He Saved Others: Why Jesus Stayed on the Cross

“He Saved Others”

The first book in your New Testament, the book of Matthew, chapter 27, and we’ll read from verse 38. Just as a bit of context here, the Lord Jesus has been nailed to a cross. As we read these verses, starting at verse 38, the Lord is crucified. He’s on the cross.

Matthew 27 and verse 38: “Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, “I am the Son of God.”’”

I’d like to consider with you tonight one amazing truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ—really, three words that we have read together in verse 42: “He saved others.” He saved others. You probably knew that already, didn’t you, that He saved others?

Perhaps there are some here, and your parents are saved. He saved others. Perhaps there are some here, and your friends might use that language and say that they are saved. He saved others. Perhaps there are some here, and you’ve heard of people who have said that they were saved. That’s because the Lord Jesus, He saved others. There are probably some here, and you cannot deny that reality, that He saved others—the reality of salvation.

These men who said these words were the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. Those were the elite people of the time, especially in Israel, those that were in leadership and government. They were religious folks. These were the religious folks, the high class, and these are the words that they said. Though they were said in mockery, there was a truth that even these men could not deny: that the man who was on the cross, the middle cross, the Lord Jesus, He saved others. He saved others.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

You say, “Well, what is it to be saved? What does it mean to be saved?” Maybe you see on your left here a chart that helps illustrate truth from the Word of God. Everything on this chart is based on the Word of God. You might see a broad way on that chart. The Lord Jesus spoke of a broad way upon which everyone has their beginning. Contrary to common belief, this way does not lead to heaven. It’s a broad way, says the Lord Jesus, that leads down to destruction because of our sins.

So to be saved is to be saved from our sins, from your sins. That road, that broad way, beyond death, leads to destruction, leads to hell. To be saved is to be saved from our sins, and to be saved is to be saved from the consequences of our sins.

These men could not deny that the Lord Jesus, He saved others. The fame of the Lord Jesus in those days spread abroad like wildfire. People would have heard of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, and the things that He did, the miracles that He performed. Perhaps some of the very men who said these words, “He saved others,” may have seen some of the miracles firsthand. Or some may have heard it at least secondhand, the testimony of people who had testified that the Lord Jesus, He saved others.

The Paralyzed Man’s Greatest Need

Perhaps some of them would have been there when there was a paralyzed man who was led to the Lord Jesus. A man who was paralyzed—couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. Yet he had kind friends who brought him on his bed and brought him to the Lord Jesus. Perhaps, humanly speaking, we would have said, “Well, this man’s greatest need is a physical need. He needs to be healed from his paralyzed state.”

But in actual fact, the Lord knew what his greatest need was. It wasn’t to be healed physically, though that was a great need, and though his paralyzed state was a great impediment in his life. His greatest need was the need to have his sins forgiven. So when these men brought him to the Lord Jesus, the Lord, seeing him and seeing his faith, said to that paralyzed man, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.”

What does that mean, “Your sins are forgiven”? That man was saved. His sins were forgiven. From the very moment that the Lord pronounced these words, his sins were forgiven. He probably didn’t feel anything. His physical condition didn’t change. He could have known, “My sins are forgiven because God says so.”

There would have been people there, and they might have wondered, “Well, how do we know that his sins are forgiven? We can’t see anything.” Just to prove that this man’s sins truly were forgiven, on top of saving that man, the Lord says, “Take up your bed and go home.” That man, in a moment, was healed physically—evidence that this man had been saved.

Salvation for All Types of People

What’s stunning is that when you read throughout the Scriptures, you read through the Gospels, you see different people who experienced God’s salvation. We read of men who were saved, women who were saved, children who were saved, adults who were saved, healthy people who were saved, ill people who were saved, the rich, the poor, Jews and Gentiles. That’s just to paint a picture in our minds that the Lord Jesus, He saved others—all types of people, without respect of persons, because the need is universal.

The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Thank the Lord, the Lord Jesus, He saved others.

Salvation is something that happens once in a person’s life, if it ever occurs. It happens only once in someone’s life. Once it has occurred in someone’s life, it has eternal consequences, or it lasts eternally. Once somebody is saved, once their sins are forgiven, they’re forgiven forever. When God grants a pardon, that person is pardoned forever. Being saved is also synonymous with receiving eternal life. It happens once in a person’s life, and it lasts eternally.

Are Only Others Saved?

But these men were revealing something in that they said, “He saved others.” It reveals that not everyone is saved. It’s true that the Lord Jesus, He saved others. But these men, in saying that He saved others, were revealing that they themselves were not saved. Others were saved. From their own experience, they themselves weren’t saved.

So what is it from your perspective, in your own experience, as far as salvation is concerned? Is it only others? Those who are saved—is it only others? Can you say, “I am saved”?

There was a time when I realized that I wasn’t saved. All are not saved, and as I’ve mentioned earlier, no one is born saved. No one is born on the way to heaven. We’re all born with this fallen nature that pushes us to go our own way, to follow our own hearts, which, according to our society, seems to be quite acceptable. But the Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. The heart is depraved. The heart is dark. Many people have tried to follow their own hearts just to get snared in addiction, snared in trouble. We need to be saved.

Are you saved? Or is it only the others that perhaps you know of? Not all are saved.

Recognizing Your Own Need of Salvation

Well, one thing is sure: all need to be saved. These men, in saying, “He saved others,” perhaps were saying it with a high look. After all, they were the religious people. After all, supposedly, they knew the law. They were respected. People came to them and called them rabbis, masters. Maybe they looked at the common people with disdain: “They don’t know the law, these people. Poor peasants. Oh yes, they need to be saved.”

