I visited a nearby church the other day as I was thinking I would do some things locally (help at the food bank, etc) and wanted to do so with some other Christians. So I went to a Sunday morning service there. One of the things in the sermon that upset me was the Pastor saying that some talk about a personal savior and that is selfish. God is for everyone. I consider Jesus my personal savior as He is for many others and I do not consider that selfish. To me this Pastor is making it difficult for members of his congregation to believe in Jesus’ death for them.
“Personal Savior” is a term that confuses some people, especially those who follow a liberal theology. It doesn’t mean a Savior who is just for me, as in “personal transportation” or “personal preference” as they suppose. It means a Savior who is a person, like you and me, not just a spirit. So there’s nothing selfish abut it.
We who believe in a personal savior believe that after Jesus died for our sins He rose again as a person, in bodily form. Many liberals don’t believe in a bodily resurrection, either for Jesus or for us. If this describes the pastor’s position on the resurrection, maybe that’s why he misunderstood the term “personal savior.”
Most people who believe in a personal savior also believe in a personal devil. That doesn’t mean a devil who is focused on them personally, it means a devil who is a being, an entity, not just a force. And again, many liberals don’t believe Satan is real.