Salvation in Christ emphasizes Jesus as the exclusive means by which sinners are saved, often illustrated by singular gates or doors symbolizing access to life (John 10:9). Christ’s power and glory as Savior are portrayed through images like the ‘Horn of Salvation,’ signifying strength and divine deliverance (Luke 1:69).
A proper foundation is necessary before building a strong and lasting structure.
An architect is a master builder. He conceives of a building in its totality. However, he realizes that his first consideration must be the ground on which it is to stand; it must have a solid foundation. Of course, no one can live in a house that consists only of its foundation. A superstructure is needed. But without a proper foundation the superstructure will not stand.
Christ is the only door to salvation, just as the ark had only one door.
Charles H. Spurgeon made a penetrating observation when he said there were many rooms in the ark but only one door. Similarly, there is only one door in the ark of our salvation, and that is Christ. The Only Victor A general may defeat all his enemies on the battlefield yet be unable to defeat his critics at home. He may be able to control the men under him and yet be unable to control himself. He may be victor in the eyes of men, yet defeated in the estimation of God. And he may congratulate himself that no one has been able to stand up against him, yet he will go down at last before man's final enemy, death. Thus, all men's victories are partial in this life. Even the victory over sin and evil that the regenerated believer has in Christ is at best incomplete. Only one Man has ever conquered sin and death completely and defeated all His enemies.
Christ as the Horn of Salvation symbolizes His power, dominion, and glory as Savior.
Salvation is the fruition of redemption. Redemption purchases salvation, salvation realizes redemption and brings it into our actual experience. Zechariah speaks not so much of salvation as of the "horn of salvation." This bold figure, perhaps, originated in primitive times when mighty hunters, like Nimrod, returning from the chase, loved to grace their tents with the splendid horns of the animals that they had slain: the antlers of the deer, the tusks of the elephant, and the horn, perhaps, of the mighty rhinoceros. And so the word "horn" came to be the figure of beauty, power, and dominion. It has passed into the imagery of inspired prophecy and song, so that we find the earthly powers described by Daniel and John as horns upon the head of the beast. And so we find the psalmist speaking of God as his Horn of Salvation and his High Tower. In speaking, therefore, of Christ as a Horn of Salvation, Zechariah meant to emphasize the glory and beauty of the Savior, His supreme and universal dominion and His infinite and divine power. It is coronation, singing, "Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all."
Even nature and idols obey the power of the infant Christ during the flight to Egypt.
Sosomenes relates, that when the holy family reached the term of their journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis, in their flight into Egypt, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with great veneration as the seat of a God, bowed down its branches at the approach of the infant Christ. Likewise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave, religious authorities), that all the idols of the Egyptians fell with their faces to the earth. I have seen pictures of the flight into Egypt, in which broken idols lay by the wayside.
— Mrs. Jameson
Christ as Kinsman Redeemer restores believers' inheritance and betroths them by the Spirit.
a type of. Through His incarnation Christ became kin to us as a human being, that we through the Spirit, might become betrothed to Him. By sin, we had forfeited our inheritance. Christ, the only one who can take up the documents and restore us to position
Christ, our true Joshua, secures and will give believers their eternal inheritance.
The true Joshua, Christ, has opened up for us the gates of heaven, purchasing eternal inheritance for all believers. Like Joshua He will in due time have the honor of putting them in possession of their inheritances
Christ’s sacrifice is like a friend dying in our place, showing love and substitution.
During the Civil War a farmer was drafted. He was much grieved on account of his motherless family, who would have no bread-winner in his absence. The day before he had to start, a young man, a neighbor, came, saying, “I will go instead of yon.” It seemed too good to be true; but the young fellow went, feeling that he was doing a noble thing, and all the village came out to bid him good-bye. In the first battle he was shot and killed. When the farmer saw the name of Charles Durham in the list of “missing,” he at once went to the battlefield, found the body of his friend, brought it to his village and placed it in the little graveyard, covering the grave with sod from his garden. He cut out a plain marble tablet, on which he carved an inscription with his own hand. Then he put the tablet on the grave, and when the villagers stooped to see the little monument they wept. It did not say much, but it deeply touched them; it said—”C. D. He died for me.”
The Good Shepherd tenderly leads and carries His flock through fear and danger.
