With Christmas upon us, let’s place our focus on the One to whom we owe our lives.

It was my junior year in high school. I came to a small church that cold winter night to hear a college football coach speak. His name was Rock Royer. My football coach had encouraged me to attend. I was the kid in the back row. 

I thought he was going to talk about football, but he spoke on how to be “born again,” using John chapter 3 as his backdrop. I had never heard the Gospel before. That night, I walked from the back row to the altar to give my life to Jesus. 

I came home and told my parents that I had been born again, not knowing anything else. 

It took me more than a year to understand what I had actually done that night. 

Or, more importantly, what Jesus had done for me. He had become my Savior that night and I didn’t even know it!

Fast forward a year and a half later. Another believer took me under his wing and discipled me in my faith. That’s when it all came into view.

Jesus my Savior.

Jesus your Savior.

We throw that word around casually. “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” is a term we hear and use often, to the point that it becomes ho-hum. It has lost its significance.

Without Jesus, you’d be separated from God forever. No connection. No relationship. Spiritual death. Eternity in darkness. In Satan’s kingdom and under his rule. Hell is very real and that would be your destiny.

In the here and now, you’d have no hope for significance beyond this life. You’d be defined by the physical world. You might search for connection with God through all sorts of false alternatives, but you’d never attain a relationship. Your meaning and purpose would come to an end with your last breath. 

That’s what Jesus has saved you from. All of that and more. Quite frankly, he has saved you from eternal destruction. 

Does the word “Savior” carry more significance now?

And how about what it cost Jesus to become your Savior? The enormity of it all. He left his glorious home in heaven to walk this earth for 33 years, endured persecution to the point of death, took all your sins and the sins of humankind on his shoulders, suffered the torture of total separation from God the Father on the cross – and did all of this willingly because he loves you.

Jesus your Savior. 

May we never again hear or use this word casually. Becoming Savior cost Jesus so much.

(From my 30-day devotional Your Life With God: 30 Days With Jesus. Available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback).