Jesus is not only the Savior, He Himself is also our salvation. Do not ask Him to give you salvation. Instead, you should say, "Lord Jesus, come to me and be my salvation." Jesus will never give you salvation. He will come to you as salvation. We believers do not realize how much we need to be saved. Every day, every hour, and even every moment we have something from which we need to be saved.
In the messages on Genesis 1 we spoke about the need to grow in life. But what does it mean to grow in life? On the positive side, to grow in life is to enter into the riches of what Christ is. On the negative side, it is to be delivered from certain things, or to forsake certain things. Although we are small men, we have accumulated many negative things. Probably you do not realize how many negative things you have accumulated. Wherever we go, we collect things. We pick up a great many negative things, and we acquire a number of habits from which we need to be saved. As you are reading this, you may not sense that you need salvation from anything. Suppose, however, you were suddenly raptured to the heavens. If you were taken to the heavens right now, you would immediately sense that you need a great deal of saving. To grow in life is simply to be saved from all unnecessary things, from all that is not needed for our living. If you have the light, the exposure of the fourth-day lights, you will say, "Lord, save me!" At such times we realize that Jesus is truly Jehovah as our Savior and our salvation.
The name of Jesus is above every name (Phil. 2:9-10). No name is as high and as exalted as the name of Jesus. Whether you hate Jesus or love Him, whether you are for Him or against Him, you realize that the name of Jesus is a special name. History tells us that during the past two thousand years, everyone has recognized that His name is the highest name, that it is an extraordinary name. My burden in this message is to point out to you that this exalted name of Jesus is for us to do many things.
Firstly, the name of Jesus is for us to believe in (John 1:12). We all must believe in the name of Jesus. This is not an insignificant matter. We should not only say that we believe in the Lord Jesus, but also declare that we believe in the name of Jesus. When we preach the gospel, we should help people not only to pray, but also to make a declaration to the whole universe that they believe in the name of Jesus. Whenever a sinner comes to believe in the Lord Jesus, he should declare, "Today I believe in the name of Jesus!" This makes a great difference.
The name of Jesus is for us to be baptized into (Acts 8:16; 19:5, "in" should be "into," Gk.). Among some Christians there is a controversy regarding the name in which they baptize people. Some argue strongly that we must baptize people only in the name of Jesus. Others insist on the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These two groups argue, debate, and fight. Actually, it is not a matter of in the name, but of into the name. We baptize people into the name of Jesus. The name needs the person, and the name is the person. Without the person, the name means nothing. To be baptized into the name of Jesus means to be baptized into His Person. Suppose a certain young man has just believed in the name of Jesus. What should we do? We should baptize him into the name of Jesus, that is, put him into Jesus. This is not a ritual nor a ceremony of accepting a religious member. It is an act of faith in which we take one who believes in the name of Jesus and put him into this name, baptizing him into the Person of Jesus. Romans 6:3 says that many of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus, and Galatians 3:27 says, "Many of you have been baptized into Christ" (Gk.). This is the reality of being baptized into the name of Jesus.