A friend who lost all his children told me about being in an eastern country some time ago, and he saw a shepherd going down to a stream, and he wanted to get his flock across. He went into the water and called them by name, but they came to the bank and bleated, and were too afraid to follow. At last he went back, tightened his girdle about his loins, took up two little lambs, and put one inside his frock, and another inside his bosom. Then he started into the water, and the old sheep looked up to the shepherd instead of down into the water. They wanted to see their little ones. So he got them over the water, and led them into the green pastures on the other side.
How many times the Good Shepherd has come down here and taken a little lamb to the hilltops of glory, and then the father and mother begin to look up and follow.
Christ's death is the timeless good news offering salvation to all people.
It is said that Tennyson once asked an old Christian woman if there was any news.
“Why, Mr. Tennyson,” she replied, “there’s only one piece of news that I know, and that is — Christ died for all men.”
“That is old news, and good news, and new news,” Tennyson responded.
All theology centers on Jesus Christ coming to save sinners.
The late venerable and godly Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Princeton, United States, had been a preacher of Christ for sixty years, and a professor of divinity for forty. He died on the 22nd October, 1851. On his death-bed, he was heard to say to a friend, "All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass— Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."
Jesus Christ is the sole and only hope of mankind.
ON a huge cross by the side of an Italian highway hung a hideous caricature of the Beloved of our souls, who poured out his life for our redemption. Out of reverence to the living Christ we turned aside, disgusted from the revolting image, but not until we had espied the words Spes unica , in capitals over its head. Here was truth emblazoned on an idol. Yes, indeed, Jesus, our now exalted, but once crucified Lord is the sole and only hope of man. Assuredly, O Lord Jesus, thou art spes unica to our soul.
Preaching without Christ as the sin-bearer ruins the gospel message.
A famous picture has been lately produced, which represents our Lord before Pilate. It has deservedly won great attraction. A certain excellent newspaper, which brings out for a very cheap price a large number of engravings has given an engraving of this picture; but, inasmuch as the painting was too large for the paper to give the whole, they have copied a portion of it. It is interesting to note that they have given us Pilate here, and Caiaphas there, but since there was no room for Jesus upon the sheet, they have left out that part of the design. When I saw the picture, I thought that it was wonderfully characteristic of a great deal of modern preaching. See Pilate here, Caiaphas there, and the Jews yonder—but the Victim, bound and scourged for human sin, is omitted. Possibly, in the case of the publication, the figure of the Christ will appear in the next number; but even if He should appear in the next sermon of our preachers of the new theology, it will be as a moral example, and not as the Substitute for the guilty, the Sin bearer by whose death we are redeemed. When we hear a sermon with no Christ in it, we hope that He will come out next Sunday; at the same time, the preaching is, so far, spoilt, and the presentation of the gospel is entirely ruined so long as the principal figure is left out. Oh, it is a sad thing to have to stand in any house of prayer and listen to the preaching, and then have to cry, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!" Rest assured that they have laid Him in a tomb. You may be quite certain of that. They have put Him away as a dead thing, and to them He is as good as dead. True believer, you may comfort your heart with this recollection, that He will rise again. He cannot be holden by the bonds of death in any sense; and though His own church should bury Him, and lay the huge lid of the most enormous sarcophagus of heresy upon Him, the Redeemer will rise again, and His truth with Him, and He and His Word will live and reign together for ever and ever.
Christ is the only door to salvation; all other ways are false shortcuts.
* * * * *
Outside one of the beautiful gateways of the magnificent mosque of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, there is a picture of an open Bible with this inscription: “The Lord said, I am the door; by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” The Mohammedans left this inscription when they took the beautiful temple from the Christians; because they could see no reference in it to Jesus Christ. Everything else that suggested Christianity or the cross was obliterated. There is a twentieth-century spirit that would obliterate Jesus Christ and the necessity of His saving work. But meanwhile He, the strong Son of God, calmly waits for the world’s recognition. He has presented His proofs, and the responsibility is ours. There is no other gospel, no other road, no other Christ. For his own convenience man has invented a number of “short cuts.” But it remains as true to-day as when Jesus Himself spoke the words, that he who climbs up some other way is “a thief and a robber.”
— JOEL B. SLOCUM
Opponents of Christ are ultimately overcome though they resist His cutting truths.
In a sawmill in Canada, while the head sawyer was eating his dinner, a big bear came and sat on the log ready for sawing, and began to eat the sawyer’s dinner. As the log moved up the saw gave him a slight rub; he growled and went on eating. Presently the saw gave him another dig and he turned round and hugged it, and there was a bear sawed in two.
