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Jesus - Savior and Lord
11-12-11
When most of us think of Jesus we think of one of his titles. For instance we can think of him as Son of God, Savior, Lord, King, Teacher, etc. But for this bible study we will discuss just two of his titles. We will consider his title of “Savior” and “Lord”. The following verse is a bible reference that confirms that Jesus is our “Lord” and “Savior”
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
The word “Savior” comes from the root word “save”. So the title of “Savior” for Jesus means he saved us from something. The following verses tell us what Jesus saved us from.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
So Jesus saved us from God’s wrath. And more specifically Jesus saved us from being sent to hell after we die. He saved us because God is holy and for us to live with him in heaven we need to be holy. But since we all have sinned we needed a “Savior”. So let’s look at a few scriptures that put all of this in perspective.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
The bible says that all of us have sinned. We fall short of God’s glory which is his holiness, his purity, his sinlessness. Therefore if we desire to please God in this life and live with him in heaven one day then we need our sins to be forgiven. God decided that the only way to deal with our sins was to have Jesus his one and only son come to earth and live a sinless life for us. That way we could be considered righteous in God’s eyes. God also had Jesus sacrifice himself and die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven. Jesus agreed to do all of this for us. He redeemed us or paid a price for our sins. He died on the cross and took our punishment for us so that we would not have to be punished. God the Father and Jesus the son love us so much.
They made all this possible because they wanted us to live with them in heaven, throughout eternity. Thus when we think of Jesus as our “Savior” we must never forget how much he paid for our sins to be forgiven. How much he paid for us to have a choice. The choice to accept him as our “Savior” and be forgiven of our sins or we can one day stand in judgment for our sins "without a savior". We would at that point stand condemned and be sent to eternal suffering. Most people consider the decision to be, forgiven or be condemned, a simple one.
Next we will look at Jesus as our “Lord”. The word “Lord” has several meanings such as power, authority, master or control over others. One of the best scriptures in the bible using the word “Lord” for Jesus is noted below.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Verse ten says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and verse eleven says every tongue confess that Jesus is “Lord”. God the Father has exalted Jesus and made him our “Lord”. Notice verse ten says every knee should bow. At this point in time people can choose to acknowledge Jesus as their “Lord” or not. But there will come a time when every knee will bow to Jesus. It will be on judgment day. Because even those people who decided not to allow Jesus to be “Lord” over their life will have their eyes opened on judgment day and they will know for certain that Jesus is “Lord” over all people. At that time they will bow their knee to Jesus but it will be too late to accept him as “Savior”. They will only experience his wrath at that point and they will be thrown into hell for eternity. Read this next verse carefully.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 (NIV 1984)
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
Let’s think about the meaning of the word “Lord” again. It is “one who is master or in authority or in control of others”. So God the Father exalted Jesus above all others, he made him “Lord” over all people. And this means that we should submit to Jesus and do whatever he tells us. And of course we can know what he wants us to do by reading the bible. Let’s look at more scripture relating to submitting to Jesus.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
Jesus makes it very clear in the verses above that we “must” follow his commands and recognize him as “Lord” of our life. He says that “if” we obey him we will remain in his love. And “if” we remain in his love he will make our joy complete. He is saying that if we keep his commands we will be full of joy. We will enjoy life and be fulfilled in our relationship with him.
In the scripture above it says that “if” we obey his commands we remain in his love. So we can also say the opposite and it will be true also. If we do not obey his commands we will not remain in his love. And if we do not remain in his love we will not receive his joy. We will not have a life filled with joy and happiness.
How many people go through life searching desperately for joy and happiness and never find it. This happens because they “refuse to obey” Jesus. They refuse to let Jesus be “Lord” over their life. They don’t want to obey his commands because they want to do whatever they want to do. They will not let Jesus control their life. Most people want to continue in sin and try to find their happiness in sin. Sin does bring pleasure for awhile. But a time will come when sin no longer brings you pleasure. Jesus is offering us eternal peace, joy and happiness if we only listen to him and obey him. Oh how sad it is, that so many people miss the blessings of God in this life because they do not want to obey Jesus.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
The two bible references noted above refer to the fact that some people call Jesus their “Lord” but do not obey him. And yet they think everything is fine between them and God. They think that because they accept Jesus as their “Savior” that they will go to heaven one day and everything will be fine. However, the bible says above that they are sadly mistaken. They will realize too late that they thought they could pick and choose which parts of God’s commands they would obey. Even tell people that Jesus was their “Lord”. But as it says above their end result will be complete destruction.
When we consider Jesus as our “Savior” and “Lord” we quickly realize it is easy to say Jesus be my “Savior”. We like that part of God’s love for us. We like that part of the bible. The problem is that so many people then read in the bible about having Jesus as our “Lord” which means we must obey his commands and they stop. They then decide to ignore the part about obeying Jesus. They just want Jesus to be their “Savior”. Bottom line is many people want Jesus as their “Savior” but not as their “Lord”. The problem is you can not choose Jesus only as your “Savior”. Notice what Jesus says in the verses above. He makes it very clear you can not pick and choose what parts of the bible you want to obey. Jesus says if you just call him “Lord” but do not keep his commands you will not enter into heaven. Think about it.
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