“There Has Been Born for You a Savior”

By Paul Copan

From all of us at The Worldview Bulletin, we hope you have a joyful celebration of Christmas!

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The Canadian artist Douglas Coupland poignantly acknowledged his need for God to do what he could not do himself: “My secret is that I need God—that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.”^[1] Coupland admitted he needed to be rescued, to be saved—which is true of us all.

Coupland points us to what Christmas is all about. Of course, the Incarnation tells us of God the Creator, who humbles himself, takes on our humanity, and identifies with us in our broken, fallen condition (John 1:1-3, 14). But there is more. Jesus’ birth has a saving purpose: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Or as Jesus himself put it, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He came not for the self-sufficient, but for the sinners, for the ungodly, for the helpless, for his enemies (Romans 5:6-10). Thus, Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).

Salvation: Luke’s Special Emphasis

We are no doubt quite familiar with the biblical text read each Christmas season:

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

Embedded within this text is one theme that sets Luke apart from the other synoptic Gospels (Matthew and Mark). Of course, Luke more strongly than the other Synoptics emphasizes the Holy Spirit, joy/rejoicing, prayer, the “unlikelies” who enter the kingdom of God (Gentiles, lepers, the poor, tax-gatherers, women, the unclean, and children)—among other themes.

However, Luke’s main theme—as exemplified in the text above—is salvation. Luke uses the term “to save [sōzō]” in the sense of “to heal” or “to rescue from danger” as often as Matthew and Mark do. But as the late New Testament scholar I. Howard Marshall wrote, “Luke...does use the verb [to save] in a spiritual sense in a way that stands out by comparison with the other Gospels.” [2]

Marshall lists these specific texts as using “save [sōzō]” as unique in Luke:

7:50: And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

8:11-12: “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”

13:23-24: And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

19:10: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

To more strongly emphasize the theme of salvation in Luke, the related terms “Savior” (sōtēr) and “salvation” (sōteria) aren’t even found in Matthew or Mark, but they occur eight times together in strategic places in Luke:

1:46-47: And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”

1:69,71,77: [God] has raised up a horn of salvation for us…. Salvation from our enemies… you [John the Baptist] will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins….

2:11: … for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

2:30: For my eyes have seen Your salvation.

3:6: …and all flesh will see the salvation of God.

19:9: And Jesus said to [Zaccheus], “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.”

In addition, Luke continues this theme of Savior and salvation nine times in his second volume—the Acts of the Apostles: 4:12; 5:31; 7:25; 13:23, 26, 47; 16:17; 27:34; 28:28.[3]

“Your Faith Has Saved You”

Just a brief reflection on these texts indicates that salvation is closely connected with the person of Jesus—the Savior. This is not a mere abstraction. Jesus himself gives salvation, and Luke emphasizes the connection between physical “salvation” (in the sense of healing or being made whole) and spiritual salvation which he has brought to all people. In Christ, God displays his power to heal and authority to save.[4] For instance, in Acts 4:9 the verb “save [sōzō]” is used of physical healing—and then a few verses later, we read that there is “salvation [sōtēria]” only in the name of Jesus (v. 12).

Taking further this theme of connecting physical salvation (“making whole”) and spiritual salvation (“saving”) is New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg.[5] He points out that there are four places in the Gospels where Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.” In these passages, the word save refers to both physical and spiritual wholeness: outer health/well-being and inner/spiritual well-being, respectively:

7:50—a “sinner” who puts perfume on Jesus’s feet;

8:48 (paralleled in Matt. 9:22 and Mark 5:34): the woman with a hemorrhage;

17:11-19—the grateful leper;

Luke 18:42 (paralleled in Mark 10:52): the formerly blind man (mentioned as Bartimaeus in Mark).

