Jesus: My Savior From Sin

Words to treasure from H.W. Gockel:

Of all the things that Jesus means to me He is, above all else, my Savior. By His suffering and death in my place upon the Cross He has paid the penalty of all my sins. The Bible assures me that though my "sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." And why? Because "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin."

I know that to many people today the word "sin" does not mean very much. Sin, they say, is a mistake or a fault which can't be helped and which therefore is not so serious. Sin to many people is just a flaw which somehow or other will be forgotten when God begins to settle His accounts. There are man and women who shrug off the idea of sin as being — "just one of those things."

But God thinks otherwise. No matter how lightly men may speak of sin, no matter how cleverly they may seek to explain it or excuse it, God has placed His curse upon it. "The soul that sins, it shall die." The "wages of sin is death." "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them."

Sin, according to God, is a frightful thing, which if it remains unforgiven, will result in the eternal separation of a man from his Maker....

I, too, have felt the dreadful weight of sin. Again and again I have had to say with the Apostle Paul: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing." With David I have had to confess: "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." As I look back to my childhood days, I see the undeniable truth of God's verdict: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." I must agree with Him when He says that by nature I was among "the children of wrath, even as others."

But why speak about my sin — when I began to speak about my Savior! Because no man can tell what Jesus means to him until he has first told what sin has meant to him. To tell the full story of a rescue at sea, one must first tell the story of the shipwreck which made that rescue necessary....  If Christ is to be our Savior, we must know from what we must be saved.

Right here is where Jesus stepped into my life and filled it with a joy and a peace which surpass all understanding. For in Him I have God's assurance of full and free forgiveness of the entire burden of my sin. Without Christ there would have been, there could have been, no forgiveness. Without Christ the course of my life would have led straight to a judgment which would have been too terrible to contemplate. For "none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceases forever." "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." No other name than the blessed name of Jesus!

Source: "What Jesus Means to Me," by H.W. Gockel, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1948, pp. 9-10, 12-13.  N.b. Language of Scripture citations lightly updated for language.