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To Save Us


          But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

          Today’s Christmas themed verse from Bible.com returns my thoughts to the question of why Jesus came. It’s one of those obvious old ones that you’d likely answer if you were asked. In fact, we might all be tempted to say that the verse(s) that talked of Jesus coming to bring salvation covers today’s verse, too. And we’d be right, but the wording puts a slightly different spin on it.
          He would come to save us from our sins. Point one: sin is bad. We know that, but do we really know that? Murder, rape, assault, abuse, and polluting are bad, but there are other sins that we don’t put in the same league: gluttony, anger, lust, disobedience, lying... Add your favorites that “aren’t as bad as” those big boys.
           Do we really need to be saved from our sins? And, well, I mean, as Christians, we are saved, aren’t we? Doesn’t that go along with the adoption? Of course, Christians aren’t perfect, so we do sin, but aren’t we already saved? This is one of those “already-not yet” things. We are saved from the ultimate effect of our sins. When our sins get us in trouble, we pray to be saved from the consequences of our sins (which might be a mistake on our part.) But do we regularly pray to be saved from our sins?
           This morning, I can think of a couple sins I would love to be saved from: fear/anxiety, doubt, anger, pride, and lack of self-control. Listing them is a little like praying for patience – it’s scary to do because God might answer the prayer. Saving us from our sins involves removing them from our lives, and these are at the core of most of our beings. It feels like an invitation to a quintuple whammy!
           We should so desperately want to be saved from our sin that any price is a bargain.  This morning and today’s passage lead me to my prayer theme as I walked the dog. Save me from my sin, even if it hurts.

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