Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation. (Luke 2:29-30)
All of us experience significant moments in life. As evangelicals, we are firmly rooted in a tradition that acknowledges and places great value on the crisis experience of the new birth, a distinct moment in time when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus and are saved from the guilt and power of sin. Most of us can think back in time and remember exactly when and where we were at that moment. It’s a beautiful thing.
I have had several significant moments like that in my past, moments that had a profound impact on my life that is still felt very much to this day. One such watershed moment for me took place when I was in seminary. It took years for the truth to finally hit home, but when it did it forever changed everything that I am. That one simple truth was this: Jesus Christ, the God-man, IS salvation. His free gifts of grace, forgiveness, and eternal life are not “things” he offers us. He is all he offers us, for in him alone do heaven and earth come together in perfect union, for eternity! There is no salvation apart from personal union – by faith and in the Holy Spirit – to him who is salvation itself.
Nowhere else in Scripture is this profound truth more personally and emotionally expressed than in the account of the prophet Simeon in Luke 2. It is Simeon’s face you see in the sermon series graphic on the screen each week because he peered into the face of Mary’s baby and knew that he was looking into the very face of God’s salvation.
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