I love God and am so grateful that He loved me so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to die on a cross for my sins. That’s the heart of the Christian gospel–that Jesus Christ saved us from our sins by paying the penalty we owed on our behalf. He literally died for me, and he died for you. That’s why Christians so often refer to Jesus as their “Savior.” Calling Jesus your Savior is a recognition of the chasm between what you truly deserved for all your evil thoughts and actions and all the blessings God instead gives to you because of Jesus’ saving actions.
The fact that Jesus saves is the best news in the world for me and for you. However, if we only focus on how Jesus saves and gloss over another key aspect of God’s character, we fail to understand how God wants us to relate to him.
You see, another even more common title for Jesus in the Bible is that of “Lord.” It’s a word we don’t use often in our everyday conversations, but it points to the fact that Jesus has authority over this world and over our lives. We don’t often talk about this aspect of our relationship with Jesus because if he is the Lord, then that means that we are to be in submission to Jesus. Put simply, we are supposed to obey his teaching.
Jesus clearly taught this on his final night with his disciples before he was murdered on a cross to save us from our sins. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commands.” Then later in verse 24 he says, “Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” Basically, Jesus is saying that you demonstrate your love for Jesus by your willingness to submit to his authority and obey his commands.
I fear some people love to celebrate that Jesus is their Savior, but they are unwilling to obey what he taught. They want to be forgiven and find an eternal home in heaven, but they don’t want to do the challenging steps of living according to the teachings of Jesus: teachings to love your enemies, to forgive others, to feed the poor, and live a life of holiness by avoiding the evils of this world.
Unfortunately, you can’t make Jesus your Savior, but not accept him as Lord. He must be both. James 2:26 tells us that faith without deeds is dead. A belief that Jesus saves without submitting to Jesus as Lord is described by James as a dead faith. He tells us that demons believe in Jesus, but that doesn’t mean they are saved. He’s not their Lord, so he’s not their Savior.
My hope is for everyone to have confidence in their own salvation. The way to do that, as Jesus tells us, is simply to keep his commands. Allow the saving work Jesus did on the cross to change your heart and life so that you obediently follow all that Jesus taught. If each one of us did that, what a better place our community would be!
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