Saved

The next term though is for those who are related to God, those who have a relationship with Him. That is the word saved. In Romans 10:13, the Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved .” Think about that term “saved.” That is a great word, one of my favourites.

When I first started to attend a Baptist church, I remember hearing them talk about being saved. It almost caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. My thoughts were something like this. “Saved? What do you mean, saved? I don’t need to be saved.” Then I began to realise that I was a sinner before God. I began to see myself as God saw me and I realised that indeed I was lost.

The night when Christ saved me, I was ready. I wanted Him to save me, because I knew I was hopeless and helpless. I was like a child out in the middle of the bush, not knowing which way to turn. If a child was lost in the bush and someone came along to rescue him, that child isn’t going to be particular about what they look like. The child will just be glad to be rescued.

Suppose you go out in an ocean liner and fall overboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the ocean liner keeps right on sailing. Now you are out there, bobbing in the water, good shark bait. You can’t swim to shore because it is way too far. After a few days a boat comes along and sees you there in the water and throws out a white life preserver to you. Would you say, “Excuse me but I don’t like white life preservers. I want a red one please.” No, you are going to be willing to grab hold of anything that will rescue you. Why? Because you realise you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you can’t save yourself. You need someone to rescue you.

That is exactly what “saved” means. It means to be rescued. The Bible says you and I have broken the Ten Commandments, God’s law. It is a sin to break just one of them, and we are guilty of breaking them all. We are guilty before a holy God. Therefore, when God looks at you and me, He sees us as lost.

But there are some who have a relationship to God, some who are saved. For a person to be rescued, there had to be a place and a time when they were lost. They weren’t born saved. Likewise you aren’t born rescued. You are born lost, in the rubbish heap, apart from God, in need of being rescued. A rescued person is one who had been in danger, but was pulled from danger.