Christ, Our Living Savior

This year certainly is flying, isn’t it? In just a month, we will be celebrating Easter and, hopefully, enjoying more spring-like weather. When it comes to Easter, there are a number of songs that we love to sing, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of those songs is, Because He Lives, which was written by Bill Gaither. Though you probably know it well, the first verse goes like this:

“God sent His Son—they called him Jesus; He came to love, heal, and forgive; He lived and died to buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.” © 1971 William J. Gaither

Indeed, Christ did both live and die to buy our pardon. In these weeks that lead up to Easter, I would like to focus on Christ’s life. Today, we will take a look at the years leading up to Jesus’ public ministry. While the Gospels’ accounts of this time are quite brief, we will see that some pretty amazing things happened — He is the eternal Son of God, who took on flesh, after all. It was all part of God’s plan, happening at the “fullness of time:”

(4) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV)

In Christ, the Son, we find redemption and adoption as children of God, and through whom we can cry out, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15). “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15) of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

In His grip,

Pastor Decker