There is a growing trend in American Christianity that says: “Jesus can be my savior but not my Lord”. This means that I can trust Him to save me from the fires of hell and bring me eventually into heaven, but I care very little about letting Him tell me what to do in the meantime here on earth. I am fine praying a prayer, so long as I do not have to live differently because of it.
BUT CAN THE TWO BE SEPARATED?
Was the grand mission of His incarnation, life, and death to offer “get out of hell free" cards in exchange for an acknowledgment of faith without anything else in return? Did it please the Father to CRUSH His one and only Son, just so that we could pray a prayer and walk away no different than how we came? Was that God’s elaborate rescue plan? Was it for the joy set before Jesus, that He endured the utterly shameful cross, in order to reproduce nominal followers, who would refuse to surrender their lives back to God?
IS THEIR MORE TO OUR SALVATION THAN BEING SAVED?
Don’t get me wrong. We are saved if we believe in Christ. But, there is more to salvation than just believing. The Bible tells us that even the demons in hell believe in God, and we all know that they are not saved (James 2:19). Jesus even says that MANY will come up to Him and say:
“’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:22-23
Immediately before He said this Jesus said:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but ONLY the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21
These verses teach me that believing that Jesus saves is not enough. It is actually wrong to think of Him as just as savior. He is that, but so much more! His whole point in saving us was so that He could transform us to be like Him. He became our LORD in order to make us more like Him!
JESUS IS OUR SAVIOR AND OUR LORD.
Which means that we must not only believe, but we must also submit ALL of our lives, hearts, souls, minds, and strength back to Him. We must lay ourselves down and let Him live through us. It means that He must be master and we must be servants. It means that He must become greater as we actively and deliberately lay ourselves down to become less! He is not just our savior; He is our LORD!
