Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
by David Silvester
As we focus on God and His awesome power, glory and holiness, the enormous contrast between the Almighty and humanity could cause any one of us to shrink away from Him in shame and fear.
It’s amazing and wonderful that this same God is the God of love, compassion and tenderness, who longs for us to have a relationship with Himself. Each and every one of us are in His heart, and it’s His desire for that closeness of intimate relationship with each of us.
When the wonder of this love begins to dawn upon us it births in us the desire to be close to Him, and we’re able to trust Him in the good, and the bad, experiences of life.
It was just after a critical time of sickness and surgery that the words of Paul in Philippians 3:12 (RSV) spoke of this amazing love of God for me personally and the phrase ‘Christ Jesus made me His own’ struck deeply into my spirit.
I reflected on how God emptied Heaven by giving His own dearly beloved Son, and sent Him to be born of a woman. He took on frail humanity and died a horrendous death by crucifixion. It was an atoning sacrifice for all of my sin. He washed me clean and clothed me in His righteousness. Such thoughts brought me to tears as I considered what Jesus had suffered in place of me. Yes, ‘Though the LORD is on high, yet He regarded my low and fallen state’, He is the One who has ‘lifted me up and set my feet on a rock, and put a new song in my mouth’ (Psalm 40:2-3). It’s the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who has accomplished all this.
Truly, with such an experience of His love it is of little wonder that we can exclaim with the hymn writer P. P. Bliss, ‘Hallelujah, What a Saviour!’
Prayer: Father God, thank You for sending Your beloved Son, Jesus. As we celebrate His coming as a baby, born in such lowly circumstances, and as we consider the purpose of His coming, may we give You the praise and worship of our hearts for providing us with such a wonderful Saviour. Amen.
David Silvester is married and has a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. He trained as a production engineer. He then moved on to become a lecturer of engineering craft skills before being called of God in his early fifties to become a pastor of a Baptist church. He says that,"having previously experienced an amazing healing on a day others expected me to die, it came as no surprise that God directed me and my wife, Margaret, to become involved with Ellel Ministries."
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