Lesson 5
Jesus is our Savior
It is important for us to show our love for others. We can do this in many ways: for example, we can tell them we love them, or we can treat them with respect, or we can give them a gift on their birthday, and so on.
God sent His son to show us that He loves us. Right before Jesus was born, God sent an angel to a young maiden named Mary. The angel said to Mary: “Behold you will bear a son. You shall give him the name Jesus.” (read Luke 1:31) The name Jesus means “God saves.” Jesus is the Savior of the world. He died on the Cross to save us from our sins. The Cross reminds us that Jesus loves us so much that He died for our sins.
The Bible tells us that after Jesus suffered, died and was buried, He was raised from the dead after three days – we call that event the Resurrection. This is told in Luke 24:1-9 where Mary Magdalene and two other women went to Jesus’ tomb three days after He died. Two angels in white appeared to the women and told them that Jesus was not in the tomb and that He had been raised from the dead. The Resurrection is the foundation of our faith in Jesus. We believe that Jesus is alive forever and that He is always with us. During Easter, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus in a very special way. We sing “Alleluia! Jesus is risen! Alleluia!”
The Easter candle is a very special candle in our church. We light it during Easter to remind us of the Resurrection. We also light it when someone is baptized, or when there is a funeral.
How can we love God? We can love God in many ways: for example, we can love God by obeying His commandments. We can also love God by helping others. When we do these things, we make God happy because these things are good and God wants us to do good things. On the other hand, when we do bad things, we sin. Sin hurts our relationship with God, so we should try our best not to sin. However, we can always repent of our sins. To repent of our sins means three things: we are really sorry for our sins, we confess our sins, and we resolve to do our best not to commit the same sin again. The Bible tells us that God welcomes a humble and contrite heart (read Psalm 51:19).
Questions:
- What is the meaning of the name “Jesus”?
- What did Jesus do to save us from our sins?
- What is the foundation of our faith?
- What does the Easter candle remind us of?
- Name two ways that we can love God.
- What are the three things needed in order to repent of sin?