“… the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

It is without serious dispute that the Apostle John outlived any of the other apostles.  Based on internal and external textual evidence, he wrote his letters and gospel much later than other apostolic documents, probably near the close of the first century. Thus the content of his contributions to the New Testament reflect insight nurtured from decades of expanding wisdom and maturing experiences like the death of colleagues and ultimately exile on the Isle of Patmos.  Perhaps such growth was an aid to his memory.  Case in point: John is the only New Testament writer to specifically call Jesus “the Savior of the world” (4:42).  But he was quoting the Samaritans who, “because of [Jesus’] words” (v. 41), came to trust him as their Messiah.  But isn’t it sort of obvious that he is the savior of the world?  No, not necessarily.  It seems that John, thinking back as he wrote his first letter, flashed back to that strange and unexpected trip through Samaria, where no good Jew would even step foot, let alone buy food!  If Jesus hadn’t lead them, they would have sooner dropped dead than traipse through Samaria.  And those Samaritans…not only did they come out to hear Jesus, they believed him too!  Funny what happens when Jesus leads, when Jesus shows up.  Many of your deepest biases and opinions go through the shredder.  Little did any of those first disciples realize that they had just participated in the first cross-cultural evangelistic missions trip the world had ever seen!

For all that business of Samaritans being half-breeds and mongrels, they got at least one thing right: Jesus was indeed the Savior of the world.  Considered lower than the lowest scum, it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus saw them come to faith before any other non-Jewish group.  I mean, look at who first visited him: shepherds, the ultimate rejects of society.  Dirty, untrustworthy, vagabonds, they were a dime a dozen as individuals.  Samaritans were sort of like a whole collection of shepherds!  And if Jesus would visit them first, so that they could be the first to come to faith outside Israel, well then certainly he must be the Savior of the world!  If Samaritans can get saved, then anyone can!  I wonder how many of us get that like they did?

Titus seemed to get it.  He used Savior more than all New Testament writers, 6 times in 3 chapters.  In the instance that connects most closely to this focus, we find in 2:11, 13-14, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good”.  Notice that salvation-producing grace has appeared to “all men”.  Sounds like saving the whole world to me.  But let’s be quick to say that Titus was not teaching universalism, the belief that everyone ends up in heaven, sooner or later, one way or another.  The word appearing in the Greek gives us our English word, “epiphany”, meaning a revelation of a divine being or great spiritual insight. Lights go on.  Bells ring.

Saying someone is a savior, let alone the savior of the world, is one thing; actually saving the world is another matter.