his name, symbolically dying to our old way of life and rising to live a new life for God (Romans 6:3-4). Jesus gave us the tokens of bread and wine to remember and proclaim his death and resurrection with fellow believers every week (Luke 22:14-20). The process of becoming a new creation is ongoing within each of us until Jesus returns with the ultimate salvation for all the faithful - eternal life, free from sin and death, in his kingdom on earth (Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthains 15:50-57, Hebrews 11:39-40).

Now is the time to seek God and the hope of his coming kingdom of peace and joy (Isaiah 35:10, 45:22).

“God now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:30-31