November 7, 2017 - "Lord And Savior?"

Chaplain’s Corner

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Lord and Savior?

Greetings, Patriots!

This morning I wanted to touch on a subject that is not often talked about. We have a tendency as Christians to say that Jesus is our “Lord and Savior.” And then, we pretty much leave it at that and continue on, without really asking ourselves what we are to understand from that expression. Is that simply a redundant expression, saying the same thing twice for effect? Do the two words mean the same thing? Or is there a reason why the two words are always used together with respect to our relationship with Jesus?

First, we should look at the expression “Savior” and understand what we mean by that. It is a founding principle of the Christian faith that we are all born in imperfection, with inherited sin, due to the original sin in the Garden of Eden. We have talked about this many times before, and for most of us, it is very well understood and agreed that we all, as sinners, are in need of salvation, of a “Savior” that can rescue us from ourselves and accomplish what we cannot, which is paying the price for our inborn sin and returning us to a position of oneness with the Holy and Perfect Creator. Since the price was paid once for all time by the finished work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, all that is needed and expected from us is belief in Him as our Savior and acceptance of Him and requesting forgiveness from the Father by the merits of the work of Jesus on our behalf.

Real, true salvation is a one-time thing. There are some who say that salvation can be lost depending on the life we live. There is a great debate among Christians about whether there is really such a thing as, “Once saved, always saved.” Some will use the illustration of a person who accepts Christ at a Revival meeting and then feels that he cannot lose his salvation even though he goes out and murders people and thumbs his nose at God. They are saying that there is no such thing as “Fire Insurance” and that people cannot manipulate God with a few “magic words” and force Him to stand back and watch them sin uncontrollably and Him not be able to respond to the willful sin. There are others who say that once you are saved, you cannot do anything to lose your salvation. The question has been debated, and would take too long here to completely study, but suffice it to say for now that I do have an opinion on it and will be happy to share it with anyone who asks, and will be happy to explain how I have come to my belief.

Meanwhile, as I stated earlier, our salvation, or the act of redemption for our sinful condition before a Holy God is a one-time act. The Bible speaks of Justification, and it also speaks of Sanctification. Justification is a one-time act of paying the price of our sinful condition, similar to paying a fine in court for a speeding ticket. Once it is paid, it is paid. The big difference in this illustration is that if you leave the courthouse and go out and speed again and get another ticket, you will likely have an even bigger fine next time, due to it becoming an issue of repeated offenses. However, the uniqueness of our salvation is that the price paid for our sins by the ransom paid by Jesus actually covers and pays for ALL of our sins, past, present, and future. The fact is that as long as we live in this flesh, we are still imperfect, and will still make mistakes of omission or commission. Our debt is paid in full, and our outward, physical nature will slowly become obedient to our changed inner nature. The truly saved person has invited God to take over the throne of his heart and asked Him to infuse him with Holy Spirit. He has asked God to give him a re-birth, spiritually, and he literally becomes a new creation in his spirit. The rest of his life in the flesh is spent working toward a closer relationship with the Father and seeking to be holy just as He is Holy. It is a lifetime relationship with a lifetime of work in training and leading our flesh around by a leash, begging God to let there be less of us and more of Him in our lives.

The second part of the expression, “Lord” takes on a different meaning in our lives, just as the expression “Sanctification” takes on a different meaning than Justification. When we accept Jesus as our “Lord” we are going further than simply accepting His free gift of salvation. We are also asking Him to be our “Lord” or rule over us, or be in charge of our lives. We have spoken before about the seat of motivation in our lives being our heart. We make thousands of decisions every day, based on the authority of our heart to rule our lives. We have used the expression that we accept that God sits on the “throne of our heart” as opposed to us sitting there. We have taken ourselves off the throne of rulership over our lives and relegated Him to be in a position of authority over us and our actions. Our desire is to become “holy” as He is Holy, and we realize that to do that we have to allow Him to make changes in our thinking, our speech patterns, our inclinations, our motivations, our emotions, etc. We ask God to be the Great Potter and make us into a useful vessel in His household. Our bending the knee before the throne and willingly giving up control over our lives is an act of obedience and pure worship. The fact is that we still continue to be free moral agents, and we are still capable of sin and making decisions independent of God, and we can renege on our commitment to Him and His Sovereignty. Our hope and prayer, though, is that we do not get off track and take Him off the throne of our heart. We pray that we will be true and loyal to Him daily, and accept and embrace the changes He is making in our lives, thinking, attitudes, actions, etc.