This reminds us of the enemies of Christ trying to stop the work He came to do. He uttered truths which cut them, but they continued in their opposition. They have gone to their own place, but the gracious work of Christ continues. (Text.)
Christ values even the most broken lives, offering redemption and hope to all.
A class of medical students were being taken through the wards of a hospital. Their professor was showing them some strange case--a man who was a mere wreck, lying upon his bed hopeless and helpless, a broken fragment of humanity, a man who had spoiled his chances, sold his soul and body. The professor said in Latin, _Fiat experimentum in corpore vili_, “Let the experiment be made upon a worthless body.” But the man was an old university man, and before the days of his crash, he, too, knew Latin. He arose in his bed and answered back, _Pro hoc corpore vili Jesus Christus mortuus est_, “For this worthless body Jesus Christ has died.” And from every broken bit of the wreckage of humanity, and from every bit of your own soul’s life that is wrecked and broken, comes the same response to-day. God knows that for this worthless body Jesus Christ is on His cross still waiting to see of the travail of His soul.
— JOHN KELMAN
Meditating on Christ’s blood and sufferings is the strongest motive to mortify sin.
"Five persons," says Mr. Brooks, "were studying what were the best means to mortify sin; one said, to meditate on death; the second, to meditate on judgment; the third, to meditate on the joys of heaven; the fourth, to meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and certainly the last is the choicest and strongest motive of all. If ever we would cast off our despairing thoughts, we must dwell and must much upon, and apply this precious heard of a servant who had attended a Wesleyan chapel. This offended her master and mistress, who told her that she must discontinue the practice, or leave their service. She received the information with modesty, said she was sorry, but so it must be; she could not sacrifice the convictions of her conscience to keep her place. So they gave her warning; and she was now determined, if possible to be more circumspect and exemplary than ever; determined that, if she suffered for her religion, her religion should not suffer for her. Some time after this, the master said to the mistress, "Why, this is rather a hard measure with regard to our servant; has she not a right to worship God where she pleases as well as ourselves?"
"Oh, yes," said the mistress; "and we never had so good a servant; one who rose so early, and got her work done so well, was so clean, and was so economical, never answering again."
And so they intimated that she might remain. Some time after this the wife said to her husband, "I think Mary's religion does her a great deal more good than our religion seems to do us; I should like to hear her minister." And so she went, and was impressed; and prevailed upon her husband to go, and he was impressed; and now they are all followers of God, and have the worship of God in their house.
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blood to our own souls; so shall sorrow and mourning flee away."
Christ is the door protecting His sheep from danger by His own sacrifice.
This poem by Mary M. Redding, is based on an actual incident of one of Dr. George Adam Smith’s Syrian journeys:
A traveler once, when skies were rose and gold With Syrian sunset, paused beside the fold Where an Arabian shepherd housed his flock; Only a circling wall of rough gray rock-- No door, no gate, but just an opening wide Enough for snowy, huddling sheep to come inside. “So,” questioned he, “then no wild beasts you dread?” “Ah, yes, the wolf is near,” the shepherd said.
“But”--strange and sweet the voice divine of yore Fell on his startled ear--“I am the door! When skies are sown with stars, and I may trace The velvet shadows, in this narrow space I lay me down. No silly sheep may go Without the fold but I, the shepherd, know. Nor need my cherished flock, close-sheltered, warm, Fear ravening wolf, save o’er my prostrate form.”
O word of Christ--illumined evermore For us His timid sheep--“I am the door!”
(Text.)--_Sunday-school Times._
The lamb symbolizes Christ's innocent sacrifice that saves and protects believers.
The figure of a lamb slain dominates the whole aspect of the religion of redemption. Nature and grace seem to blend in harmonious echoes of this ideal presentation.
High up on the old German church of Werden is carved the image of a lamb, concerning which the villagers tell this story. Many years ago, a mason was at work on the portion of wall where now this figure stands, when the cord by which his plank seat was suspended snapt, and he was hurled down to what seemed instant death, for masses of rough stone lay thick on the ground below, the building being under repair. He arose unhurt, for there among the stone-heaps a little lamb had been nibbling at scanty tufts of herbage, and on this animal he had fallen safe and softly, while the lamb lay crusht to death. The man so strangely saved had the monument erected in grateful, lasting memory of his deliverance from a cruel death, and of the innocent creature to whom he owed it. (Text.)
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