For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (! Corinthians 1:18 NIV)
After Jesus’ birth, on the day of his circumcision, “he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived”. (Matthew 1:21; Luke 2;21). The translation of His name (Hebrew: Jeshua) is “God saves” or “God heals”, and this signifies His God-given mission in life. For the Hebrews, who did not divide people into component parts to the extent we do, healing and saving meant basically the same thing. So whenever we say the name Jesus, we are also saying that His main mission was to heal and to save.
Christ was his title, but it was not his name (He was not ordinarily called Jesus, the Christ in his lifetime). It means “the anointed one,” deriving from the Greek christos. In his first sermon, Jesus stated that “the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me” (Luke 4:18). He was claiming to be the Christ, the one who was anointed with the Spirit, the Messiah.
The anointing of the Spirit gave Jesus God’s power to accomplish His mission. That mission was saving, healing, and rescuing people from their sins, their sicknesses and their bondage to evil.
(MacNutt Francis. The Healing Reawakening, Chosen Books, 2005)
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:4-6 NIV)
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ( 2 Timothy 2:9-10 NIV)
he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5 NIV)
