Okay, okay, I know…everyone calls Yeshua (Jesus) the Savior, but what does the “savior” do?
When we define a savior, Yeshua doesn’t completely fill the bill.
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A savior is someone who saves others, mostly used when describing keeping someone from danger or from losing their life.
In the case of Yeshua, he allegedly saves us from the second death, the condemnation to Sheol (hell) as the punishment for our sinful life. But I say we need a better understanding of “being saved” in a spiritual sense.
Let’s start by clearing this very important issue up, once and for all- God forgives sins, not Yeshua.
Yes, Yeshua was given authority to do that on the earth (Matthew 9:6), but once his role as the sacrificial lamb of God was completed, he was resurrected and is now sitting at the right hand of God, where he serves not as forgiver of sin but as our Intercessor with God.
Think about this: an Intercessor is someone who is intervenes on the behalf of someone else. As such, the intercessor has no power to do anything, other than act in a way to help the one he is interceding for. Since Yeshua is our intercessor (Hebrews 7:25), then he- by definition- is not the one who forgives our sins. Indeed, when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, he will then stand between us and God, interceding on our behalf to allow us to enter into God’s presence.
When we accept Yeshua as the Messiah (not as God!), and ask forgiveness FROM GOD by means of the innocent blood Yeshua shed for us (in place of bringing an animal to the temple, which no longer existed after 73 AD), we can be forgiven of our sins.
First off, we need to understand that by having our sins forgiven we won’t go to Sheol when judged at Judgement Day; and that is what it means to be “saved”.
Got it, so far? Good- let’s continue…
Yeshua’s sacrifice created the shedding of innocent blood, and when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we can ask forgiveness of sin by means of that shed blood. You could say, in a way, that Yeshua saves us because he provided the means for our forgiveness, but in reality, he only provided the way to be saved.
Ultimately, it is God who forgives our sins, and THAT is what saves us.
I would also like to point out that Mashiach, the Hebrew word for Messiah, means “anointed one”. Yeshua (which means “salvation of God”) was anointed by God (at his baptism by Yochanan) to be the Messiah God promised to send. The role of the Messiah was to live a sinless life and die to provide the innocent blood necessary for the forgiveness of sin (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). And, when we faithfully accept that Yeshua is the Messiah, we are able to call upon that blood when asking God to forgive us, which is the way we are saved.
So, it isn’t technically correct to call Yeshua the savior because he isn’t the one who forgives our sins, which is the way we are saved. Yeshua is the Messiah, God is our savior because not only did he provide the Messiah (the only way to be forgiven of sin after the temple was destroyed), but God is the ONLY one who forgives our sins, saving us from Sheol.
Look at it this way: a certain medicine can save your life from a disease, but is it the medicine that is the real savior, or the one who created the medicine? We may say “This medicine saved my life”, but it is that the one who created the medicine who is the real savior.
By the way, one little thing I would like to point out about the use of the word “savior”- it is a Christian term rebranding Jesus in order to further separate him from his Jewish role as the anointed one of God. Interpreting “Maschiach” as “Savior” has become standardized, but not because it is correct, only because for centuries that is what people have been told it means. Just another traditional Christian lie about who and what the real Messiah is.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!
