We lack the power to deliver ourselves from sin and the curse of death. Today, R.C. Sproul illustrates our need for a Savior.
I was in the hospital with kidney stones. They’re not life-threatening. They’re not fatal. But they make you crawl up the wall. I was there in that hospital, and I have to confess to you that I got frightened. They weren’t sure it was just kidney stones, so they put me through all these tests and operations, and I’m sitting there thinking I have this and I have that, and my time’s up and my ministry’s over.
I wasn’t afraid of death, but I sure wasn’t relishing the thought of dying. I’m not afraid of what happens after my heart stops beating. I know whom I have believed, and I know that God has prepared a place for me in heaven and will keep His word. But He has not guaranteed me that I’m not going to have to go through the valley of the shadow of death and have to hang on by my fingernails along the way. I know that Christians are called to suffer, and I wasn’t particularly up for it.
And so, I was in that hospital bed, and it was around Christmastime. One of the ministers came on Sunday morning, and he read the passage, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” I don’t even remember what he preached on, but I remembered that Christmas text. And I said to myself, “That’s what I need—a Savior.” That’s what I need in my life. Not just Someone who will save me from my sin, but Someone who will save me from my fear. Someone that I can go to and depend on and trust in absolutely in these moments when all of the fragileness of my humanity is laid out on the table. The God that we worship is the One who is our Savior.