In three passages, both aspects of salvation are clearly evident. Only in Luke 7:50 (the woman at Jesus’ feet) is there the mention of a spiritual sense of wholeness/salvation present. But Blomberg argues that it could be that this woman had already been physically healed by Jesus; then upon her evident repentance displayed at Jesus’ feet, she then received spiritual salvation as well. Similarly, although nine physically-healed lepers went away (“saved” in the sense of being “made whole”), Jesus told the one grateful leper that his faith had saved him—i.e., spiritually. With regard to the “saving” of the blind man/Bartimaeus (Lk. 18:43; Mk. 10:52), this is the only instance where Jesus allows someone he has healed to follow him as a disciple (the word “follow [akoloutheō]” is used for disciples). Here again we have a combining of the physical and the spiritual. Finally, the woman with a hemorrhage seems to be healed both physically and spiritually. She has trusted Jesus to physically help her: she touches his cloak and is healed, and then she displays personal faith when she is face to face with Jesus. Thus, he tells her to go in peace, which seems to imply a holistic healing.

A Champion, “Who Is Christ the Lord”

Throughout the world and across the ages, humans living in a broken, sinful world have looked for champions—heroes who will step in to rescue and save and attempt what no ordinary person can do. And while they wait, they groan under oppression and tyranny. We see the work of champions in Greco-Roman mythology, and the New Testament picks up on this theme and applies this to the Savior of history—Jesus of Nazareth, whom C. S. Lewis called “myth became fact.” Jesus is the historical embodiment of the champion who comes to rescue the world from the powers of sin, death, and darkness. Likewise, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote that our best fairy tales actually depict the gospel message, which begins with joy and ends with joy. Between these two bookends comes a champion who rescues from peril and curse so that others might “live happily ever after.”

In this spirit, New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole sees Romans 5:6-10 as alluding to one such champion in ancient mythology, but highlighting the dramatic historical achievement of Jesus:

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Gathercole notes that the likely backdrop to this text is that of well-known Greco-Roman heroes; they die for good or righteous men and women, who are typically friends or family or those with whom they have a relationship. Euripides refers to the well-known legend involving, as it turns out, a vicarious or substitutionary death: the heroine Alcestis, who dies for her husband Admetus.[6] This somewhat parallels Jesus’ death: “the sacrificial death of the one aims at rescuing the other from death.” But Romans 5 is stunning: God’s agent, Jesus of Nazareth, dies for the enemies of God, and this act turns the enemies of God into friends of God.

We have the same kind of “champion” language in the book of Hebrews. As the late William Lane argued, in Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is the “champion” (archēgos) of our salvation—the same word used in Acts 3:15 and 5:31 (“the Prince of life”; “a Prince of life and a Savior”). That is, Jesus does what no one else can do—he secures our salvation.[7] To continue with Euripides’ story, this word was used of the legendary hero Hercules, who would rescue Alcestis by wrestling with Death at her grave and conquering that “dark-robed lord of the dead.”[8] Lane writes: “the writer intended to present Jesus to his hearers in the language that drew freely upon the Hercules tradition in popular Hellenism.”[9]

The ultimate “divine hero”—Jesus the Son of God—descends to earth to rescue humankind, and he is worthy of his cosmic “exaltation” (Philippians 2:9-11) because of the gracious, heroic service he rendered humankind.

“For unto you has been born this day a Savior”—a champion, a hero, a self-sacrificing substitute—who has done for us what we could not. As theologian John Stott affirmed in his book The Cross of Christ, the essence of sin is humans substituting themselves for God, and the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for humans.

Notes

[1] Douglas Coupland, Life After God (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 359.

[2] I. H. Marshall, Luke: Historian and Theologian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 92.

[3] Ibid., 92.

[4] Ibid., 95.

[5] Craig Blomberg, “‘Your Faith Has Made You Whole’: The Evangelical Liberation Theology of Jesus,” in Jesus of Nazareth: Lord and Christ: Essays on the Historical Jesus and New Testament Christology, eds. B. Green and Max Turner (Grand Rapids/Carlisle, U.K.: Eerdmans/Paternoster, 1994).

[6] Simon Gathercole, Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), 104.

[7] William L. Lane, Hebrews 47B, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, 1991), 56.

[8] Euripides, Alcestis 11.843-44.

[9] Lane, Hebrews, 57.

— Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Learn more about Paul and his work at paulcopan.com.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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