So our using the term Savior is accepting the Justification we have due to the payment in full for our sin debt. However, the term Lord is accepting that we no longer exercise control over our own lives, and willingly turn it over to Him and ask Him to change us as necessary to lead us to holiness. The process of Sanctification, or to make holy, is one that lasts a lifetime and needs to be renewed daily in our lives. We need to willingly submit to Him daily as He makes changes in us and our circumstances. Sometimes things will come our way as a test of our allegiance and obedience to Him and His standards. We may find, at some point, when we take stock of ourselves, that we may actually have been guilty of fighting against God without even knowing it. Someone may bring to our attention that we have been walking down a counterfeit path and walking away from righteousness as we seek to “assimilate” in this wicked old world. Maybe in our pursuit of “political correctness” and our desire not to offend others, we may have actually turned our back on our Holy God and His standards. We may actually have been endorsing outright sin as an alternative lifestyle and making excuses for a world that is following their leader, the ruler of the world. In our own minds, we may have decided that the real way to spread love in this world, which is what we believe Jesus would do, is to accept everyone just as they are, see no need for repentance, and no need to turn around from sin. We may actually find ourselves supporting very liberal agendas that actually go against everything God stands for. We may find that we can reconcile evil deeds and behavior as acceptable if we simply change a few definitions, such as promoting a woman’s right to abortion by stating that the child growing inside her really is simply a fetus, and is not a living being, and has no real right to life yet. Aborting that child is a woman’s right and not to be considered murder, and anyone who considers it wrong is simply twisting scripture.

I write this today because we have a very real problem in the Body of Christ. Today, we are becoming more and more jaded, and are not taking a stand for God and righteousness. We are claiming to be saved, which may or may not be true, but many are refusing to allow Him to be Lord of their lives. We know that it is prophesied that there will be corrupt and counterfeit Christians trying to lead God’s people astray, and we are seeing a lot of that going on today. It is not even subtle anymore. It is right in our faces, and some of us are simply too blind to see it! Some of us are walking so far away from our Lord, and so close to the edge, that we have no idea the very real danger that we are in. If we are REALLY saved, and we have a real relationship with our Lord, we will start showing signs of it in our lives. God will start cleaning house inside us and making our conscience more sensitive to overt acts of sin against our Holy God. I am not talking politics here, friends, even though many times a person’s stated politics can be a real mirror to their soul and expose their walk with God for what it really is. If a person claims to be Conservative and another one claims to be Liberal, just look at the agenda being promoted in each of those categories and ask yourself which one is closer to walking with God’s standards of Holiness? There will be flaws in anything man does, so if you want to be picky, you will see that neither is perfect. What we really do need is for God to be totally in charge of the whole earth, a real Theocracy, which is what we pray for when we ask for God’s Kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Meanwhile, until that Kingdom takes power over the earth and removes the influence of the god of this system of things, we are relegated to governing ourselves and our own affairs. The closer we try to walk with God’s standards of Holiness, the closer we resemble Him and truly mirror the love of Christ in our lives. Thus, we are allowing Jesus to have real “Lordship” over our lives, by submitting to Him and His sovereignty, and walking with Him even when it may not seem the popular or politically correct thing to do in a degraded, evil, wicked world that is simply diving deeper and deeper into the abyss of sin and destruction.

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” - 2 Timothy 3: 1 - 5 (NIV)

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” - Isaiah 5: 20 (NIV)

“21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” - Matthew 7: 21 - 23 (NKJV)

I hope that I have given you something to meditate on, something to move and motivate you to seek a closer relationship with God, and being willing to take a public stand for Him and His righteousness. I hope that if you claim to be a Christian, that you take that claim seriously and to heart, and that you realize the expectations associated with it. Please, don’t let yourself become one of those people who, when being judged by our Lord Jesus on the final day, hear Him say to them, “I never knew you.” Please don’t let yourself get sucked into a lazy, cheap counterfeit Christianity. Don’t be fooled by “cheap grace.” Jesus never said that our walk with Him would be easy... he just said it would be worth it.

God bless you, every one, and:
God Bless America!
Stephen King
Chaplain@3upi.com