And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Is 43:11
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
That word for "save" in the Old Testament is usually translated as "save" but can also be found translated as "defend" and "victory". In most places it is used, it generally refers to some sort of military victory. The watchword given in 2 Maccabee 13:15 was "Victory is of God", which in hebrew would have been where we get the name "Jesus" from. The wars found in the Old Testament were not wars between people, but between the true God and other gods. The struggles of God's people against other gods and their victory coming from God and as a result of their faithfulness to Him are types to be fulfilled in Christ's victory over sin and death and our participation in that victory by being faithful to Him. It can also be found used in the Old testament in reference to saving the poor and needy from those that oppress them.
In the New testament, the word used in Matthew 1:21 to say that Jesus will "save" people from their sins literally means "to be made whole" and can be found translated as "save", "heal", and "make whole". The wide application of this word is used to describe both, the range of the effects of sin (which I hope to go into more detail in a later post in this series of posts on the Jesus prayer), and the complete undoing of sin accomplished by Christ crucified and raised from the dead. It is used to describe the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, the expelling of demons, the healing of leprosy, the raising of the dead, the giving of sight to the blind, when Peter and John healed the man in the temple, pulling Peter out of the water, and the forgiveness of sins. It is even used when Jesus is mocked on the cross being told to "Save thyself, and come down from the cross.".
The salvation that Christ offers "from their sins" is accomplished by the power of His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead and is ultimately fulfilled in the general resurrection when Christ shall return. It is a gift of God offered to us because we are not capable of saving ourselves and God does not desire the destruction of His creation. Paul begins the 15th chapter of 2 Corinthians (dealing with the resurrection) by saying that we are saved if we keep in memory that which he preached. It is written in Romans 6 that we are united in Christ's death and raised to newness of life through our baptism into Christ. This is why it is written elsewhere that we are saved "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" and Peter writes that "baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ".
Baptism is our entrance into our life in Christ, but not the end. That is why we are instructed to "run with patience the race that is set before us" and "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.". This is why in the face of adversity and knowledge of our failures we must "call on the name of the Lord" to be saved. We must also continually hold fast to our confession of the Lord Jesus and and the belief in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead. We are told to "save" ourselves (1 Timothy 4:16) by following Christ, and that by drawing others closer to Christ, we can "save" them and "hide a multitude of sins" (1 Corinthians 7:16, 9:22, James 5:20, Jude 1:23) by bringing them closer to Christ, Who is the only salvation.
May God give me the endurance to run the race set before me and to hold fast to the confession of the Lord Jesus and that Victory is of God.
Well said!
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