Lord and Savior
Have you ever heard Jesus referred to as “Lord and Savior”? This double title isn’t just creative flare. These titles describe different roles Jesus plays in our lives. The roles are not the same, but they are absolutely intertwined, and I’ve been thinking about how to submit my life and allow Jesus to be both Lord and Savior.
So, let’s define the titles. I’ll start with Savior, because that’s usually what you see on billboards and bumper stickers – “Jesus Saves.” It’s also usually the case that Jesus as seen as Savior before He’s seen as Lord in our lives.
Savior
Jesus is referred to as Savior because, as Christians, we believe that Jesus has literally saved our souls. We believe that God created the world and all creation to exist in harmony with Him, and we believe that humanity rebelled against him. When we see the brokenness of the world, both in nature and in civilization, we believe that it is a result of humanity abandoning God’s way and choosing our own way instead. In Genesis, scripture says that God called man to rule over the earth. When we decided to rule by our own rules instead of by God’s, we corrupted creation as well as ourselves. And the punishment we deserve for this corruption is death. But God is merciful.
Instead of giving humanity what it deserved, God spared them in Genesis after the rebellion. And we believe that in Christ, God has poured out the punishment of death that we deserved and He has begun to make right all that we have wronged. Jesus is Savior because we deserve death for our selfish living, for our sin, but He died instead so that we might learn to live a new way and, in time and with God’s help, make our world look the way God always intended it.
And that leads me to Jesus as Lord.
Lord
Jesus is referred to as Lord because His ultimate goal wasn’t just to save our souls. His ultimate mission wasn’t just to take the punishment we deserved and restore our relationship with God. His mission was also to restore us in our role as godly rulers over creation. We can’t be godly rulers over creation if we don’t rule the way God wants us to.
The rebellion of humanity in Genesis was us choosing our way instead of God’s way. Making Jesus Lord is us choosing God’s way instead of our own way. Salvation is the personal acknowledgment that you have participated in the rebellion against God, that you deserve death, and that Jesus has taken that place for you. Alongside that acknowledgment is the understanding that there is a way God wants us to live that is different than how we have been living. Making Jesus our Lord is the submission of our lives – of our preferences, of our finances, of the way we spend our free time, of the kinds of activities and entertainment we participate in, of every part of us – to God in order to make the world look more like the Heaven He intended and less like the Hell so many are experiencing now.
Godly Rulers
As we begin to examine our lives and see the parts of us that actually make the world worse, or maybe the parts of us that just aren’t making it any better, it begs the question, “What would God have me do with this?”
In the creation story in Genesis, God looked at all that He had made and said it was good. When we make Jesus Lord, we are recognizing that God charged humanity with ruling over this good creation and we failed, but now we want to be the tools He uses to restore it.
Jesus came as our Savior in order that we might stop the selfish pursuits that made the world the dark place we see today and instead make Him Lord, take on the charge of Genesis to rule over His creation, and restore the broken world around us to the goodness that God always intended for it.
Submission
As I said in the opening, God as Savior and as Lord are intertwined, and it’s important that we submit our lives and allow Him to be both. First, we admit that we have participated in the rebellion against God. We have played an active role in making our world a worse place, and Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve for that. Then, we choose to live God’s way instead of our own in order to restore His creation to the glory He originally intended for it. I may have my personal preference, but to make God Lord means to submit my preference and choose to live in line with His instead.
So, where do we find His preference? If we are to submit to God’s way and choose His preference over our own, how do we do that?
We find it in Scripture. God has revealed His character and His will to us in Scripture. Will we find things that are hard to swallow, things that challenge the way we live and the way we believe the world operates? Absolutely. I use the word “submit” for a reason. But there’s no doubt as we look around the world now that we are obviously missing something. Maybe linking up with the God who created this world and living how He intended us to live in it will make the kind of difference we’re all looking for.
The Endeavor 