IS HE “MY PERSONAL SAVIOR” OR “OUR SAVIOR”?

When one studies the Scriptures with a view of ascertaining how Jesus of Nazareth is referred to as Savior, a pattern soon emerges. But first some of the references as they are given in the RSV:

“To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11).

“They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world”’(Jn. 4:42).

“God exalted him at his right hand as leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior” (Eph. 5:23).

“But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philip. 3:20).

“. . . the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:10).

“. . . the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world” (1 Jn. 4:15).

The pattern is that Jesus Christ is always the Savior in community, whether of the church or Body itself or of the entire world. Not once is he the “personal Savior” and not even “my Savior,” though once Mary refers to God as “God my Savior” (Lk. 1:47). While the Father is frequently referred to as Savior, the usual description is “God our Savior,” as in Tit. 3:4 and Jude 25.

Of the approximately thirty references in the NT to Savior, whether of God or Christ, they are all (except the single exception of Mary) in community. Christ is our Savior, or the church’s Savior, or the Savior of the world. Never is anyone implored to accept Christ as “your personal Savior,” and not once does even Paul (and surely Paul would if anyone would) ever refer to Jesus as “my Savior.” It is always “the Savior” or “our Savior.” Even when Savior is implied but the term not used the sense of community is present, as in Eph. 1:7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.”

The Bible is more of a “our” book than a “my” book, as is evident in the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven. . .” And so when the angels announced the birth of the One who would make the difference, they proclaimed that good news of great joy had come to all the people in that “a Savior” had been born. And when the Baptist announced his entrance upon the scene he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

If Jesus is the Savior of the Body, the church, then of course he is the Savior of each one in that Body, and so he is the personal Savior of each one of us. While I do not really object to evangelists urging sinners to accept Jesus Christ as “your personal Savior,” I am persuaded that we do better to follow the emphasis of Scripture. Like the apostles, we should proclaim Christ as the Savior of the world, and we are all to look to him as “our Savior.” There is not much “I” and “my” religion in the Scriptures. While our Christian faith is of course personal, we are persons within a community of believers. We look to Jesus as “our Savior” brothers and sisters together—just as we look to God as “our Father.”

God has not called us to be loners or hermits. Even when folk appear to be walking together, such as on a busy city street, they are often walking alone. Together but separate! It describes many congregations of all denominations. Each one sits there, adamantly autonomous in his “personal religion” and often unaware of any call of God to community. Those who will not go so far as to practice their “personal religion” on the golf course on Sunday morning may be as individualized while sitting with others on a pew. We must guard against a faith that has become entirely too private. One of the great truths of Scripture is that “we are members one of another.” Being a member has no real biblical basis except in terms of the Body “joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied” (Eph. 4:16). What a blessing it is to be called to be part of a family where life is shared with others of like precious faith. Just as our prayers are not personal and the Supper is not personal, so the Savior is not personal. He is our Savior!

We should resist the temptation to pray privately when we lead the church in prayer. The pronoun should be our and not I or me or mine. The way some lead in prayer one would suppose that they were completely oblivious to Body life. We are to assemble as the Body of Christ, break bread as the Body (always discerning the Body as 1 Cor. 11:29 urges), study the Scriptures together as the Body, and praise the Lord as the Body. After writing “If one member suffers, all the members rejoice with it,” the apostle penned one of the great lines of Scripture: Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27).

Just as some believers act as if they are called to be hermits and loners, some congregations are that way, immersed as they are in “congregational autonomy.” While in our tradition we value autonomy as if it came right out of the Bible, it is almost certainly a distortion of the biblical ideal for the church. This would certainly be true of radical congregationalism where all forms of cooperatives and agencies are eschewed and where a congregation does its own thing without any awareness of other churches. In the light of Scripture we must conclude that the Church of Christ on earth is more than the total number of congregations. There should be something special about what they can do together, and there should be a vigorous awareness of the church in its totality. If the Bible be our guide, there is no such thing as “congregational autonomy.” We are not called to be separatists and isolationists, whether in reference to our place in a congregation or that congregation’s place in the church at large.

As our Savior, Jesus is both our deliverer and preserver. He delivered us from our slavery to all manner of passions by washing us in the bath of regeneration. And through the renewing power of the Holy Spirit he keeps us or preserves us in the faith. That is what it means to have a Savior.

I like the way Peter puts it when he writes “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours,” and goes on to tell how: by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1). No one can improve on that, not even the radio and TV evangelists. —the Editor