He Cannot Save Himself

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:41-42

While it was meant as a taunt, it was a truth. “He saved others; he cannot save Himself,” the leaders of Israel said. I’m certain it was spoken with a sneer. Those who said it felt they had arrived at some kind of logical conclusion, a reasoned deduction that demolished Jesus’ Messianic claims. A man who can open blind eyes, heal lepers, make crippled men walk, and raise the dead ought to be able to get himself off of a cross, they reasoned.

They said this to mock Jesus, but they accidentally said something profoundly true. Restating it more accurately, Jesus could not save Himself so that He could save others. It was not powerlessness that held Jesus to the cross, it was love. It wasn’t the nails that bound Him fast to the timbers, it was His determination to die in our stead.

He saved others by not saving Himself.