Everyone in this world has needs. We have felt needs and these are needs that we know and feel, needs that eat away at us and we spend our lives trying to meet those needs. The need for food, the need for love, the need for recognition, the need for wealth. These are all needs that we recognise in ourselves and whether consciously or unconsciously, we order our lives to help get those needs met.
Then there are the real needs. Needs that we don't even know about but needs that will have eternal consequences. What are these? And more precisely, how does my talk of needs square with the title of this entry?
I want to take a look at what salvation saves us from and use that as the light to shine on our real but unknown needs.
Matthew 1:21 says:
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
That's the heart of salvation. God sending his son Jesus, to save his people from their sins. Yes, but what does that mean exactly?
Let's take a look at Romans 5:9-11:
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
1. Saved from the wrath of God
We may not understand it, but when we were born, we were born with a sin nature that separates from God. We were born as enemies and rebels of God. We deserve his wrath and judgment. The salvation that Jesus brings saves us from God's wrath. Our sin-debt is paid by Jesus and we are no longer enemies and God's judgment will no longer fall on us. That's significant! But is that a felt need?
2. Saved for joy in God
"More than that, we also rejoice in God." We are saved from his wrath and can now find our true happiness in God. God is the source of joy. If we treasure him, we will be happy beyond measure. Humans were made to find their happiness in God and that is why the world cannot satisfy us. We will forever be looking for that one magic thing to keep us happy: wealth, family, job satisfaction, etc., but it will never satisfy. Only God satisfies. Is needing God's joy a felt need?
3. Saved from the disease of sin
Going back to Matthew 1:21: "he will save his people from their sins." Yes, Jesus removes our sin from us. God will not count them against us. But more than that, the work that Jesus did on the cross means that the disease of sin is ripped out of us, bit by bit, day by day when we submit to him. The sin nature in us is being removed and will be completely removed when he comes again. Is needing our disease of sin to be removed from us a felt need?
Salvation meets three real needs in our lives but to most people, they don't even know they have these needs. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
It is therefore the work of the Holy Spirit that first awakens us to our real needs. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we first realise we are helpless sinners. Not just sinners, but helpless sinners. The Holy Spirit makes us realise there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and that's when our real needs hit home and we run to Jesus and his saving work. Which is why, no work of evangelism will bear fruit unless we pray for the Holy Spirit to do his work.
The work of salvation meets our most urgent needs, but we must first come to the realisation that we have these needs and we must stop being consumed by our worldly needs and turn to God for the fulfillment of our real needs.