It’s easy to see the need in others. Easy to say, “Well, my big brother, definitely, he needs to be saved. My co-worker, that woman—you should see her. Definitely, she needs to be saved, if anyone.” Have you ever looked to yourself? Not just to look out there and see the need and know, “Yes, these people over there.” But what about you? What about your own personal need?

These men failed to see their own need. I don’t know what it was. Perhaps it was pride. Perhaps it was a coat, a veneer of religion, respectability in society, that caused them to be blinded, to not see their need. I hope tonight that you’ll see your need. Not all are saved, but all must be saved. The Bible says that God our Savior desires all men to be saved.

The danger is for one to die without God’s salvation. The danger, as the Lord Jesus says, is to die in your sins. The Lord Jesus clearly says, “If you die in your sins, where I go you cannot come.” If you die in your sins, you die in your sins unforgiven.

The danger is to be just beyond death and, as we read in Scripture in Luke 16, a man who opened his eyes in torment, and there to think, “He saved others. I knew people who were saved. I could have been saved while I was still in the land of the living,” like you tonight. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

He saved others. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, “There is salvation in no other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” We must be saved. I remember the first time in my own experience when this thought came to my mind, in a gospel meeting just like this one: “I am not saved.” With that came the realization of the grave danger that I was in—grave danger of dying in my sins.

You Can Be Saved

All are not saved. All must be saved. Thankfully, all can be saved. If you’re not saved tonight, you can be saved, even in the seat wherein you’re sitting. The Lord Jesus can save you. If the Lord Jesus couldn’t save, then it wouldn’t have been said that He saved others. The fact that others are saved shows clearly that He can save others, and He can do the same with you tonight—the same that He did with me. In 2014, on a November night, He saved others. He saved me. He can save you.

Not only can He save, but He also wants to save you. That’s God’s desire. Again, God desires—the desire of His heart for you, above every other desire, is that you would be saved; that you would have a home sure and secure in heaven; that you would come to know God and come into the good of God’s peace, God’s salvation, the freedom that gives, freedom from sin and so forth.

If He didn’t want to save, He wouldn’t have saved others. But He did. He saved others. He can’t save others. He can’t save you. He wants to save others. He wants to save you.

How Does Jesus Save?

You may ask, “Well, how does He save? How did He save others?” That’s where our passage comes in really handy. There’s the Lord Jesus. He’s upon the cross. Leading up to the cross, He endured the mockery, the disdain, the rejection of man. How they stripped Him of His clothes. They put a scarlet robe on Him, which was worn by kings. In mockery, they put that garment on Him. They plaited a crown of thorns and put it upon His brow, put a reed in His right hand. In mockery, they bowed before Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat in His face. They slapped Him in His face, whipped Him, and eventually put nails through His hands and feet.

There upon the cross, we read of the people passing by. They were wagging their heads, saying all kinds of mockery—things that we still hear today, really, when people hear about the Lord Jesus. Mockery. The heart of man hasn’t changed. There were people blaspheming, tempting the Lord: “If You’re the Son of God, come down from the cross. Look at Him. He saved others, but Himself He cannot save.”

To use these words, “Himself He cannot save”—you know why He refused to come down from the cross? In a sense, He could have. He’s the almighty, powerful God of heaven. He’s the Son of God. He could have come down. But in a very real way, He couldn’t come down, because He was determined to do the will of the Father. He was determined to offer Himself as a sacrifice to save others.

The reason why He was upon that cross was that He might save others. He didn’t need to be saved. He had no sin of His own. But God sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, and Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The way that He did that was by dying upon a cross, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, dying for our sins, that others might be saved.

That’s the word that saves. That’s why one of our hymns pointed our eyes to the Lord Jesus. Look to Him. Believe, and you’ll be saved. Consider what He has done for you that you might be saved.

Paul: “Who Loved Me and Gave Himself for Me”

If you were to ask Paul, “How was Paul saved?” Paul, we know, was one of the Pharisees. I’m not sure whether he was near the cross, whether he uttered these words. It certainly would have described a sentiment of his heart. He was no different. He didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus. He thought He was a crook, a thief, a liar. He persecuted Christians.

But Paul was transformed. Paul became a man mightily used of God, who wrote the majority of our New Testament. How was Paul saved? “Paul, how are you saved?” If you were to ask him—actually, Paul tells us in Galatians. He describes the words. He says that now the life that he lives, he lives in the faith of the Son of God, “who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Paul would have said, “The One who I thought was a liar—I realized that there upon the cross, there He died for me.” That was a demonstration of God’s love. God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul understood what He did there for me, on account of my sins, and that’s enough. He did it completely, to God’s full satisfaction. Paul was saved in a moment in time, on a road to Damascus.

Peter: “Who Himself Bore Our Sins”

The same would have been with Peter. “Peter, how were you saved?” Peter had a different background, but we all have different backgrounds. People who are saved, we all come to the same focal point: the Lord Jesus. Peter would have said of the Lord Jesus, as he pens in 1 Peter, chapter 2, of Christ, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”

Peter would have understood the great problem that I had with God: my sins, which I couldn’t rid myself of, that I couldn’t do anything about. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, bore my sins. He bore them in His own body on the tree, and He took them all away. There’s nothing left for me. Peter was saved.

Will You Receive Him?

What about you tonight? Are you saved? Because He saved others. Not all are saved. All must be saved, mind you. But tonight, you can be saved. The Lord Jesus was there upon the cross that He might save others, that He might save you. The provision is there for you. Salvation is provided. The work is done.

Will you receive Him? Will you believe Him? You can tonight. You can save others, and I trust that God will save you even tonight.